About me

I was born in Torino, Italy, and grew up in the semi-rural area which surrounds the city. I was definitely not a high achiever at school. Once completed the local high school, I started an undergrad degree called 'Società e Culture d'Europa' at the Università degli Studi di Torino. The course mainly focused on History, Philosophy and Literature. I also took modules in Latin language and literature, cultural anthropology and Italian poetry.

As a teenager, I was fascinated by the French culture, so I taught myself the language and won a bursary for an Erasmus programme at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon. During my second year at university, I moved to Dijon to study Medieval History.

After university, I worked for an Italian charity supporting young people accessing job and training opportunities (O.R.So). My interest was to promote social inclusion, so I moved to Luxembourg to volunteer in a European funded project. This was across different locations, mainly in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette at the Point-Info-Jeunes. This was also focussed on promoting inclusion and access to services for young people.

After Luxembourg, I moved to the UK in 2011 and lived here since.
I initially worked as a waiter in Liverpool and Bristol, then as a farmer in Aberdeenshire, in Scotland. After this initial period, I decided to follow a new path: I relocated to London and began my counselling and psychotherapy training at the Metanoia Institute. I volunteered in different counselling places across London (Bereft, Place2Be and Mind). The training also brought me to have a placement in a psychiatric hospital in Hertfordshire, where I was given the chance to see more complex presentations.
Humanistic psychotherapy is the main module I trained in and I'm passionate about. This mainly includes Transactional Analysis and Gestalt. The whole training took 6 years to complete and gave me both challenges and opportunities to develop. I relocated back to Bristol, where I worked for four years as a therapist at the University of Bristol Student Counselling Service and at Second Step.

I had a break of just over a year from Bristol and went to East London working at at Step Forward. This is a small charity that provides therapy to children and young people in Tower Hamlets. My role there was mainly to provide one-to-one sessions as well as running groups and workshops. The charity has specific funding for disadvantaged children and young people who identify as LGBTQ+. I worked with complex clients on long-term interventions. I also collaborated with a housing association to create and run a counselling service for young people who lived in sheltered accommodations and hostels in Bow and Mile End.

I'm now back in Bristol working again for the University of Bristol, Student Counselling Service.

Matteo Francescon

MSc, UKCP accred. Psychotherapist and Counsellor