Registered Psychologist, Italian Register of Psychologists (no. 11822)

Elena Panebianco

Progress, not perfection. A shame-free room to understand your body, your desire and yourself.

I work with individuals and couples on intimacy, identity and emotional wellbeing. There is no protocol waiting for you. We start from what you bring, at the pace you can manage, and no question here is unusual.

Location
Firenze, Italy
Languages
English · Italian
Locally qualified as
Registered Psychologist, Italian Register of Psychologists (no. 11822)
Qualified worldwide as
Sex Experts, Sex Educator & Sex Consultant
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Elena Panebianco
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Meet me first

A conversation before the conversation

Choosing a therapist is personal. Watch how I speak and how I listen, then decide whether this feels like the right room for you.

The approach

Four frameworks, one person, and that person is you

I draw on biopsychosocial, cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic and Gestalt thinking, then build a personal path from a full assessment and a strong working relationship. I see individuals, couples and small groups.

01

Assessment before direction

We build a full picture first: biological, psychological, relational. What looks like one problem is usually three, and naming them correctly is most of the work.

02

Insight and body, together

Psychodynamic depth alongside body-oriented sexology. Emotional understanding matters, and so does what your body has been doing while you thought about it.

03

Goals that are actually yours

We set goals that mean something to you, then work session by session. No standard programme, no finish line someone else drew.

Progress, not perfection.

What I ask of every client, including myself
Areas of expertise

The whole response cycle: desire, arousal, orgasm, resolution

Difficulty can appear at any stage of the cycle. What helps depends entirely on where it starts, so the work is matched to the cause rather than to the symptom.

✦
Sexual difficultiesand performance anxiety
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Identity & sexual orientationLGBTQIA+ affirming
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Gender affirmationat every stage of the path
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Disability & sexualityaccess, adaptation, pleasure
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First experiences & datingstarting later, or starting over
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Kink, BDSM & unusual interestswithout pathologising
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Ethical non-monogamyagreements, jealousy, structure
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Sexual educationfor adults who were never taught
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Compulsive pornography useand intense jealousy
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Intrusive doubt about orientationthe doubt, not your identity
In practice

Fear puts you in the audience. Therapy puts you back on stage.

One pattern surfaces early in most of the work I do. Fear produces the spectator stance, where you watch yourself perform instead of being present. Two examples of how that comes undone.

Men · performance anxiety

When a physical detail becomes a verdict

I have worked with many men on performance anxiety tied to erectile difficulty and premature ejaculation, often with a history of circumcision or phimosis that quietly became tangled with fears about being adequate. Through psychoeducation, guided exercises and unpicking inherited beliefs about masculinity, the body stops being a courtroom.

Women · desire & body image

When desire goes quiet and nobody asks why

I have supported women with low desire, body dissatisfaction and lubrication difficulty, where performance anxiety plays a hidden part that rarely gets named. We work towards presence rather than performance, and towards a way of living your intimacy that belongs to you.

What to expect

Starting therapy takes courage. The first session asks nothing more of you.

We meet online. I take the time to understand your story, your body and your worries at your pace, and we build the trust the work needs before we ask anything of it.

1

You are heard, without conditions

No shame, no judgement, no rush. We begin wherever it feels possible to begin, and I follow your pace rather than a clinical checklist.

2

We untangle the threads

Step by step we take apart what brought you here and put each piece where it belongs, including the parts that have never had words before, until something clearer comes into view.

3

Insight becomes something you live

Emotional understanding and physical experience are given equal weight. The aim is not a better explanation of your intimacy, but a fuller experience of it.

Online video session A safe, non-judgemental space I work alongside your medical care
My path

Sexuality belongs inside health, not in a footnote to it

I trained as a health psychologist and neuropsychologist in Florence, with study periods in Cologne and Tübingen, then specialised in clinical sexology. That route matters, because it puts two things in the same room: the rigour of a clinician who assesses properly before advising, and the ease of someone for whom nothing you say about sex will be surprising.

I spent eight months at one of Italy's leading sexology centres, worked in a German psychiatric setting with art therapy, and studied global public health at Cincinnati, which is where the culturally sensitive part of my practice comes from. I see people who have never spoken about this before, people who tried therapy and felt the room flinch, and couples who need a third person present who will not. Sessions are structured but unhurried, and they are shaped around your goals.

Background & credentials

Trained across four countries, licensed in Italy

Education & training

MSc Clinical Health Psychology & Neuropsychology University of Florence, including an Erasmus exchange in Cologne focused on gender medicine.
BSc Cognitive Psychology University of Trento, including an Erasmus exchange at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Sexology Qualifying as clinical sexologist, sex educator and sex consultant.
Eight-month clinical internship At one of Italy's leading sexology centres, covering sexual health assessment, counselling and therapeutic practice.
German psychiatric internship Specialising in art therapy.
University of Cincinnati selective programme Global Perspectives on Public Health, a culturally sensitive and inclusive approach to mental health and sexuality.
Licensed & registered
No. 11822

Italian Register of Psychologists (Albo degli Psicologi). State licensing examination passed with full marks.

Clinical Sexologist Sex Educator Registered Psychologist
Not sure yet?

Start with one session

No package, no commitment. Bring one question and we will see together whether this is the right room for you.

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Ready when you are

You do not need the right words to start. You just need to start.

The part of this work I find most rewarding is watching someone move from disconnection to feeling at home in their own skin. If that is what you are looking for, book a first session and we will begin there.

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Elena Panebianco
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