Michael Conti
Integrative therapist · Somatic and trauma-informed · EMDR · Clinical supervision
Online sessions, in English
I’m Michael, an integrative therapist and clinical supervisor originally from Malta and now living in Barcelona. I work online with people in many different countries. Quite a few of them, like me, are building a life somewhere other than where they grew up.
People come to me for all sorts of reasons. Some arrive in the middle of a crisis, others during a big change in their life. Some come because a way of coping that served them for years has quietly stopped working, and some simply want to know themselves better. Any of these is a good enough reason to begin.
A short introduction
If you’d rather hear it than read it, here are about two minutes on how I work and what you can expect.
An integrative approach
Being integrative means I bring in whatever is useful for you, rather than fitting you into one model and risking leaving parts of you out. I’ve trained in a range of approaches, including EMDR, somatic work, CBT, psychodynamic, humanistic and relational therapy. Depending on what you need, the work might lean more towards your thoughts, your emotions or your body, or take a more mindful or spiritual direction. It can also include preparing for a psychedelic experience, or making sense of one afterwards.
Techniques are useful tools, though what we’re really working towards, together, is your growth as a person. Running through all of it are a few threads that matter a great deal to me: the relationship between us, the body, an understanding of trauma, and giving the work the time it needs to go deep.
Therapy as a relationship
We’re shaped in relationship from the very beginning, and it’s also in relationship that we get hurt. That’s often where shame takes root, and where we come to believe we’re not good enough or not loveable. Because this pain formed between people, it’s hard to heal it entirely on our own.
So the relationship between us is at the heart of the work. As trust grows over time, therapy becomes a place where you can be seen and try out different ways of relating. You get to notice how you affect someone and how they affect you, without worrying about the impact on the rest of your life. As the relationship deepens, I can understand you better, and at times gently challenge you too.
People come with many things, from anxiety, low mood and burnout to grief, shame, relationship struggles, or a sense that something isn’t right without being able to name it. I’ve also trained specifically in:
- Trauma and EMDR: single incidents, long-running relational trauma, PTSD, and what stays in the body long after the danger has passed.
- Sexuality, gender and relationships: LGBTQIA+ identity, coming out at any age, shame and desire, gender questioning, kink and BDSM, non-monogamy.
- Psychedelic preparation and integration: the work before an experience and, more importantly, the work afterwards.
The body has its own wisdom
The mind works hard to protect us, and many of its patterns made sense when they formed. They often outlive their usefulness, though, and because so much of the mind is unconscious, we can’t simply think our way out. In a world that prizes mental work, it’s also easy to lose touch with the body, which holds its own wisdom and memory.
I see mind and body as dance partners and in our sessions we work with both. Sometimes that’s through mindfulness, and sometimes we turn directly to breath, tension, posture and the sensations that arrive before the words do.
Trauma-informed, at a pace that feels safe
Trauma happens when we face a threat we can’t process in the body at the time. It stays with us in the present, sometimes stirred up by things happening now, and we build defences so we never have to feel it again.
I don’t try to break through those defences. Instead, we create enough safety for your guard to lower in its own time, at the pace your mind and body can manage, using EMDR where it helps. Often what makes an experience traumatic is the support we didn’t have at the time. That’s why a safe relationship in therapy can be where the isolation of trauma begins to ease.
Slow, deep work
A plant doesn’t grow faster if you pull at it. You only damage its roots. Deep work is similar. We slow down and let change happen at its own pace, which can feel unusual in a world that expects everything fast.
It also means not seeing you as the problem. You live within a context that affects you, and for some people that includes a spiritual dimension. If it does for you, it’s welcome in the room, and never imposed.
A plant doesn’t grow faster if you pull at it.
Sexuality, desire and my own story as a queer man
I identify as a queer, gay man. I know from the inside what culture, religion, family and social norms can do to how we live our sexuality. I haven’t lived what you’ve lived, but you won’t need to spend your first sessions explaining or worrying about being judged. Talking about the tiredness of being the only queer person at work, or the way religion can live on in the body long after you’ve made peace with it in your head, lands without needing translation.
I also work with kink and BDSM, and with open and polyamorous relationships, whatever your orientation. Sexuality is varied, and some ways of living it are stigmatised, which can cause a lot of unnecessary pain. Here, your desires are welcome.
Here, your desires are welcome.
The practical side
- Sessions are online, and run for 50 minutes
- I work in English and Maltese, with Italian possible
- Sessions are usually weekly or fortnightly
- Every working relationship begins with a free introductory call
Clinical supervision
Supervision is where you get to think aloud about your work with someone who takes both the clinical detail and your own experience of it seriously.
I hold a specific supervision qualification, an MA in Professional Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy Supervision, rather than supervising on the strength of clinical experience alone. I work with trainees on placement, newly qualified practitioners, experienced clinicians who want to deepen their reflection, and supervisors looking for supervision of their own. Supervision is online, in English, Maltese or Italian.
There’s room here for the parts of the job that are hard to bring anywhere else, like the client you dread or the session that went somewhere you didn’t intend. Many supervisees also find it a place to bring the body into their own practice, noticing what their clients stir up in them physically and using it.
Training and workshops
I started my working life as a science teacher, and education has stayed part of my work ever since, including tutoring and lecturing on Master’s programmes in London and Malta. I run workshops and talks for practitioners, for organisations, and for people who want to explore this kind of work in their own lives. I deliver them in person across Europe or online.
Topics include trauma, mental health at work, LGBTQIA+ issues in therapy and beyond, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and reflective practice and ethics for teams. My ICF Diploma in Integrative Coaching also shapes how I work with organisations.
My book
Living Better with Yourself:
A Practical Guide to Embodied Growth
A self-development journaling book that uses the body as the container for change, with 180 exercises and over 50 guided audio recordings.
Let’s have a conversation
The simplest way to find out whether we’d work well together is to talk for fifteen minutes. There’s no obligation either way.
Or send me a message if you’d rather write first.
