My Specialism
Gestalt Psychotherapy
Gestalt psychotherapy applies a holistic approach to the person, focusing on existential and experiential aspects and emphasising personal responsibility.
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Gestalt psychotherapy focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment "here and now", the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation.
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The psychologist bases the intervention on the support of the "healthy parts" and on the resources available to each individual to help them overcome the impasse, that is, a situation in which one does not receive any help from the environment and thinks that does not have resources in oneself to cope with the situation.
Therapeutic sessions therefore help the individual to rediscover ones innate ability to stay in the world, relate, choose and change.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.
EMDR is a psychotherapeutic treatment discovered in 1989 by the American psychologist Francine Shapiro. Originally used to relieve the stress associated with traumatic memories, it has received enormous clinical support over the years including from psychotherapists, mental health researchers, neurophysiologists, and is today considered the validated treatment of choice in the field of trauma. The winning aspects of EMDR are its speed of intervention, its effectiveness and the possibility of application to people of any age, including children.
We are exposed daily to the possibility of experiencing psychological trauma. There are Traumas that can be defined "with a capital T": they are important injuries that threaten our integrity, such as natural disasters, road accidents, assaults, rapes, murders or suicides of loved ones, inauspicious diagnoses.
But there are also traumas "with a lowercase t”, experiences that seem objectively less relevant, but which can take on weight especially if repeated over time or suffered at times of particular vulnerability or in childhood. In these phases of life humiliations, abandonments, neglect and fears can leave their mark by changing our attitudes, emotions and relationships with others throughout life, and also imprinting themselves on specific areas of our brain.
Thanks to their resources and the help of others, the majority of traumatised people manage to recover a new balance, but there are wounds that continue to bleed even after years. The trauma in these cases is always present, the sensations are alive, and it seems that the event happened a few hours earlier even if it dates back to months or years ago. Sensations of insecurity, lack of self-esteem, self-blame, panic attacks and anxieties are the most frequent aftermaths.
What happens in an EMDR session?
Initially, the psychologist who received the specific training in EMDR collects the person’s history, identifying togther the events that helped develop the problem: panic attacks, anxieties, phobias. These are the memories we will work on together. The person is invited to notice the thoughts, physical sensations and images connected with the traumatic experience. At the same time, the psychologist makes one perform simple eye movements that aim to promote better communication between the cerebral hemispheres. These stimulations are based on a natural neurophysiological process, similar to that which occurs in REM sleep, the phase of sleep in which dreams are dreamed and memories are rearranged. After EMDR the person still remembers the event, but feels that this is part of the past, intrusive thoughts fade or disappear, emotions and physical sensations are reduced in intensity.
Following an EMDR psychotherapy, the person strengthens the aspects of one self-esteem, is more focused on the here and now and on the sense of self, has more confidence in one’s abilities and one’s value as a person. The traumatic events thus lose the initial emotional impact to be transformed into a positive resource.
After trauma or severe stress, with the EMDR therapy we acquire the awareness that what has happened cannot be changed, but the memory can be transformed, freeing up precious resources for the healing and well-being of the individual and the community.
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References:
EMDR Europe https://emdr-europe.org
EMDR Italia https://emdr.it
Eating Disorders are psychological disorders that directly concern nutrition, the relationship of the individual with food, the perception of one's own body and influence affective and social relationships.
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Historically, they mainly arise during adolescence and mostly affect females, but in the last decade there has been an extension to childhood and an increase in affected males.
The most well-known eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa (not to be confused with the simple definition "anorexia", which indicates only the loss of appetite), Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder (Uncontrolled Eating Disorder).
There are many different and complex eating disorders which however have a single common thread: giving more or less unconsciously an affective value to food, whereby feeding in a certain way, or on the contrary not feeding, where food progressively assumes a compensatory role over affective voids and deep insecurity towards oneself. Eating disorders are the result of a series of internal and external factors, biological, cultural, of personality and relational.
An almost always present feature between those suffering from an eating disorder is the alteration of one’s body image which can become configured as a real disorder. The perception that these people have of their own appearance, i.e. the way in which the idea of ​​their body and shape was formed in their minds, seems to influence their life more than their own real image.
The compensatory relationship with food has to do with low self-esteem and mistrust towards others. Furthermore, it is very recurrent to form a tendency to have obsessive thoughts related to food, thinness and self-control that become repetitive behaviours, of which one becomes dependent. Often this happens in total solitude, so those who suffer from it risk isolating themselves from others and feeling more and more foreign in relationships. To deal with eating disorders, the first step is to recognise that you have a problem, then to progress out of it it is crucial to ask for help.
ANOREXIA NERVOSA
What distinguishes anorexia nervosa is the refusal of food by those who suffer from it and the obsessive fear of gaining weight, with the consequent uncontrolled weight loss, which can lead to amenorrhea and other pathologies.
BULIMIA NERVOSA
A person suffering from bulimia nervosa is characterised by constant hunger and an urge to eat without limits. On the other hand, vomiting is often caused after eating as the use of laxatives, fasting and intense physical activity, resulting in normal physicality.
BINGE EATING
Also called BED, from Binge Eating Disorder, it is a disorder of eating behaviour that has many characteristics similar to bulimia nervosa, with episodes of typical binge eating, without however showing the compensatory behaviours typical of the bulimia nervosa, such as vomiting, abuse of laxatives or diuretics or fasting.
