Dr. Irene Pinucci

Dr. Irene Pinucci is an English-speaking psychiatrist working in Florence and in Rome, and online with patients elsewhere, in English, French and Italian. She is a medical doctor specialised in diagnostic assessment and pharmacological prescription.

That distinction matters, and it is worth being explicit about it. A psychiatrist is a doctor: she can make a diagnosis and prescribe medication, which a psychologist cannot. The two roles are not alternatives. Many people are best served by therapy alone, some by a psychiatric assessment alone, and some by both running in parallel, with the therapist and the psychiatrist each doing what they are trained for.

She graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Florence and specialised in Psychiatry at Sapienza University in Rome.

She is committed to scientific research and is currently a PhD candidate in Clinical Experimental Neuroscience and Psychiatry. For a patient this is not an academic detail: prescribing well depends on keeping up with evidence that changes, and someone doing research is reading it as it arrives.

Her strongest clinical experience covers mood disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and related conditions, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and sleep disorders.

She also works with the psychiatric side of physical illness, including oncological disease. It is a specific and often neglected area: what a serious diagnosis does to sleep, to mood and to the sense of a future is a clinical matter in its own right, not something to be endured quietly alongside the treatment.

During her training she spent several months in Paris and Amsterdam, and she works with patients from all over the world in English and French. A psychiatric consultation is a conversation in which precision matters more than almost anywhere else in medicine, and being able to hold it in your own language changes what the doctor actually hears.

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 a psychiatric assessment with Dr. Pinucci is what fits, 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. Pinucci 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 Florence and Rome where you can meet in person, not only online.

Irene Pinucci does not work alone. She takes part in Therapsy’s internal clinical supervision, a standing group where clinicians bring their most demanding cases, train together and ask for help when a situation calls for it. Every clinician 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 clinician 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 person she believes is right for you: Irene Pinucci, or one of her colleagues. Then you have a free introductory call, 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 clinician 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. Pinucci is a registered medical doctor with the Italian Medical Association. She receives in Florence, in Rome subject to availability, and works online.