Psychotherapy is my main activity. The teaching and the scientific activities have been born from the clinical experience I still carry out every day. The same theory of semantic polarities, which I have developed from the 90s onwards, also arises from my daily clinical practice. For example, through my encounters with phobic patients in the early part of the 1990s, and after a decade spent working mainly with anorexic girls and their families, the idea came to me that both emotions, and ways of constructing meaning, vary profoundly among families where different psychopathological disorders develop.
My approach has remained constant, and the systemic way of thinking has always guided my clinical practice. Unlike most systemic psychotherapists, who provide almost exclusively family and couple therapies, I have always carried out individual treatments too.
THE PROBLEMS I TAKE CARE OF
In over thirty-five years of my psychotherapeutic activity I have dealt with different psychopathologies and problems, in part by chance, and in part out of curiosity. In the early 1990s, I personally asked colleagues to send me obsessive-compulsive disorder patients, and by the end of the decade, I had developed an interpretative model for this psychopathology, which today represents a considerable part of my treatments. At that time, however, obsessive-compulsive disorder was almost the exclusive prerogative of psychoanalysis. I had also solicited referrals of mood disorder cases in the 1990s which were then – and sadly still are- the patients par excellence of biological psychiatry. During the last twenty years, while maintaining a strong interest in severe psychopathologies, I have also developed a strong interest in couple therapies. In summary, the problems on which I have gained much experience and which I face daily are:
- Eating disorders, particularly anorexia and bulimia
- Phobias and other anxiety disorders (agoraphobia, claustrophobia, school phobia)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorders
- Depression and mood disorders
- Couple’s problems and conflicts
- Adolescent and young psychotic disorders
- Aggression, running away, and other problematic behaviors in children and adolescents
WHERE I PRACTICE.
The psychotherapeutic activity that I personally conduct is carried out at the European Institute of Systemic-relational Therapies, in Milan. I also regularly supervise the psychotherapeutic activities conducted by EIST colleagues who work in Milan and Bergamo.
Tel. +39 02 70006568 – Fax +39 02 717978
info@eist.it
La segreteria e’ aperta dal lunedì al venerdì dalle 9.00 alle 13.00 e dalle 14.00 alle 18.00.
THE FIRST CONSULTATION
The contact between my clients and myself starts with a telephone interview in which they briefly explain their problem. The next step is a consultation – usually two meetings – the aim of which is to get to know each other, to examine in detail the problem or problems for which they have contacted me, and to understand together which is the best approach to address them.
I usually end the consultation with a treatment proposal or an answer to the clinical question posed (diagnostic, evaluation of problems, choices etc.). The consultation does not necessarily imply mutual preventive commitment.
In addition to getting to know one another, the purpose of this initial consultation is to evaluate which form of intervention is most suitable for your specific case. Individual psychotherapy? Or is it more appropriate to involve your partner as well? Or is it possible to activate more resources including all members of the family for some phases of the therapeutic work or for all the therapy,?
THE TREATMENT CHOICE
In addition to individual, couple, and family therapies, especially with adolescents and young adults, I conduct also alternate therapeutic paths in which the initial consultation is with the whole family or part of it. While the therapy is mainly carried out with the adolescent or young boy or girl in question. Family members are involved only in specific moments of therapy and on defined questions, but they participate in the final phase when it comes to evaluating the entire path and deciding the conclusion of the therapeutic experience.
SESSIONS REGULARITY AND DURATION
Individual sessions last one or one and half hours with a weekly or fortnightly frequency, sessions with couples last one and half hours with a fortnightly frequency, sessions with families last two hours on a monthly or fortnightly base.
SETTING
The sessions are video-recorded so that I can review and reflect on them with the help of my team. This is the room where I practice.
In the sessions that I personally conduct with couples or families, colleagues take part from behind a one-way mirror and collaborate with suggestions, observations and comments. While, when I act as supervisor, I discuss the case and the evolution of the therapy with the therapist, providing comments and suggestions, often following the sessions directly from behind the mirror.
When I work with families and couples, I avail myself of the partecipation behind the one-way mirror of one or two colleagues. While not essential, it can be advantageous to extend the team’s participation to some phases of individual treatments. I discuss this possibility with patients during the consultation preceeding therapy
To get in touch with me:
Write to me at this address to arrange a first telephone contact
valeriaugazio@eist.it
If you prefer, make a call to the EIST secretary: 02-70006568
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