From psychologist to psychologist
University studies: how to become a psychologist
My willingness to become a psychologist has ancient origins. After my scientific high school diploma, I enrolled in the bachelor’s degree course in Psychological Sciences and Techniques at the University of Naples “Federico II”. I graduated after defending a thesis on “Motor imagery: from man to robot”, a multidisciplinary paper including insight from developmental psychology and cognitive psychology.
I moved to Rome in order to attend the master’s degree course in Dynamic Developmental Psychopathology at Sapienza University of Rome, from which I graduated after defending an experimental thesis on “Suicidal risk in adolescence: the p factor as an alternative clinical model”, the data collection of which was part of a collaboration between the university and the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital of Rome. During my university studies, I also had the opportunity to carry out short internships in two important areas for clinical intervention. At the Service for Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment of the Sant’Andrea University Hospital, I attended the visits and check-ups of the patients who received a psychiatric diagnosis and, so, had to follow a specific treatment for those. On the other hand, at the Child Neuropsychiatric Department of the Umberto I Polyclinic Hospital, I assisted the staff in diagnosing various neurodevelopmental disorders. In most of the cases those were suspected cases of autism and language disorders.
Internships
Then, I started a postgraduate internship at the Counseling Center of Sapienza University of Rome, joining the experimental activity carried on by the service about the topic of mental distress in young adults. At that time, the Covid-19 pandemic had just begun, so the aim of our research was the same of the studies carried out in the same period: to understand the broad-spectrum effects of the pandemic on university students. In the following semester, I carried out the second part of my annual internship in two different locations, thanking to Metafora Institute – Center for Research and Therapy of the Family, Child and Adolescent (Rome).
One place was the Service for Adaptation of Physical and Psychic Identity (SAIFIP), hosted by the San Camillo Hospital of Rome, where I trained on the clinical process of gender transition, attending the consultations held by the service’s psychotherapists and contributing to their research activity on the psychopathology in comorbidity (happening at the same time) with the current diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria (DSM 5). The other place of my internship was the residential facility for adolescents A. P. S. Il Fiore del Deserto, where I trained on managing the difficult life conditions of children and adolescents with suspended parental authority or awaiting trial. There, I was also involved in therapeutic workshops promoting the psychological growth and social inclusion of those children, that I was able to make my following choice. Indeed, between 2021 and 2025 I trained myself at the Institute of Expressive Gestalt Psychotherapy I.P.G.E., in Rome.
Psychologist in private practice
From 2021, I began practicing as a self-employed psychologist in Rome and also started working within local associations providing services to families with minors and adults in the autism spectrum and/or with cognitive and physical disabilities. Thanking those associations, I enriched my skills in the field and acquired new methodologies of intervention. The techniques I learned are inspired, for example, by the TEACCH Autism Program by University of Carolina (⤤) and the C.A.A. Augmentative Alternative Communication (⤤). Even today, where psychological intervention requires such audio-visual supports, I will recall these acquired skills.
In summer 2023 I moved to Brussels, where I currently provide psychotherapy in private practice. I also provide online therapy to anyone might need it from abroad. For more information return to the homepage. Book an appointment or ask questions here.
