Therapy in English

Living abroad: a transformative experience

Living in a foreign country for work, study and/or personal choice can be an exciting and fulfilling experience while at the same time challenging us in ways we didn’t expect, letting us face with fears, anxiety and doubts.

Cultural differences, practical difficulties (such as bureaucratic challenges, work-life balance, linguistic barriers, etc.), experiencing loneliness and/or homesickness, fearing to loose the relationships with friends and families from our home country, doubts regarding the choice of moving abroad and many more are just some of the possible experiences that living abroad can make us face.

The therapeutic setting could represent an important resource and space where to narrate and elaborate together those experiences and fears, trying to understand them and construe together new possibilities, choices and/or modalities to face them.

Something about me and why I am delivering therapy in English

I am Silvia Tomaino (she/her) a Psychologist and Psychotherapist, owning an international PhD in psychology that focused its research core on psychological interventions comprising online and blended (online and in-presence) modalities and interventions to support international college students’ well-being and social connectedness while living abroad and facing many cultural, practical and personal challenges.

In my work and education I have always paid much attention to the personal experience of living abroad for study, work or personal choice.
I have collaborated for four years with the Psychological Services for International Students of the SCUP (Psychological Clinical Services for University Student) of the University of Padua delivering mid and long term psychotherapy and intervention groups in English involving international patients from all over the world.

I have worked with patients from very different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, using the English language as a tool to make possible the communication and the relationship between us, construing together “our language” and way of being in the therapeutic setting.

We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.
– Anais Nin

A metaphor to describe my idea of therapy

“In a garden, things grow . . . but first, they must wither; trees have to lose their leaves in order to put forth new leaves, and to grow thicker and stronger and taller. Some trees die, but fresh saplings replace them. Gardens need a lot of care.
But if you love your garden, you don’t mind working in it, and waiting. Then in the proper season you will surely see it flourish.”
― Jerzy Kosiński

Therapy offers the opportunity, space and time to sit with our fatigues, fears, doubts and emotions, trying to give meaning to them and construing together new perspectives and possibilities. Starting from this point, therapist and client together and little by little can trace future directions and construe new meaningful possibilities.

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the end.”
– C.S. Lewis

To remain in the metaphor of the garden, together in therapy we can build our way of being the “gardeners of ourselves”, observe and learn from our “seasons”, get to know what “plants we own”, which we could choose to “eradicate” and which instead “to plant”. In therapy we will discover, take care and support in its growth a “garden” that represents us, that changes with us through experiences and “life’s seasons” narrating a unique and personal story.

My values

I am committed and do all my best to make therapy a safe space where to explore the client’s personal perspective of the world and story, not giving for granted cultural identities and history, without prejudices. I am committed to making the therapeutic setting a place where you can feel safe, welcomed and heard in your own uniqueness, history and characteristics.

I believe in a sexuality that is self-determining and self-determined, where there is not a right or wrong defined a priori, but rather chosen respecting my own and others’ freedom and possibility of choice.

I believe in a therapeutic space that doesn’t label people for how they look, that doesn’t define their validity based on society/cultural/political expectations and constructs of what is “adequate”. A space where all bodies are free to exist in their characteristics and all deserve the same respect, attention and access to care.

I believe that therapist and client are engaged in construing their specific language, to do so I adapt my English skills to the patients’ ones and together we find the best solution and modality to understand each other and be together in the room of the therapy, virtual and/or physical.
I am not a native English speaker, the English I know is the one I have learnt at school, traveling and so on. I do believe that it is not necessary (both for the patient and the therapist) to know English as a native speaker to have enough space and possibility to create a a good way of communicating, construing together our modality.

I take part in different training courses, events and dissemination meetings on many topics that are important to me as a person and as a professional, aiming to improve my competencies, possibilities and perspectives.

What can we do together?

Individual therapy

It is not possible to establish a priori how long the therapy could be, as each person is different, and so are their needs and story. Each session lasts about 50 minutes and generally the therapy is organized in weekly meetings (or if differently to be discussed together). The sessions can take place in presence at my studio or online.

We will decide together the most functional time of the day to plan our meetings and find together the best solution.
I am available at different times of the day, also in the evenings.

The costs for psychological consultations are included in the Italian National Health expenses and are tax deductible at the rate of 19%.

Group therapy

Group therapy or psychological group interventions generally include the participation of around 10 participants with a weekly schedule. Each meeting lasts about 90 minutes.

The groups could be organized in different times of the year regarding specific topics.
The group modality generally includes sharing ideas, experiences and reflections, often comprising the use of other tools such as communication and expressive techniques, creative tools and so on. The group is a great resource to facilitate the elaboration of certain topics, experience together and to broaden one’s perspective on the world by sharing it with other people.

Information about each group activity will be shared on the website and social media providing interested participants with all the useful information. Group activities can take place at different times of the day during the week and even on Saturdays.

The costs for group therapy are included in the Italian National Health expenses and are tax deductible at the rate of 19%.

“Even the first step is already a part of the journey”
– Arthur Schnitzler

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