I am a clinical psychologist (PsyD, PhD), adjunct professor at the St. John’s University in Rome, and founding president of Tages Onlus, a charity member of Mental Health Europe.
I am also associate editor of New Ideas in Psychology and member of the editorial board of BMC Psychology and of the advisory board of Oxford University Press book series on Treatment that Works.
I have worked for 15 years in the Italian public healthcare services and at the University of Florence, while founding and leading Tages Charity.
My training
I graduated (5 years degree) in clinical psychology at the University of Florence and then got my specialization degree in psychotherapy (4 years degree) in Padua at the Institute of Constructivist Psychology. Finally, I obtained my PhD in clinical psychology at the Guglielmo Marconi University in Rome. In the meantime, I decided to better understand the so-called Third Wave of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and explore new advances in psychodinamic and integrative therapies.
Nowaday, I am chartered psychologist and psychotherapist, accredited CBT therapist by the European Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, and full member of the American Psychological Association. I have been accredited as trainer in Compassion Focused Therapy, Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy, Unified Protocol, and trained (at different degrees of expertise) in Schema Therapy, Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy, Mentalization Based Treatment. By having worked for about fifteen years with cancer and terminally ill patients, I’ve also been trained in psycho-oncology with a specific focus on Meaning Centered Psychotherapy, Mindfulness Based Cancer Recovery and Family Therapy for cancer patients.
My experience
The public healthcare setting has been an important professional challange. I learned (I hope!) how to balance between scientific rigor and clinical sustainability. I think this experience has strongly influenced my way of doing research, clinical practice and training. In the last 10 years I have regularly collaborated with numerous institutions to implement clinical studies and training courses. In particular, I am visiting lecturer at the University of Barcelona (Postgraduate course in mindfulness) and recurrently collaborate with colleagues from Indiana University (Prof. Paul Lysaker), University of British Columbia (Prof. Paul Hewitt), The Academic College of Tel Aviv – Yaffo (Prof. Gil Goldzweig), Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy (Dr. Giancarlo Dimaggio), and many others.
Clinically speaking, I have always worked with severe manifestions of human suffering. My first experiences were with persons diagnosed with psychosis and later with cancer patients. I progressively extended my clinical area of expertise with a specific focus on personality disorders and trauma-related disorders. On the one hand, in 2014 I founded Tages Charity and my colleagues and I focused our efforts on personality disorders. On the other hand, the European migration crisis (2015) – and its impact on Italian healthcare system – forced me to better explore the role of trauma and racism in generatiing and fueling psychological suffering.
My interests
My main area of research is personality. In the last few years I have been involved in a major project aimed at validating a new treatment protocol for those diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) recently tested the effectiveness of this protocol (namely, Evolutionary Systems Therapy for Schizotypy), and other studies are on their way. Paul Lysaker and I are also co-editing a clinically oriented book on schizotypy. At the same time, Veronica Cavalletti (director of the Tages Clinical Centers) and I are working on a group protocol for those with prominent perfectionistic traits (Mindful Compassion for Perfectionism). Finally, I’m collaborating with University Hospital of Verona to test (through another RCT) the effectiveness of a group intervention I developed to reduce burnout in nurses (Mindful Compassion Care Program). I share updates on my projects in the “News” section of the website.
My academic roles
- Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University, Rome, Italy
- Visiting Lecturer at University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- President and director of the scientific committee of Tages Onlus, Florence, Italy
- Member of the management council of the Merit Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Secretary of the Metacognitively Oriented Treatments – International Society (MOTIS)
- Member of HiTOP Consortium (Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology). New York, NY, USA
- Associate Editor of the journal of Mental Health Science (Wiley)
- Editor of MindHelp book series (Giovanni Fioriti Publisher)
- Member of the editorial board of the journal of BMC Psychology (Springer)
- Member of the advisory board of Treatment that Works book series (Oxford University Press)
Scientific societies
- Member of American Psychological Association (APA)
- Member of Italian Society of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy (SITCC)
- Member of European Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (EABCT)
- Member of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD)
- Member of Society of Research in Psychotherapy – Italy Area Group (SPR)
- Member of International Early Psychosis Association (IEPA)
- Member of the Metacognitively Oriented Treatment – International Society (MOTIS)
- Member of Compassionate Mind Italia (CMI)
- Member of the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS)
- Member of the Global Compassion Coalition (GCC)
- Member of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE)
Research Gate profile – Google Scholar profile – ORCID profile