Hi, I’m Rossana Pettersén, PhD

“I provide state-of-the-art psychotherapy through the lens of science, compassion and multicultural understanding”

With over 20+ years of experience, I’m a highly qualified Schema therapist, consultant clinical psychologist and lecturer working in Stockholm. By integrating the latest scientific research into therapy sessions, I deliver a highly personalised treatment to help you understand yourself and others more deeply, build healthy relationships, cope with difficulties in healthy ways and live a life in flow.

Accredited and active member of the International Society of Schema Therapy and the International Center for Excellence in Emotion Focused Therapy

My origins

I was born in Lima, Peru, a country of big diversity both in landscape and in population. My maternal grandparents left Italy in the early 1900s due to the economic and political instability of those years. They decided to leave everything behind in search for better opportunities overseas. And what a journey they embarked on! Big dreams, uncertainty, and hard work. They were real hustlers!

Similarly, my paternal grandmother was a child of Spanish immigrants who came to Peru in search of a better life and never returned to Spain. Grandma married a Peruvian miner, whose extraordinary work ethic continues to be the topic of conversation in the family until today.

Interestingly, my parents did the reverse journey. They left Peru and travelled to Europe to study and work. Dad worked for the United Nations, and mum is an expert in intercultural communication.

Growing up in different cultures made me very aware of the various ways to see and interpret realities and also aware of the commonalities that we all share as humans such as struggles, hopes, pain, trauma, need to belong, to feel appreciated and the need of stability.

Psychologist stockholm

My path

I’ve always being fascinated by the inner strength of people. Resilience after disasters, personal growth after trauma, persistence after failure, forgiveness in victims of abuse and adaptability to changing circumstances, to name a few ways in which we humans are admirable.

This fascination led me to a life-long quest to learn everything I can about human psychology and psychotherapy. My own path includes more than 4 years of therapy, silent retreats, volunteering in remote areas, 8 years of scientific research, and a daily practice of mindfulness meditation which prevails today.

After my doctoral dissertation and years of scientific research, I decided to work in Clinical practice and furthered my education to become a psychotherapist. In my work with individual clients, I chose to specialise in Schema therapy and for Couples, I specialised in Emotion Focused Therapy.

credentials

  • BsC Psychology (Peru)

  • MsC Clinical psychology (Peru)

  • MsC Suicide Prevention at Karolinska Institute, Sweden

  • PhD in Medical Science - Psychology, at Karolinska Institute

  • Schema Therapy, Swedish Institute for CBT and Schema Therapy

  • Schema therapist certification, Dutch institute for Schema therapy

  • Emotion-focused therapy for couples certification, Stockholm EFT Center

    Publications

  • Co-author of the Oxford Textbook of Suicide Prevention. A global perspective. Oxford University press. 2009

  • Co-author of the book Postvention in action. Hogrefe. 2017

  • and 4 scientific articles

SPEAKER AT INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES

  • 28th World Congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. Montreal, 2015. "Unresolved grief and bereavement-related outcomes among suicide bereaved parents. A population-based survey", "Confronting the body at the site of the suicide. A population-based survey" . Two Oral presentations.

  • 15th European symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behavior. Tallin, 2015. "Suicide bereaved siblings' perception of health services", "Lack of trust in the healthcare services after losing a child to suicide: a population-based survey". Two oral presentations 

  • 26th World Congress of the Internatioonal Association for Suicide Prevention.  Beijing, 2011. "Qualitative studies in suicide bereaved populations". Oral presentation and debate panel

  • 13th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour. Rome, 2010. "Youngsters bereaved by the suicide of a sibling. How do they do in the long-term?" oral presentation

  •  28th World Congress of the Internatioonal Association for Suicide Prevention. Montevideo, 2009. Oral presentation and workshop on Traumatic grief

People that have influenced my path

  • Professor Hans Roslin, PhD. Karolinska Institute. The best statistician in the world. I had the honor to have him as a teacher of bio-statistics and public health during my master at Karolinska. Gapminder opened my eyes to the world seen through statistics

  • Professor Jon Kabbat-Zin, PhD. University of Massachussets, who brought Mindfulness to the western world. I had the pleasure to have him as a teacher twice! 8-weeks mindfulness-based therapy

  • Professor Sue Simkins, PhD. Oxford University. Taught me to research beyond population-level statistics and go very in-depth seeking for the individual experiences of health and disease.

  • Professor Atle Dyregrov. Bergen University. Who taught me about traumatic grief, human resilience, and therapeutic methods to treat trauma. Author of numerous scientific articles and more than 15 books. He is one of the founding members of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the Children and War Foundation