Annalisa
Siagura.

Psychologist. Filmmaker.
Italian in California.

I am a psychologist, licensed in Italy, with over ten years of clinical practice in California. I directed a documentary about Italians who moved to the Bay Area. In North America I work as a coach. It is all the same work: people start from different places and want the same thing, to be seen, heard and understood.

Annalisa Siagura standing on a San Francisco sidewalk in evening light, smiling, in a green sweater and pinstriped jacket
San Francisco, where I have lived longest since Rome.
The film

Italians By The Bay

A 23-minute documentary, six festival laurels, and the reason I started filming people instead of only listening to them.

Watch the film The practice

Talk to me

About living between cultures, or about perimenopause. One-on-one or in a women's group. In English, Italian or Spanish, wherever you are.

See how I work The story

Rome to San Francisco

A first flight alone at four, then the UK, New York, San Diego and the Bay. How I got here and why I do this.

Read it
Film

Italians By The Bay (2019)

Italians By The Bay poster: a red Golden Gate Bridge drawn over the Rialto Bridge in Venice, on white
Directed byAnnalisa Siagura ProducerPaul Han PhotographyJoshua Guerci EditorJames Thourson Supported byItalian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Comites San Francisco Screened byItalian Cultural Institute of San Francisco NextA series about bridges: people who hold two places together. In development.

Italian immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area talk about what they left, what they found, and what it costs to live in two places at once. Not a success story. Ordinary lives, told plainly.

I made this film because the immigrant stories I kept seeing were about winning. The people I knew were not losing, but they were paying for the move in ways nobody filmed. I wanted that on the record, in their own words, in Italian and in English. Ad maiora semper, as the poster says: always toward greater things.

Still from the film: the Golden Gate Bridge from the south tower, looking toward Marin
Independent Shorts Awards, Silver Award, Los Angeles 2019The World's Independent Film Festival, San Francisco, Official Selection 2019San Diego Italian Film Festival, Official Selection 2019Cannes International Independent Film Festival, Semi-Finalist 2020Rome Film Awards, Official Selection 2019Florence Film Awards, Best Short Documentary, June 2021
  • Independent Shorts AwardsSilver Award, Los Angeles, April 2019
  • World's Independent Film FestivalOfficial Selection, San Francisco, 2019
  • San Diego Italian Film FestivalOfficial Selection, 2019
  • Cannes International Independent Film FestivalSemi-finalist, 2020
  • Rome Film AwardsOfficial Selection, 2019
  • Florence Film AwardsBest Short Documentary, June 2021
Practice

How I work

Living between cultures

For expats, immigrants, second and third generation Americans with roots somewhere else, and anyone who lives outside the dominant culture. The move costs something. We name what, and decide what you want to do about it.

I do not use the word "different". I prefer "other". It leaves room for you to be the center of your own story.

Perimenopause

When perimenopause started, I didn’t understand what was happening or where to turn. I felt confused and alone. I’m still going through it, but things are getting better, and I’ve learned a lot.

Maybe your sleep has changed, your patience feels shorter, or you don’t quite feel like yourself. You’re not alone. These are things we can talk about. As a coach with a background in psychology, I help you make sense of what’s changing and work out what might help.

I also offer a women’s group with conversation, listening, and guided exercises. A place to speak honestly about the hard parts, and find the relief of hearing someone say, “Me too.”

Annalisa Siagura, Ph.D., is a psychologist licensed in Italy with over ten years of clinical practice in California. In the United States she works as a coach and consultant.

Sessions in English, Italian or Spanish. Online, wherever you are.

Book a 30-minute call
Story

How I got here

Rome. The UK. New York. San Diego. San Francisco.

I was born in Rome. At four I took my first flight alone, and I have not really stopped. I have lived in Italy, the UK, New York, San Diego and San Francisco. Each move taught me the same lesson from a new side: you lose a version of yourself and you gain another, and nobody tells you which one is real.

I trained as a psychologist in Italy and spent more than ten years in clinical practice in California, mostly with people who had moved. Then I noticed I kept meeting Italians in the Bay Area with the same story I had, and nobody was filming it. So I did. That became Italians By The Bay.

The film and the practice are one job. I translate human experience across cultures. Everyone starts from a different place and wants the same thing: to be seen, heard, understood. I am direct, I am warm, and I laugh a lot. If that sounds like a person you could talk to, write to me.

Contact

Write to me.

Book a 30-minute call Watch the film

Scrivimi in italiano, se preferisci. Hablo español también.