Dr. Fabia Pietersen

Dr. Fabia Pietersen is an English-speaking psychotherapist in Milan. She sees patients in person in Milan and works online across Italy and abroad, in English and Italian. She works with adults and young people from 16 years old, and with couples.

Fabia Pietersen knows what it is like to live between cultures. She has South African roots and practised in London before working in Italy. She is familiar with what it means to face racism, and with the cultural differences that surface inside couples and families when partners grew up in different places. Her mother worked as an interpreter, and she grew up understanding how much the choice of a single word can carry. That matters in a therapy room where you are speaking a language that is not your first.

The work of Dr. Fabia Pietersen is grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and EMDR. In practice this means it is not only about talking through what happened: it focuses on what it still does to you today, on the reactions that switch on before you can stop them, and on what can realistically change. EMDR in particular is used to process memories that stay vivid and intrusive long after the event.

People come to Fabia Pietersen carrying experiences of abuse, violence, war, or the fight for civil and human rights, and others living with addiction, anxiety or depression. She also works with couples, including couples navigating two different cultures. Some people arrive knowing exactly what they want to work on. Others only know that something is not working, and that is a good enough place to start.

Within Therapsy, Dr. Fabia Pietersen is also a Case Manager. She was chosen to lead a clinical group of other therapists in the network: she follows their cases, reviews the first sessions of every new patient they take on, and meets them every month. It is a role Therapsy gives to its most experienced clinicians. It also means that when Francesca considers her for a match, she is drawing on someone trusted not only with her own patients, but with the clinical work of her colleagues.

Fewer than 1 in 100 therapists joins the Therapsy team. Dr. Pietersen 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.

Fabia Pietersen 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: Fabia Pietersen, 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.

Fabia Pietersen holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Pavia and a four-year specialization in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy from the University of Milan. She is a certified EMDR therapist with over 10 years of clinical experience, and is registered with the Italian Order of Psychologists.