It is difficult for me to draw a curriculum because during my life I have not taken note of the many things done, how to do a complete CV. It is said that creatives “go on” …
So here I write what I remember. After the classical high school , the choice of faculty was required. Indecisive between physics, philosophy, medicine, I chose medicine . It seemed closer to real life than the other two faculties. I wanted to understand yes and no to life. I wanted to know the human mind. Thus, psychiatry and, above all, psychotherapy . Degree, specialty, enrollment in the adlerian psychotherapistregister. Adlerian school: because extremely concrete, attentive to everything that constitutes life, in every age, very sensitive to the didactic aspect, to the influence of the school.
As for didactic competence, unlike most psychiatrists, I was a daughter of art: father pedagogue, aunt assistant to Maria Montessori. Growing up among the Montessori material, I have a diploma for Montessori teaching .
In 1976 I opened my professional studio , with me for many years artists, experts in body education collaborated, as well as teachers of various specialties. All activities that do not substitute for psychotherapy, but that can be done there, sometimes have to work alongside, opening up possibilities of knowledge, of thought, even of work, to people who need these stimuli and encouragement.
At the beginning in my large studio there was also what we would call today, but with an improper name, day hospital. Some psychotic boys were in fact all afternoon or even the day, engaged in different activities, with people able to interpret meaningful gestures or words, to increase awareness of their meanings or simply to convey to them the concept that everything has a meaning.
These years have been serene, useful, extreme and enthusiastic work. Above all, the legendary Tina kept watch, a lady of incredible sensitivity who, besides dealing with invoicing and appointments, kept a close watch on everything that happened in the various rooms, except for psychotherapy.
In 1983 the studio moved to Va Spiga, above the Alfio restaurant: with the waiters I competed with those who closed later in the evening.
It was right there that one day, sick of seeing me bring children suspected or diagnosed with various ailments, from those of learning to those of personality, and who had very high intellectual potential, I decided to open a school for them. It was at school that their problems were manifested.
Thus was born, in 1984, the “Emilio Trabucchi” school , the name of the pharmacological luminary who, shortly before he died, had told me: “He will do it, he will make it big, he will make it beautiful”.
I had to close it in 1993, the expenses were too much compared to the income and I didn’t want to reduce its activities and style.
I remember the happy and orderly atmosphere, the faces of the children, the smiles of the teachers.
I remember a little girl, now a writer, who at four years wanted at all costs to join the groups of those who wrote and read, and she insisted so much that she made it.
At the same time, I opened the residential psychotherapy house “I delfini”, in Vernate (MI), model Bettelheim. Enzo Romagnoli had provided farm and capital, I work and run. We have hosted many of the most serious children and young people in Italy, with an extraordinary method and dedication, mine and the many educators, as well as the doctor and the people of the country.
Unfortunately the Dolphins were opposed by the company. In 1993 I had to close, not because it didn’t work well, but because the external obstacles were insurmountable.
We were very sorry: we promised the children protection until they were able to participate in the “normal” life of the people, and we involuntarily betrayed them.
For me, it was a great experience of how things and people are. Among the few collaborators who remained faithful to the end, I recall Dr. Primino Botta , an enlightened doctor of constant availability and great competence.
The media at the time, television and newspapers, had given great importance to the psychotherapy house and above all to the school. To speak of intellectual hyperdotation in those days was rather revolutionary. Equalitarianism was replaced by equal opportunities, massification was at work, in schools as everywhere. It was not easy to explain the disadvantages and injustices related to wanting to give everyone the same programs, the same notions. It was not easy to show the inevitable isolation of high-potential students, the harmful incomprehension of the majority of teachers, the psychological and cultural damage that was being done to the most intelligent students. Of all this I write exhaustively in the book published by Erickson, “Children with very high intellectual potential”. I committed myself to divulging the truth concerning that 3% of students with extremely higher abilities than the average; I wanted to bring awareness of their existence and their characteristics to schools, perhaps to the Ministry.
My collaborations, not only in terms of psychology but also in terms of culture, customs and even amusing tests, were many: I worked for decades with almost all national newspapers and with many Italian and Ticino periodicals. And for Italian TV, for national networks, for Mediaset, Antenna tre, Telenova, as well as for Swiss Radio and Television.
The vastness of the topics I talked about opened up a broader view of the culture and realities of life, a vision that, in addition to broadening my knowledge and interests, has also expanded my understanding of patients. Understanding that I still understand today can never be complete. But enough to be useful to them, almost always yes!
They asked me what the final purpose of my work was. It was and is increasing the degrees of freedom and the possibilities of joy.
Speaking of joy, in the period in which the existence of depression was spreading and the effect of certain drugs was extolled, I organized a conference on education for joy,aware of the education to depression that we have been admired for a long time above all from the media.
