Tages for Foreigners is the only multidisciplinary mental health team for English speaking clients in the Florence area. In 2014, we started two projects aimed at supporting migrants and asylum seekers with post-traumatic stress and different psychological problems. We later evolved to become a recognized center for foreigners who live in Florence area and are looking for a mental health support. In 2019, we started a specifically designed project for gifted and high performing students in international programs, and one for foreigners living abroad in a broad sense.

We are currently involved in three main projects:

• Living Healthy Living Abroad: In recent times, many professional people have travelled abroad to work or study. Expatriates and immigrant workers experience huge cultural differences between their home countries and host countries. They have to greatly change their lifestyle when adjusting to new countries; consequently, many stressful social adjustment problems occur. Many studies suggest that migrants have less professional support, decreased well-being and experience more mental ill-health compared to native workers. Psychological stress can lead to adjustment disorders, which results in anxious and depressive symptoms and premature return intention. In 2019 we started a new project up with the aim of supporting foreign workers to elucidate the psychological symptoms and stress factors that affect them when working abroad, and so of alleviating them with tailored interventions.

• Personality-Guided Therapy for Gifted Students: Every semester between 3,000 and 5,000 American college students come to study abroad in Florence. Moreover, there are many renewed international PhD programs in the Florence metropolitan area (eg. European University Institute; Scuola Normale Superiore). Those who are reporting high level of IQ or, more broadly, high performance may be defined as gifted students. Such a giftedness may cause difficulties in adjusting to personal, family and social demands. Living in challenging educational environment such as hyperselctive programs may represent a significant stressor. Dimensions such as perfectionism, self-criticism, and overcontrol are recurrently reinforced by the society, albeit they are sources of psychological suffering. In 2019 we started a new project aimed at testing a specifically designed intervention for gifted students. Such an intervention yearns for reducing the students’ distress and supporting them in developing new adaptive strategies.

• Mediterrean Bridges and Drifts: The European Union has defined the recent migrant crisis as the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. Access to and equality of healthcare is increasingly becoming a core and dramatic issue in European policy. There is a need for improved data on cancer epidemiology among the migrants and for targeted healthcare resources allocation. We face a progressive increase in growth of a sub-population highly at risk for inequalities in cancer care. Socio-economic data urge European countries to implement an interdisciplinary and cross-national approach to cancer care. In 2016 we started a project together with the the Central Tuscany Department of Oncology and the Middle East Cancer Consortium. The aim was and is twofold: to promote the access of migrants and refugees to cancer care screening together, to reduce the psychological burden of asylum seekers due to post-traumatic experiences.

We report below all the scientific publications referring to Tages for Foreigners projects. If you are interested in our broad scientific activity visit our Publication page.

Cheli, S., & Cavalletti, V. . (2021). The paradox of overcontrol, perfectionism and self-criticism: A cases series on gifted students. Quaderni Di Psicoterapia Cognitiva – Open Access, (48). https://doi.org/10.3280/qpc48-2021oa1214. Download

Cheli, S, Cavalletti, V, Flett, G, Hewitt, PH (2021). Mindful compassion for perfectionism in personality disorders: A pilot acceptability and feasibility study. Applied Psychology Bulletin, 287: 55-65; DOI: 10.26387/bpa.287.5.  Download.

Matos M, McEwan K, Kanovský M, Halamová J, Steindl SR, Ferreira N, Linharelhos M, Rijo D, Asano K, Gregório S, Márquez MG, Vilas SP, Brito-Pons G, Lucena-Santos P, Oliveira MDS, de Souza EL, Llobenes L, Gumiy N, Costa MI, Habib N, Hakem R, Khrad H, Alzahrani A, Cheli S, Petrocchi N, Tholouli E, Issari P, Simos G, Lunding-Gregersen V, Elklit A, Kolts R, Kelly AC, Bortolon C, Delamillieure P, Paucsik M, Wahl JE, Zieba M, Zatorski M, Komendziński T, Zhang S, Basran J, Kagialis A, Kirby J, Gilbert P.  (2021). Fears of compassion magnify the harmful effects of threat of COVID-19 on mental health and social safeness across 21 countries. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 10.1002/cpp.2601. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2601. Download.

Cheli, S., Soldevilla-Alberti, J.M., Velicogna F. (2019). A Constructivist Glimpse of a (not Necessarily Constructivist) Therapy for Foreigners and Migrants. Rivista Italiana di Costruttivismo, 7(2):19-26.

Cheli, S. (2018) Changing Everything and Changing Nothing. A Process-Based Approach in Managing Complex Cultural Settings. Psicobiettivo,  XXXIX(2):21-34., DOI:10.3280/PSOB2018-002002

Silbermann, M. Baider, L., Respini,D., Tralongo, P. Daher, M., Obeidat, Gafer, N. Abdul, S. Fadhil, R. Rassouli, M. Cheli, S. Eniu (2018). An Urgent Human Health Dilemma Facing Refugees and their Host Caregivers?. JOURNAL OF HUMAN HEALTH RESEARCH DOI:10.14302/issn

Silbermann, M. Baider, L., Respini,D., Tralongo, P. Daher, M., Obeidat, Gafer, N. Abdul, S. Fadhil, R. Rassouli, M. Cheli, S. Eniu, Balducci, L. (2018). Palliative Care is a Useful Means to Overcome Intercultural Barriers Faced by Refugees in their New Host Countries. Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine. DOI:10.4172/2165-7386.1000334

Cheli, S (2017). Trauma Entaglement in Migrant Crisis. Tentative Tips to Face the EU Cartesian Anxiety. European Society for Trauma and Dissociation Newsletter 6(3).

Cheli, S., Baider, L. Goldzweig, G., Adritzsch, E., Geny, F. (2016). Mediterrean bridges and drifts. The European migrant crisis and the role of psycho-oncology.  Psycho-oncology.  DOI 10.1002/pon.4272

Cheli, S., Caligiani, L., Nembrini, M., Fioretto, L. (2016). Cancer Care in the Length of the European Migrant Crisis. Rationale and Feasibility of a Participatory Action Research. Psycho-oncology.  doi: 10.1002/pon.4229