Dr. Paola Lazzarini

Dr. Paola Lazzarini is an English and Spanish-speaking clinical psychologist working in Brescia and Cremona and online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in Spanish, English and Italian, with adolescents, young adults, couples and families.

Her approach is integral: it treats every dimension of a person as part of the clinical picture, the physical, emotional, relational, social and spiritual. That last one is not decoration, and it leads to something she does that almost nobody else does.

She has developed specific experience working with Catholic patients and consecrated individuals, offering a space where the spiritual path is integrated into the clinical process rather than left at the door. For someone whose vocation and faith are the centre of their life, being able to bring that into therapy without having to defend it, or having it treated as a symptom, is the difference between starting and not starting.

Her second distinctive area is the set of difficulties that have grown up with the internet: gaming, gambling, internet and pornography addiction, social withdrawal and hikikomori, and other behavioural dependencies. These are conditions where families often spend years without a name for what is happening.

Her clinical experience also covers mood and anxiety disorders, eating disorders and dysfunctional eating, OCD, personality difficulties, emotional dysregulation and relational problems.

She works with people going through complex life transitions: betrayal, separation, co-parenting and child custody, parenting difficulties, and the strain inside couples and families. She also welcomes people with no diagnosis at all who are looking for self-awareness or a clearer view of a decision.

Her method is built for the individual and integrates EMDR for trauma, psychodrama, the Early Memories Procedure, and specific tools for couples and families: the genogram, the generational clinical interview and the wound line approach. Where useful she collaborates with a colleague specialised in music therapy.

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. Lazzarini 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. Lazzarini 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 Brescia where you can meet in person, not only online.

Paola Lazzarini 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: Paola Lazzarini, 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. Lazzarini is registered with the Italian Order of Psychologists. She receives in Brescia and Cremona and works online with patients across Italy and abroad.