Dr. Sara Previdi

Dr. Sara Previdi is an English-speaking clinical psychologist in Padua. She receives patients in person in Padua and works online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in English and Italian, with adolescents, adults and couples.

She graduated in Clinical Psychology from the University of Padua and is specialising in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy. She treats behavioural and mood disorders, integrating CBT, DBT, mindfulness and body-centred techniques. DBT in particular is built for people whose emotions arrive at full volume and who need concrete skills for the moment it happens, not only an explanation afterwards.

Her distinctive area is the psychology of physical illness. She has significant experience with people managing chronic illness and organic disease, has worked across several hospital settings, and currently supports transplant surgery patients in the pneumology department of Padua’s hospital.

That matters for a specific reader. Living with a chronic condition is not only a medical problem: it reorganises time, work, relationships and the picture you had of your own future. It is routinely treated as something to be borne quietly while the doctors handle the real business. A psychologist who has worked on hospital wards knows the difference between reassurance and support.

She also collaborates with social services in child protection, designing interventions for children and families at risk, and in her private practice she works with children, teenagers and adults.

She studied and worked in Germany and knows German culture well, along with Turkish culture through family ties. She views therapy as a chance to reconnect with yourself and move towards a more conscious life, rather than only as repair work.

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. Previdi 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. Previdi 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 Padua where you can meet in person, not only online.

Sara Previdi 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: Sara Previdi, 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. Previdi is registered with the Italian Order of Psychologists. She receives in Padua and works online with patients across Italy and abroad.