How I work
Integrative psychotherapy, built on our relationship
I am an integrative psychotherapist registered with UKCP. This page explains what happens when we start working together, and the different ways I work.
From the free first session to the last one
A free first session
You tell me a little about what brings you, and you get a sense of me. We decide together whether to meet.
A period to assess together
The first sessions are a mutual assessment: you see whether this way of working suits you, and I see whether I am the right person for you.
Regular sessions
Each session lasts 50 to 60 minutes, online, in English or Italian.
No fixed end date
The number of sessions is open. We go at the pace your life asks for.
Preparing the ending
When one of us feels it is time to stop, I suggest we agree on a number of sessions to prepare the ending together.
What happens in a session
There is no fixed programme. We start from what is present for you that day: an event, a feeling, a dream, a sentence that stayed with you. I listen, and I ask questions. They are there to make space for something you may not have been able to say yet.
I am very aware that therapy can be a place where shame and power dynamics are stirred up. I work to create a safe space, where what needs to happen can happen.
What is integrative therapy?
An integrative therapist does not apply a single method to everyone. I draw on several models, mainly humanistic and psychospiritual, and choose how to work according to you and to what we discover together.
What holds it all together is the therapeutic relationship: how we are with each other in the sessions, and what we do together there.
Between sessions
Between our sessions, things often keep moving: a dream, a memory, a new way of seeing a situation. You can bring all of it next time. Nothing needs to be prepared, and nothing needs to be tidy.
Some sessions will feel stuck, and some will leave you more unsettled than when you arrived. This is part of the work. When it happens, we can talk about it openly, because what happens between us matters as much as what you bring.
A relational way of working
As a relational therapist, I believe that, given the right conditions and support, we all sense what we need and what we are looking for. I trust that all we are and all we do is the best we can do, given the conditions of our lives.
I do not practise CBT, and I am against a model that shames us into thinking we can always do better. When we can truly be what we are, life may show us new options and new ways of relating to each other.
Existential questions
Many people come with questions that have no quick answer. Who am I now? What is this loss asking of me? I am getting older, and then what?
We do not rush to close these questions. We give them room, because that is often where something new begins.
Other ways in
Dreams and the shadow
I am training at CIPA, a Jungian school in Italy. Dreams and the parts of ourselves we keep hidden can become part of the work.
Images and movement
I have a strong interest in the arts and I am also training in art therapy and dance therapy. When words are not enough, other forms of expression can help.
Alone or as a couple
I work one to one and with couples. With couples, I look at the relationship itself as a third presence in the room.
Would you like to see how it feels?
A free first session is the simplest way to find out whether we can work together.