Dr. Silvia Vitello

Dr. Silvia Vitello is an English and Italian-speaking clinical psychologist in Milan. She receives patients in person in Milan and works online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in English and Italian, with people from 16 years old onwards and with couples.

She graduated from the Faculty of Clinical and Health Psychology at San Raffaele University in Milan, and is close to completing her specialisation in cognitive-constructivist therapy and EMDR.

Eating disorders are the area where her experience is deepest. She worked for years with anorexia, bulimia and obesity at Niguarda Hospital in Milan, one of the largest hospitals in the country. Hospital work with eating disorders is not the same as reading about them: it is where the severe cases go, and it changes what a clinician recognises early.

She also has substantial experience with drug and alcohol addiction, gained at the NOA Centre, a service dedicated to addiction treatment.

A second strand of her work is couples. She holds a certificate in the treatment of groups and couples, and has worked privately with couples, individuals, families and groups. Her approach is cognitive-constructivist: the interest is not only in what you think, but in how you build the version of reality you are living inside, and what happens when two people build different ones.

She also works with stress-related disorders, the physical and psychological cost of a life that has been running at the wrong speed for too long.

She spent a year training in Canada, where she learned to hold clinical and cultural considerations together rather than treating culture as background noise. That is what made her a bilingual therapist rather than a therapist who happens to speak English, and it shows in how she works with people whose life is split across two countries.

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. Vitello 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. Vitello 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.

Silvia Vitello 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: Silvia Vitello, 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. Vitello is registered with the Italian Order of Psychologists. She receives in Milan and works online with patients across Italy and abroad.

Further reading from Therapsy: therapy for body image, support for binge eating in Italy.