Gestalt psychotherapist, psychodramatist and mindfulness teacher.
Psychologist, Psychotherapist menber of the Psychologists association of Piedmont (No. 6432),I carry out clinical and training activities with adolescents and adults.
In addition to the university training, over the years I have followed verious specialization
courses,seminars and studies in various fields: clinical, artistic and meditative.
I have a background in Jungian psychodrama training with the Mediterranean Psychodrama Association and a Jungian personal analysis.
The passion for psychodrama led me for many years to go deeper with various psychodramatic therapists such as: Maurizio Gasseau, Monica Zuretti, Carlos Menegazzo, Josè Fonseca, Wanda Druette, Wilma Scategni, Giulio Gasca, Luigi Dotti, eventually landing in Argentina to follow the school of psychodrama of Mario Buchbinder’s masks.
Master and educational training of Dr. Isabella Bonapace psychologist psychotherapist.
In the artistic field I obtained a 1st level master’s degree in “Community Theater” at the University of Turin and in the meditation field I obtained the Mindfulness techear Training ( MBSR) at the “Italian Mindfulness Association”. – the Advanced Teacher Training for MBSR / MBCT at the Center for Mindfulness Reseach and Pratice, Bangor University UK and the 7 Days Residential Training Program in MBSR in the training course of the Center for Mindfulness (UMASS Medical School) and the Teaching Presence in Relationship: An Interpersonal Mindfulness Training for MBSR Teachers with “ Italian Mindfulness Association and Metta Programs ( Seattle)
The in-depth studies in this area are with Dharma teachers such as: Letizia Baglione, Gregory kramer, Melissa Blaker, David Rynick. Janet Surrey.
I am also engaged in training projects concerning the use of Mindfuness in business companies.
Projects and collaborations
For more than twenty years I have been working with adolescents in therapeutic communities, initially as an educator, then as aned educational manager and finally as a psychologist
Years 2000- 2010
Since 2000 I have been collaborating with a mental health association “Tiarè” , in the clinical setting of childcare with psychopathological disorders, leading psychodrama groups for adolescents within the therapeutic communities, clinical supervisor, and clinical coordinator.
Since 2005 I have been leading groups for women through psycho-bodily methods to investigate the women ‘s different forms and potentials, and since 2010 within the “Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario”, I have been involved in projects designed for women and a center called “ Lilith” againts domestic violence.
.2007:Speaker at the conference ‘this is my body, this is my blood-moderate superficial self-mutilation: the representation of pain. The drama of incommunicability. Therapeutic and social proposals. At the Social Theater of Tortona.
2009: Speaker o Supervisor ?? (speaker and supervisor) at the 17th International Congress of Group Psychotherapy (I.A.G.P.) ROME on “aspects of the socio-drama for adolescents and educators in therapeutic communities”.
2010: Publication in ‘Clinical work with adolescents’ by Gabriella Nicotra Franco Angeli Edition ‘Psychodramatic and socio-dramatic experiences with adolescents in the therapeutic community’.
Years 2010- 2019
2012: Speaker at the international congress “Ending gender violence” on “Changing” a group experience through the body and archetypes to recognize and prevent violence.
Since 2012 I have been leading groups with Mindfulness techniques both in the private and public sphere (ASL / Social Services).
2017 – Coirag conference speaker – Violence in relationship : “Re-knowing oneself, Re-planning, Re-living. The therapeutic community for adolescents victim of abuse and mistreatment: mental residence, living space
2019–— Speaker and organizer at the conference of the cooperative “Il Mago di Oz, “On –Of.”-The educational-clinical intervention for adolescents who are victims of abuse and maltreatment.
2019 – teaching activity with mindfulness techniques – of “Training on stress management with Mindfulness techniques” for groups reported by the External Criminal Enforcement Office of Turin within the project “COMMUNICARE – Towards a Community Justice ” 2019: teaching activity in the course of: “helping women to get out of abusive relationships for Anti-violence Operators on issues relating violence against women, the implications and psychological consequences, and the operator’s burnout. “
Years 2020-2021
2020: Teaching activity for community workers; “Sexual abuse of minors: physical, psychological and developmental implications
2021: Teaching activity aimed to community workers: “Techniques for managing aggression and emotional involvement of the operator in physical containment”
2021: Teaching activity in the course of: “helping women to get out of abusive relationships for Anti-violence Operators on issues relating violence against women, the implications and psychological consequences, and the operator’s burnout. “
Psychotherapy and psychological support
I work as a Psychotherapist in Turin and its province and specifically I deal with:
-Offering a place for psychological support where you can bring your suffering even when it does not have a defined form and is expressed through a psychophysical or social discomfort.
– Psychotherapy for anxiety disorders, phobias, panic attacks, mood disorders, eating disorders, depression and stress.
– Psychological support in conflict management, in couples relationship problems
– Psychological support in parental functions.
– Psychotherapy related to woman’s distress, in particular on the field of violence, and at the same time a space for discussion and growth in a view to empowerment
– Psychotherapy for women who are actual or potential victims of physical, sexual, psychological, economic violence or harassment / threats of various kinds.
Specifically, in my work as a psychotherapist I apply the practices and theories of Gestalt psychotherapy with a phenomenological-relational orientation that integrates body, experiential, group and family models and Mindfulness, a meditative practice developed from the precepts of Buddhism, aimed at awareness of the present moment,
What is psychotherapy by Isabella Bonapace Psychologist Psychotherapist
“If the patient is able to realize the meaning of his suffering, inscribing it within his own course of life, then he is ready to get out of that spiral of fear and despair, which does not make him free to choose and perform adaptive actions. In this sense, ‘the goal of therapy is not a particular experience [..] it is a change that organizes all experiences in a different way, a change in the way of experiencing “(Kurtz 2007) From: ‘The body keeps the score’ by Bessel Van Der Kolk, Cortina Ed.
The word "Psychotherapy"
Etymologically, the word “Psychotherapy” expresses “care for the soul, for affections” and its origin is as old as civilization itself. Human being has always tried to take care of emotional suffering and mental disorders, relying on general health standards and the fundamental value systems of the different cultures and civilizations in which they refer. We owe to S. Freud, founder of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, the knowledge of entering the inner world of the individual, to understand the thoughts, feelings and motives that animate him and that can generate existential and interpersonal discomfort. Freud understood the dynamism of the functioning of the mind, the existence of forces often in conflict within the individual and not always aware. if not understood, these unware forces lead to symptoms such as anxiety, depression, sexual difficulties, insomnia, eating disorders and so on.
Freud with psychoanalysis, became the source, the reference frame, the “soul” of all the studies and orientations of clinical psychology, even if the evolution of the study of the mind has brought a corpus of practices, methods, theories and tools much broader than the psychoanalytic one. Much has changed in the research and thinking of the psychological factors, as well as on the family, relational and environmental factors that generate and maintain suffering or psychological difficulty. The centrality of the interpersonal relationship, as a center of knowledge and change of the individual, has been placed more and more in the foreground,as well as the importance of interpersonal relationships both of the past and of the present. Therefore the purpose of psychotherapy becomes to identify and change the maladaptive context in which the patient’s psychic problems have developed.
The importance of relationships
Relationships are our life, we are born in a relationship and from this we develop our life path. Relationships are our nourishment, our lifeblood on which our personal growth is based. If we don’t create relationships, if a deep contact with the other is not achieved, the basic conditions for one’s growth and development are lacking. Therefore, more and more the emphasis on the birth of mental illness is placed on the inter-personal conflict and not on the intra-psychic one.
Psychotherapy is an encounter between two people who put their humanity together. The meeting between psychotherapist and client is a relationship that tends to change by promoting the awareness and empowerment necessary for the re-balance between oneself and others, helping to focus on the obstacles, the blocks that prevent the normal flow of our life. The psychotherapist makes use of psychological tools such as the interview, inner analysis, confrontation, relationship, and supports and helps the patient (the one who suffers), to take care of him, to change those psychological processes that often lead to malaise and / or an inadequate lifestyle, compromising the well-being of the person to the point of hindering their development.