Alice Toschi, Psychologist
I've always been drawn to the places where cultures meet. That curiosity has taken me across borders my entire career. From working with rescued people on board Humanity 1 in the Mediterranean Sea, to psychosocial work with children in Palestine, to supporting humanitarian workers with Doctors Without Borders in Rome, to reception centres across Italy and Switzerland.
Along the way I studied in Bologna, Padua, Singapore, and Boston. I specialized in transcultural psychotherapy at Fondazione Cecchini Pace in Milan. I trained in Narrative Exposure Therapy. Every step took me deeper into the same question: how do we help people when their culture, their history, and their pain don't fit neatly into a Western textbook?
Then I moved to Switzerland myself. And the things my clients had been telling me for years became my own experience. The disorientation. The in-between feeling. The effort of building a life in a place that doesn't quite know what to do with you yet.
That didn't make me a better psychologist on paper. But it made me a more honest one.
Background
Memberships:
Federation of Swiss Psychologists (FSP)
Order of Psychologists of Lombardy, Italy
Professional Title:
Psychologist (recognized in Switzerland)
Psychotherapist (Italian qualification, Swiss recognition in process)
Education:
Specialization in Transcultural Psychotherapy,
Istituto Transculturale per la Salute, Fondazione Cecchini Pace, Milan
Narrative Exposure Training (NET),
The NET Institute, Konstanz
Interdisciplinary Master on the Rights of Children and Adolescents,
Bicocca University and UNICEF Italy
Master's Degree in Clinical Developmental Psychology,
University of Padua (110/110 e lode)
Bachelor's Degree in Psychological Sciences and Techniques,
University of Bologna
Field Experience:
Supervisions for teams supporting LGBTQIA+ victims of marginalization and discrimination; psychological support to beneficiaries of a SAI (Sistema Accoglienza e Integrazione – Reception and Integration System) project, Cooperativa Lotta contro l’Emarginazione ONLUS (Italy)
Mental Health Representative on board Humanity 1, providing psychological support to rescued people and training to crew members, SOS Humanity (Mediterranean Sea)
Psychological support for individuals and families; psychodiagnostic and parenting skills assessments following referrals from Child Protection Services; emotional and sexual education programs for unaccompanied minors and for primary and secondary school students, Family Counselling Centre – Centro per la Famiglia delle Valli (Italy)
Psychosocial activities with children, Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo – VIS (Palestine)
Psychological support for refugees and asylum seekers in reception centres and Italian schools; psychoeducational workshops for diverse migrant populations; transcultural supervisions and trainings for teams working in the social sector, Istituto Europeo di Psicotraumatologia e Stress Management – IEP (Italy and Switzerland)
Assisted the lead psychotherapist in providing psychological support sessions to humanitarian workers, Doctors Without Borders – MSF (Italy)
Research on mother–child interactions, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
Educational and care work with refugees and children with disabilities, Mugunda Catholic Parish (Kenya)
Recreational and care activities for orphans and abandoned children, Selam Children’s Village (Ethiopia)
My approach
There's a principle that guides everything I do: the patient is my teacher.
I don't walk into a session with a fixed framework and ask you to fit into it. I listen. I learn. I let your story, your culture, your values shape the direction of our work.
Most therapeutic approaches are built on Western assumptions about what health and healing look like. Mine isn't. I believe the answers are already inside you. My job is to create the conditions where you can find them.