Dr Elisa Cunial
I am a UK Chartered Counselling Psychologist, working from a psychodynamic and relational orientation. My clinical practice is informed by an interest in unconscious processes, patterns of relatedness, and the ways in which psychological experience is shaped through early and ongoing relational contexts.
Over time, my work has also expanded toward ecotherapy and ecologically informed approaches to psychological understanding. This perspective considers subjectivity as embedded within wider relational systems that include social, cultural, and more-than-human environments.
In my practice, I aim to provide a stable and reflective setting in which experience can be symbolised, mentalised, and progressively integrated. Particular attention is given to processes of containment, meaning-making, and the transformation of unformulated or fragmented experience into a more coherent sense of self.
Rather than focusing on symptom reduction alone, my work understands psychotherapy as an ongoing process of inquiry, where change emerges through the development of reflective capacity and relational understanding within the therapeutic relationship.
I lived and worked in the UK for over 15 years, before moving to Italy in 2020 where I now work as a counsellor/eco-counsellor, group facilitator and supervisor from near Trieste, in the North-East region of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia.
I speak fluently English, Italian and French.
Professional memberships
As a Chartered Counselling Psychologist in the UK, I am registered with:
- The British Psychological Society
- Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC)
- The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
I am also on the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors (RAPPS) since 2018.
In Italy, I am a registered with AssoCounseling as a Supervisor-Counselor (REG-A2720-2021).
I hold degrees in Special Needs Education and Psychology from Switzerland. I later specialised in psychotherapy in London, obtaining a Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. My training followed an integrative framework, informed by psychodynamic, existential, transpersonal, and Jungian approaches.
I began my private practice in 2013 in London, working with individuals and couples in both in-person clinical settings and ecotherapy-based work conducted outdoors.
My professional experience spans a range of clinical and institutional settings, including services for children and adults with special educational needs, palliative and end-of-life care, complex psychiatric presentations, NHS primary care, charitable organisations, and educational settings. I have also worked extensively with trauma, bereavement, and relational adversity, and in work with children and families exposed to abuse and neglect.
I have particular experience working with culturally diverse and expatriate populations.
My clinical approach integrates psychodynamic psychotherapy with creative and embodied practices, including arts-based work, dream exploration, body-oriented approaches, mindfulness, and ecologically informed perspectives.
I am currently based in the Karst region near Trieste, where I work in private practice as a counsellor, eco-counsellor, group facilitator, and supervisor. I also coordinate the group counselling programme at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, and collaborate with the United World College (UWC) of Duino.
Some of the issues I worked with in the past are:
- Depression & anxiety
- Self-esteem & creativity
- Loss, bereavement & the end of life
- Relationships & parenting
- Separation & divorce
- Abortion & miscarriage
- Abuse & trauma
- Eating disorders
- Obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD)
- Infertility problems & sexuality
- Existential crisis/loss of meaning
- Midlife passage & life transitions
- Chronic & life-threatening illness
- Work-related problems
- Disability (better called ‘different ability’)
- Multi-cultural & cross-cultural issues (for example, third culture kids)
- I adapt my way of working to the specific needs of each individual, couple, or group, remaining open to what emerges in the therapeutic process while staying grounded in my professional values, training, and clinical framework.
- I take into account individual aims, personal interests, and relational predispositions, which I review and reflect upon collaboratively and on an ongoing basis within the therapeutic work.
- I aim to establish a reliable and trusting therapeutic relationship, with consistent attention to the uniqueness and complexity of each person, couple, or group I work with.
- I encourage reflective thinking and inquiry, supporting an exploration of patterns of behaviour, emotional responses, and underlying assumptions that shape lived experience.
- I hold a strong commitment to diversity and creativity in clinical work. While diagnostic categories and conceptual frameworks can be useful, I also support an exploration of what may lie beyond, beneath, or outside fixed definitions and labels.