Further, less common, pathological behaviours that occur with food are:
ORTHOREXIA
Orthorexia means exaggerated attention to the quality of food. Also characterised by an addiction to sports, orthorexia is a disorder that consists of the obsessive search for healthy food and the rigid renunciation of what is not. Those who suffer from it, in order to avoid foods deemed harmful to health, develop the need to know every single ingredient contained in food.
BIGOREXIA
Also known as reverse anorexia, muscular dysmorphia and vigorexia, bigorexia is characterised by a strong bodily mis-perception opposite to that which characterises anorexia nervosa. Those suffering from bigorexia are afflicted by the continuous and obsessive concern regarding their muscle mass, abuse of physical exercise, high-protein diets and anabolic steroids, to avoid the perception of appearing small, thin, inadequate.
Mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment, which one develops through the practice of meditation and through other training. Mindfulness is frequently applied in the Gestalt Psychotherapy approach.
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Mindfulness is a universal human attitude: it is the intentional, non-judgmental way of being attentive, with the mind and heart, to the unfolding of experience, in the present moment. In this way a person can stop his usual reaction automatisms. It is a matter of learning to press the "pause" button, to avoid continuing to implement inadequate behavioural reactions or inauthentic representations of the self: this is a crucial step to recover psychological well-being and mind-body integration.
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Mindfulness is about being aware of where your mind and body are, moment after moment, with non-judgmental acceptance.
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Mindfulness is the English translation of the term Sati from Pali, the language used by Buddhist psychology as early as 2500 years ago: the teaching related to the word Sati refers to states of awareness and compassion that imply the intention to constantly (re)orient one's own presence and attention in the experience that is unfolding, in order to be fully receptive and not categorising.
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Mindfulness is a way of keeping in full and welcoming attention to the experience that is happening (here and now), moment after moment: this supports a conscious way of being with yourself, that is, with your body, with your heart and your mind, and at the same time, a way of relating to other people.
Empowerment is the process of regaining full awareness of oneself, of one's own potential and of one's actions.
It is a super-charging experience, aimed at regaining control and increasing personal potential.
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Being (Self)-Empowered allows you to be the author of your own life, to be at the centre of your choices and to live with a sense of personal competence and trust in your own abilities. This is not in an absolute sense, but in relation to specific life experiences or contexts. It goes without saying that the empowerment in one area also positively influences the way in which we live the others.
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What determines self-empowerment?
The first dimension to consider is the sense of competence that allows subjects to feel skilled, to feel capable or adequate and to be able to act appropriately when facing different contexts.
This is associated with the internal attribution of cause-effects, for which the responsibility of what happens is owned by oneself and removes the feeling of being at the mercy of external factors. Clearly, regaining the feeling of being the master of own destiny increases the sense of competence, self-confidence and control.
Positive thinking and focusing on opportunities, resources and potential rather than shortcomings and failures, allows one to increase energy, to develop a vision in terms of success and possibilities and to identify the margins for improvement and change. This goes hand in hand with a greater sense of self-confidence, hope and determination. Negative thinking, on the other hand, creates a sense of helplessness and stalemate.
There are many contexts in which self-empowerment can make a difference.
In the workplace, the acquisition of awareness of one's own resources and the definition of goals to be achieved become fundamental for working satisfactorily and in some cases for making that much desired career jump.
A structured path of self-empowerment in different contexts allows you to develop awareness of yourself and your resources, using them to their full potential, having self-confidence, motivation, a positive vision and a greater sense of control and self-determination, necessary for being able to manage even the failures, making them further opportunities for growth.
There are different approaches to realise your self-empowerment. With the aim of addressing and solving the specific problems through the enhancement of personal resources, I use a combination of behavioural strategies and EMDR while applying the holistic view of the Gestalt approach.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) improves performance because it allows you to identify and rework critical situations that hinder performance.
Self-empowerment is a path of growth that allows you to satisfy a desire for improvement, experience motivation and psychic well-being. Obviously, we must not to forget the collective and social dimension in which empowerment is experienced and reinforced by successful outcomes.
Psychobiotics Therapy
Psychobiotics is the science that studies the connection between our gut and our brain and how the gut microbiota influences our mood and mental health.
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Our gut-brain connection.
Today, thanks above all to the numerous published scientific evidences, we know that the gut is an organ of fundamental importance to maintain good health and well-being, especially the psychological one. It is no coincidence that the gut is also called our "second brain".
It is able to communicate perfectly with the upper brain through a complex and articulated two-way communication system, which involves neural, endocrine, immunological and metabolic pathways. The director of these communications, according to numerous researches, is the gut microbiota.
The researchers of the University of Cork directed by the neuroscientist Prof. Timothy Dinan have in fact given rise to a new branch of modern medicine: psychobiotic, which has as the objective of studying the relationship between the microbiota and our mental health, with the possibility of using targeted probiotic supplements with specific probiotic bacterial strains to improve cognitive functions, reduce stress and anxiety levels, improve mood and modulate sleep-wake rhythm changes.
Many researches on the role of the microbiota on human behaviour, in particular on anxiety, fears, stress and mental health in general, are opening up new therapeutic opportunities to be integrated with the treatments currently available.
The psychobiotic therapeutic approach requires the collaboration between the psychologist, who detects possible signs of microbiota unbalances from the patient analysis and self-reported habits, and a medical nutritionist and/or gastroenterologist.
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References: