Dr. Alina Charnavusava

Dr. Alina Charnavusava is a Russian and English-speaking psychologist in Rome, and a Gestalt psychotherapist. She receives patients in person in Rome and works online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in Russian, English and Italian, with people of all ages and with couples.

She recently completed her training as a Gestalt psychotherapist, and integrates Gestalt therapy with art therapy methods and mindfulness meditation. Gestalt works in the present tense: less reconstruction of why you became like this, more attention to what is happening in the room, right now, as you say it. Art therapy adds a way in for the things that do not arrive as sentences.

She works with people who want to understand themselves better and build steadier relationships, and supports clients through anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, and relational difficulties around communication, emotional regulation and separation, within couples and within families.

She offers sessions in Russian, which in Italy is not easy to find. For a Russian speaker, therapy in Italian or in schoolbook English means describing your inner life at one remove, choosing the nearest available word instead of the right one. Working in your own language removes an entire layer of approximation from the process, and it usually shortens it.

She has extensive experience with managers in international companies, helping them read corporate relational dynamics, manage stress and anxiety, hold on to motivation and arrive at a workable work-life balance. It is a specific population: high responsibility, low permission to say that something is not working.

Alongside individual work she regularly runs therapeutic groups and workshops on psychological topics, where the point is practical tools rather than theory.

Her international experience makes her a natural fit for expats and international patients looking for support across cultures, at any stage of the move.

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. Charnavusava 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. Charnavusava 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 Rome where you can meet in person, not only online.

Alina Charnavusava 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: Alina Charnavusava, 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. Charnavusava is registered with the Italian Order of Psychologists. She receives in Rome and works online with patients across Italy and abroad.