Dr. Alia Jasim is an Arabic and English-speaking psychiatrist in Milan. She is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and she receives patients in person in Milan and works online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in Arabic, English, French and Italian, with adults from 18.
Dr. Jasim has lived, studied and worked in Lebanon, France and Iraq, and knows Arab culture from the inside. For someone who grew up between an Arabic-speaking country and Europe, this changes what therapy feels like: family loyalty, religion, shame, what can be said out loud and what is never named at home do not have to be explained from scratch, or translated into terms a European clinician will find familiar.
Speaking Arabic matters for the same reason. Distress tends to surface in the language a person was a child in, and having to reach for it in a second or third language often means arriving at something thinner than what was actually felt.
She holds advanced training in ethnoclinical and transcultural approaches, and alongside general adult psychiatry she has extensive experience working in migration and transcultural contexts. She pays particular attention to the psychological impact of cultural background, displacement and adaptation to new environments, offering culturally sensitive support to expats, international students and people navigating complex identity transitions.
Being both a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist means the clinical picture and the conversation stay with the same person. She integrates psychiatric assessment, pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy into one individualised path: there is no handover between two professionals who never speak to each other, and no need to tell your story twice.
As an EMDR Level II therapist she specialises in psychological trauma, including complex trauma and migration-related trauma. She works with anxiety and depressive disorders, stress-related conditions, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive difficulties, and a difficult relationship to food including binge eating and bulimia. Her approach is structured, clinically grounded and culturally attuned, and the aim is a space where difficult experiences can be processed and emotional regulation strengthened.
Fewer than 1 in 100 therapists joins the Therapsy team. Dr. Jasim 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.
Alia Jasim does not work alone. She takes part in Therapsy’s internal clinical supervision, a standing group where therapists bring their most demanding cases, train together and ask for help when a situation calls for it. 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: Alia Jasim, 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. Alia Jasim is registered with the Italian professional register and works as part of the Therapsy network of licensed multilingual therapists.
Yes. Dr. Alia Jasim speaks Arabic, and has lived, studied and worked in Lebanon, France and Iraq. Sessions can be held entirely in Arabic, from the first introductory call onwards. She also works in English, French and Italian.
Yes, and English is one of four languages she practises in, alongside Arabic, French and Italian. She sees people in person in Milan and online elsewhere. For someone who has moved country more than once, being able to change language mid-sentence without losing the thread is often the point.
Yes. Being both a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist means the two halves of a treatment do not have to be split between two professionals: whether medication is useful at all is a clinical question she can answer herself, and if it is prescribed it is reviewed inside the same therapy rather than in a separate appointment.
Yes, and it is a distinct clinical field, not a variation on ordinary trauma work. She trained in ethnoclinical and transcultural methods, which read distress inside the culture that produced it rather than against an Italian norm, and she works with EMDR at Level II for trauma that has become complex over time. Migration trauma is rarely a single event: more often it is an accumulation nobody named while it was happening.
Adults from 18 onwards, and in particular people whose life has crossed borders: expats, international students, and those going through a transition of identity rather than of address. The presenting problems are the usual ones, anxiety, low mood, insomnia, obsessive difficulties, but the context that produced them is often not.
Through the form on this page. Dr. Francesca Boccalari, our Clinical Director, reads what you have written and decides who is the right person for it, which may be Dr. Jasim or a colleague with a closer fit. You then meet that clinician on a free introductory call before committing to anything. If it turns out not to be the right fit, we find you someone else inside Therapsy, at no cost.
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Have a free dedicated conversation with our Clinical Director, who will carefully understand your needs, preferences, and language. Based on this, we will thoughtfully match you with the therapist who best fits your goals and personality.
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