Francesca Polini
Compassionate explorer of patterns and meaning
About Francesca
Francesca Polini uses attachment-based and psychodynamic ideas to help people make sense of painful patterns. She combines this with client-centred work and elements of Jungian thinking to create a way of working that is warm and exploratory. Francesca speaks English and Italian and draws on five years of clinical experience in the United Kingdom.
People come for help with stress, anxiety, low mood and relationship problems. She also supports those dealing with trauma and abuse, and people wrestling with self-esteem.
Background and approach
Sessions are conversational and paced to what each person needs at that moment. Francesca pays attention to early attachment and how it shapes current relationships. She uses hypnotherapy techniques at times to help people settle into new ways of noticing thoughts and bodily reactions.
Jungian ideas about meaning and symbols can be brought in for people who want to explore life stories and identity. Her style is primarily client-centred - she follows the person and focuses on what they bring to the room. At the same time she offers psychodynamic perspectives to look at recurring patterns and unconscious influences.
This mix keeps sessions practical while also allowing deeper reflection. People who have concerns linked to abandonment, adoption and foster care, ageing, body image, chronic illness, caregiving strain or complex sexual cultures may find this approach relevant. Francesca works internationally and adapts sessions to each person's language and background.
What Francesca works with
How Francesca works
Listed by Francesca among the ways they work.
Listed by Francesca among the ways they work.
Listed by Francesca among the ways they work.
Listed by Francesca among the ways they work.
Listed by Francesca among the ways they work.
Listed by Francesca among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How attachment and client-centred work translate online
Francesca often draws on attachment-based ideas to look at how early relationships shape current patterns. This approach helps when someone wants to understand repeated relationship difficulties or feelings of abandonment. She also uses client-centred methods that prioritise the person’s experience and pace, making sessions practical and focused on what matters now.Hypnotherapy is used selectively to support bodily awareness and to build new ways of responding to distress. It can be helpful for anxiety, stress and intrusive memories by offering calming, guided ways to notice thoughts and sensations. These approaches are offered alongside psychodynamic thinking when people wish to examine long-standing themes in their life story.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Francesca will collaborate with each person to choose methods that fit their goals, preferences and comfort. She checks in about what is helpful and adapts the mix of techniques over time, so therapy stays relevant and manageable.
Online sessions are available as video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text-based messaging to suit different needs. Video is useful for a fuller conversational sense of the therapist, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and text-based messaging or live chat offer shorter or more flexible check-ins. These options make it simpler to fit therapy around work, family commitments or travel, while keeping a consistent therapeutic relationship.
| Session length | Typically 50 minutes |
|---|---|
| Client ages | Adults, 18 and over |
| Fees | Subscription via BetterHelp, cancel anytime |
| Insurance | Not billed directly |
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns can be addressed?
What is the general therapy style?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
Which session formats are available?
How are fees and subscriptions handled?
What do I need to do to begin?
Areas of focus
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counselling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Registered with
- BACP
- Languages
- English, Italian