At the end of the school I, at the request of Jean Brunault, founded the Eurotalent Italyassociation , and I became vice-president of the OOT Eurotalent, a position that I kept until my resignation, in 2017.
For decades I participated in the meetings of the Council of Europe, joining the “Culture and education” commissions , for which I gave a report on child abuse, and the “prevention and health ” committee , for which I gave a report on research conducted on 250 highly respected children and adolescents: “Correlation between anxiety and depression and hyperdotation”. I have presented reports, in addition to some international conferences (remember Barcelona and Toronto) of “World Council for Gifted and Talented Children”, at the Oslo Conference on Human Rights 2010(Impossible to say “rights of the person”, I tried …) with a report on “Droits de l’Homme en faveur de l’Egalité des Chances pour tous les Enfants en matière d’Education”.
My resignation from Eurotalent: unfortunately, for many years the genial and generous founder Jean faced a disabling and progressive disease. He could no longer speak and his energies were running out, and with them the imprint of the association.Simultaneously with his resignation, I founded the OING Human Ingenium , which joins Eurotalent Italy and is also dedicated to the talents of adults and those who can not be measured . This in response to the (ill) diffusion of the evaluation tests and the consequent IQ. The argument that years before was unthinkable, today has recklessly spread. It is therefore necessary to remember that IQ is not exhaustive of the complex and largely unknown reality of human intelligence. Besides the fact that not everyone who measures it knows how to do it well! It should also be remembered that children not included, those I am. When the possibilities for developing their gifts are inhibited, they often become dissatisfied adults. For these reasons I intend to divulge both the recognition of gifts also in adults, with the knowledge that even starting to express and study “late”, at 40 as at 60-70 years, valuable results can be obtained. For what requires a technique, you will not have an expertise equal to that of those who started as a child, but the product may have unique characteristics, due to the experience of a life, different from that of someone who has always practiced an art.
To this were dedicated the last two conferences (Milan, Vicenza) and participation in Bookcity 2018, dedicated to presenting the updated edition of “Children with very high intellectual potential”. As I write this I do not know the title yet, which cannot be the same, since I added talents that cannot be measured (intuitive and creative thinking, artistic gifts) and adult talents.
In this path, my main profession is always that of a psychotherapist; my experience teaches me that the more knowledge we expand in artistic, sociological and cultural environments, the more we enrich the possibilities of being good psychotherapists.
Aside from these activities, I taught for a few years E dreation education in creative thinking at the SUPSI in Lugano, where I also held a course on Historical reasons of the current situation, including the psychological situation of women, Sports Psychology at the University of Teramo (but it is not a specialty of mine) S creative criticism at the design faculty of Bolzano (LUB) and at the University of Bressanone.
I lost count of the seminars held on intellectual hyperdotation, among which I remember, among the Milanese schools, Marcelline, Maria Consolatrice, Salesiani …).
I also lost count of the conferences, among which with particular pleasure I remember those of SIPPSS , the great association of pediatricians governed by prof. Massa, who has invited me to talk about different topics since 2012. I also remember the AIRIPA conference, in Turin, in 2016, and the immense biennial conventions of the Ericksonpublishing house in Rimini, with a turnout worthy of a stadium.
Among the conferences conceived by me – of which I have also lost count – I remember the first international event on hypothesis (Carisio, 1993) the “spring computer” on the Montessori method, “The magic in everyday life” (Parma-1997).
With great pleasure in 2017 I talked about sacred art, in Vigo di Fassa. Accepting commitments other than those required by my true profession is a precious opportunity for study and unforeseen knowledge. I remember “Italians, Ladins, Romans: poems and poets, songs and singers”: a beautiful conference that I conducted and conceived at the Swiss Center in Milan.
A separate chapter concerns the Armenian House in Milan (HY DUN) . Contacted for the show “The going of the peoples, the journey experienced by some peoples, interpreted by their music” ( Trailer on YouTube ) , I never left.
I presented some shows, including “The history of Armenia with music and poetry”, and the first small conference on non-measurable talents.
AT the Martinetti theater – Garlasco – I represented “Notes of joy” , the inner path to joy ( Trailer on YouTube )
Alongside these activities, given that the gifts can become talents even when we are adults and even older, I studied the diatonic accordion (I am in the fifth year of the Glasbena Matiça school , Trieste) and compose music. A CD has recently been produced by Classicaviva , entitled VAI QUI, the same title as the last book of poems, published by Kimerik .
An “Autoharp”, one of the magic instruments, has recently entered my studio, among whose strings lives the history of peoples. The Russian studio has also entered. Maybe in a few years I’ll be able to say a few sentences.
Still from Kimerik, “The chains of the stars” (psychiatry in verse) is published.
I won some poetry awards (Lerici Peia Carpena, first feature, Abano, Il Carro delle Muse, Abano for medical writers, and others I don’t remember, far away in time.
The surprises are not over: I will add them as they arrive!
