M. D. Gianni Francesetti

I was born in Torino, North-West Italy, where I graduated in medicine and then in psychiatry (my mentor in phenomenological psychiatry is Eugenio Borgna). I specialized first in Psychosomatics and sexuology, then in Ericksonian hypnosis and NLP in Milan, and finally I studied Gestalt Therapy in Venice, graduated and became a trainer in the Istituto di Gestalt HCC, directors Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb and Giovanni Salonia.

I have been strongly interested in building bridges between phenomenological psychiatry and Gestalt Therapy and I develop a model of understanding and working first with panic disorder, then with depressive experiences, and now with psychotic and psychopatic experiences. The core points of my understanding of these experiences are the field theory (individual suffering is an expression of the relational field) and aesthetics (orientation by senses, looking for the good form, transformation of pain in beauty). On these basis I am triying to create a specific gestaltic psychopathology.

I am a trainer of the Istituto di gestalt HCC Italy (Dir. Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb), and the coordinator of the international trainings in psychopathology and of the clinical  centers of this institute. In these last ten years I have become an international trainer and supervisor, teaching all over the Europe.

Another important side of my personal and professional work is the commitment in the organisations: I chaired the Italian association of gestalt Therapy, I chaired the EAGT training standards committee, in this moment I am the chair of the Italian Federation of Psychotherapy's Associations (that collects all the modalities) and of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy. Along with Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb I chair the English Gestalt Therapy Book Series and the project for a new journal on research in gestalt Therapy.

My main publications: 

  • Panic Attacks and Clinical Practice, editions: Italian (2005), English (2007), Macedonian (2009), French (2009), Spanish (2010)
  • Gestalt Therapy in Clinical Practice (eds: Francesetti, Gecele, Roubal), editions: English (2013), French (2013), Spanish (2014), Italian (2014), Romanian (2014), German, Polish, Russian (forthcoming)
  • Gestalt Therapy with depressive experiences, editions: Italian (2011), English, French, Spanish (forthcoming)
  • Some papers in the British Gestalt on Psychopathology and Aestetics

I live in Torino, in the Alps, where I love to go walking and climbing.