Dr. Maria Luisa Vampa

Dr. Maria Luisa Vampa, known as Lisa, is a French and English-speaking psychotherapist in Milan. She has been practising since 2012, receives patients in person in Milan and works online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in French, English and Italian, with individuals, couples and families from 16 years old onwards.

She is also a Case Manager at Therapsy, one of the clinicians entrusted with supervising the work of other therapists in the network. It is a role that exists only inside a structure: no therapist working alone can hold it.

Her path into therapy is unusual and it is the reason to read the rest carefully. Before becoming a psychotherapist she trained as a doctor: a degree in Medicine from the University of Naples Federico II, a specialisation in Nephrology in Parma, and a PhD in Immunology at King’s College London. She then took a Master’s Degree in Psychotherapy and Healing Practice with Distinction from Middlesex University in London.

She identifies explicitly with the figure of the Wounded Healer: someone who has been through their own therapy and their own difficulty, and works from that rather than from above it. Her own path through therapy is what led her to become a therapist.

She works with couples in every kind of relationship, including interracial and intercultural ones, married or not, usually on communication and on practical tools for conflict resolution. Her clinical experience covers adoptive families, blended families, intercultural families and LGBTQ+ families: helping people find their place and their voice inside relational systems that are genuinely complicated.

Her work also includes support for parents, adolescents and university students, anxiety treated with cognitive behavioural techniques, relaxation and mindfulness, work with the body and the voice for emotional blocks and traumatic events, career change coaching and drama therapy.

She has lived as an expat in several countries, and says plainly how disorienting and demanding adapting to a new culture is. That is first-hand knowledge, not sympathy: it is the difference between a therapist who understands the disconnection you are describing and one who needs it explained.

You do not have to pick her yourself. At Therapsy every person is matched by a human being, not by an algorithm: our clinical team reads your request, and if Dr. Vampa is the right fit for what you are bringing, they will introduce you. The first call is free, and it is there to check that the fit is real before anything begins.

Fewer than 1 in 100 therapists joins the Therapsy team. Dr. Luisa Vampa was personally vetted by our Clinical Director, Dr. Francesca A. Boccalari, on three non-negotiable criteria: she shares our values, she speaks at least one language beyond Italian, and she has a physical practice in Milan where you can meet in person, not only online.

Maria Luisa Vampa does not work alone. She is one of the Case Managers who lead Therapsy’s internal clinical supervision: standing groups where therapists bring their most demanding cases and train together. Every therapist in the network, Case Managers included, can turn to our Clinical Director for clinical questions and further training, and Therapsy runs regular professional training with senior therapists and external trainers. Scheduling, invoicing, payments and the rest of the paperwork are handled by Therapsy, so that her time with you stays clinical work and nothing else. On your side, the same platform gives you one place to see your sessions, invoices, payments and documents.

At Therapsy you do not have to pick your therapist from a list: you start by speaking with Dr. Francesca Boccalari, our Clinical Director, who listens to what you are going through and matches you with the therapist she believes is right for you: Maria Luisa Vampa, or one of her colleagues. Then you have a free introductory call with that therapist, and only after that do you decide whether to start.

And if the fit turns out not to be right, you are not back at square one. Dr. Boccalari and her team find you another therapist inside Therapsy, at no cost, without you having to tell your story from the beginning. Choosing a therapist while you are struggling, in a language that is not your own, is a lot to ask of a person. That is the part we take on.

Dr. Vampa is registered with her professional board. She receives in Milan and works online with patients across Italy and abroad.

Further reading from Therapsy: therapy for intercultural couples, whether online couples therapy works.