About me: Romina Rubino, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
“Who am I?” is perhaps one of the most difficult questions a person can answer. It is also the question that, more or less silently, every patient asks their therapist when beginning therapy.
Who is the person I am considering trusting with such delicate parts of my story? How will she listen to what I have never said? What will she make of my silences and contradictions?
Therapy always begins with two people, two histories and two paths meeting. Their roles and responsibilities are not the same, but no genuine encounter leaves either person exactly as they were before.
So I will begin by telling you something of who I have been until now.
I am Romina Rubino, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. For over fifteen years, I have worked with adults and couples, with a particular focus on psychological trauma, self-esteem and self-criticism, emotional regulation, relationship difficulties and deeper self-understanding.
I offer therapy from my practice in North London and online, in English and Italian.
Psychoanalysis, before it became my profession
Becoming a psychologist—or rather, a psychoanalyst—was always my dream. I like to think of it as love at first sight, born from curiosity: the desire to understand what happens within us and how we become the people we are.
In 2009, I graduated in Dynamic and Clinical Psychology from Sapienza University of Rome. During my studies, I carried out field research in Mozambique on the inclusion of disabled students in mainstream schools. That experience showed me how impossible it is to understand a person in isolation from their relationships, culture and wider context.
After qualifying as a psychologist, I completed the four-year training programme at SIPRe – the Italian Society of Relational Psychoanalysis, qualifying as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist.
In the early years of my career, I worked with eating disorders, sexual difficulties, vulnerable young people and within community mental health services. I also held academic roles at eCampus University in developmental psychology, psychometrics and research methodology.
I have lived and worked in London since 2015, where meeting people from different cultural and family backgrounds has broadened my understanding of relationships, identity and belonging.
When understanding is not enough
Relational Psychoanalysis is the foundation of my work. Over time, however, I felt the need to explore what cannot always be reached through words alone.
You may understand a great deal about your history and still feel on high alert. You may know that the danger has passed while your body responds as though it were still present. You may long for closeness and, at the same time, prepare yourself to withdraw.
In 2017, I trained in mindfulness practice with Lokadhī Lloyd and later collaborated with the North London Buddhist Centre. In 2018, I completed all three levels of EMDR therapy training, deepening my work with psychological and relational trauma.
I continued my training in Ego States and parts work, including Robin Shapiro’s model, and in 2022 completed a Master’s programme at SIPRe in Relational Psychoanalysis of Couples and Families.
Today, I integrate these approaches with mindfulness, body awareness and emotional regulation, considering what may be useful for each person and at each stage of therapy.
I do not believe that one technique automatically fits a particular problem. Difficulties that appear similar can have very different origins and meanings.
How I work
I do not believe that a therapist should arrive with a fixed idea of who the person in front of them is or which direction their life should take.
My role is to listen, develop clinical hypotheses, notice what continues to repeat and take responsibility for the therapeutic process. But therapy takes shape within the relationship: what happens between patient and therapist can help us recognise ways of protecting ourselves that unfold too quickly to be noticed in everyday life.
Trust is not a requirement for beginning therapy. It develops over time, through doubts, discomfort and the possibility of disagreement. Therapy can begin with silence, confusion or simply not knowing yet what you are looking for.
You can read more about my approach and clinical areas on the What I do page.
A therapy room built around a tree
I work from a private garden studio in North London, separate from the house and dedicated entirely to therapy.
When I designed it, I chose to build it around an existing tree rather than remove the tree to make space for the studio. Today, it has become part of the room: its roots reach into the garden, while its branches seem to accompany the work taking place inside.
For me, it is also a fitting image of therapy: not erasing what already exists in order to replace it with something considered better, but helping it find a different space in which it can continue to live and change.
Professional memberships
I am a member of BACP, IARPP – the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, EMDR UK & Ireland, EMDR Europe, EMDR Italy and SIPRe.
Ongoing professional development and clinical supervision remain an integral part of my practice.
We can begin here
You can read more about how individual psychotherapy and couples therapy work or contact me to arrange a free introductory call.
You do not need to explain everything in your first message. We can begin with what you—or both of you—are able to put into words at this moment.
