Anastasia Athanasiou

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Pronoun: she
Accepting new clients
Accepting new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

location_on London, Greater London, SW9
Accepting new clients
Accepting new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

About me

What is Systemic Psychotherapy – main priniciples

Systemic psychotherapy, also called family therapy, it is seeing the person as part of different systems and contexts, such as home, work, school, and the whole society. The focus is to explore your relationships in those different contexts, and how this influences your life, feelings and behaviours and subsequently the view of self and identity. More specifically, systemic psychotherapy understands your difficulties and resources as a product of past and current relationships in various environments as well as the meanings attached to it without locating the problem in you/pathologizing you. Social diversity markers, such as culture, race, gender, are of great importance and it could be explored how these may intersect and create possibilities or constraints in your life.

About me

I am a mixed-race, Greek-British, heterosexual woman, who has lived and worked in London for 9 years. Prior to completing my family therapy training at King’s College of London, I completed a low intensity CBT certificate and a master’s in research in clinical psychology. I have experience working with families, couples, and individuals privately and within various settings in the NHS, such as CAMHS and adult services. 

Due to multiple transitions in my personal and professional life, such as migrating, studying, working and living in the UK as a young adult, I do consider myself as culturally sensitive, with a deep understanding of how different contexts and social diversity markers, such as race or gender, may create a power struggle, having real implications in people’s lives.

I believe that therapy is the most effective when there is a strong therapeutic relationship. In my work, I seek to build this through respecting and appreciating the individuals’ resources, needs, and differences, and following their pace.

In my therapeutic practice, I tend to draw from different systemic frameworks.

Work with individuals: 

Why do I feel/think/behave like this or have this experience and how do I impact and get impacted by my relationships? 

These are some of the questions that can be answered in individual sessions. In individual sessions, you can explore how your emotions, behaviours, and way of relating and interacting with others in different contexts, such as family, work, friendships, have been formed over the years and they have an impact on the view of yourself and your identity. This may give you the opportunity to create a new understanding of your experiences, creating agency and choosing how you want to see yourself, relate to others, and live life. 

Work with families: 

Family therapy sessions could be joined by the whole family, some members, and/or significant others/support network. In family therapy sessions, all members are treated equally, and they are invited to share their perspectives. There is no set agenda or expectations for a unanimous point of view, on the contrary, differences are welcomed. In a secure space, the presenting problem would be discussed and explored in relation to the family’s rules, roles, beliefs and emotions building on the existing strengths and resources of the family. 

Some of the matters that could be explored in the sessions are feeding/sleeping, attachment, parenting/co-parenting, separation/divorce, fostering, adoption, kinship care, mental health difficulties, behavioural difficulties, school-related concerns, neurodiversity, eating-related concerns, physical-health problems, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and others.

Work with couples: 

Couple therapy could be joined by all parties or just by one of them. In the couple therapy sessions, there is no set agenda, and you could bring in what feels important for you. Underlying emotions, beliefs as well as past and current patterns would be explored in relation to the presenting difficulty either in the individual or the relationship. Communication, conflict, psychosexual issues, infidelity, financial and work-related issues, disruptions due to cultural/social/political/religious conflict, discrimination, separation/divorce, mental and physical health in the couple, infertility, cultural differences, and life cycle transitions, such becoming parents, are some of the matters that could be discussed in the sessions in an emotionally safe way.

Training, qualifications & experience

Qualified systemic psychotherapist working with individuals, couples, and families - UKCP registered

Trainings:

  • Family Therapy MSc – King’s College London
  • Family Therapy Grad Cert – King’s College London
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Grad Cert – King’s College London
  • Clinical Psychology MRes – University of Birmingham
  • Psychology Honours Degree – Panteion University Greece

Member organisations

school Registered / Accredited

Registered / Accredited

Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.

UKCP
UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a leading professional body for the education, training and regulation of psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. Its register is accredited by the government's Professional Standards Authority.

As part of its commitment to protect the public, it works to improve access to psychotherapy, to support and disseminate research, to improve standards and to respond effectively to complaints against its members.

UKCP standards cover the range of different psychotherapies. Registration is obtained by training or accrediting with one of its member organisations, or by holding a European Certificate in Psychotherapy. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.

Accredited register membership

UK Council for Psychotherapy
Accredited Register Scheme

The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).

This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.

UK Council for Psychotherapy

Areas of counselling I deal with

Therapies offered

Fees

£80.00 - £130.00

Concessions offered for

  • check_circle Low income
  • check_circle Unemployed
  • check_circle Refugees

When I work

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Night

London, Greater London, SW9

Type of session

Online

Types of client

Children (0-12)
Young people (13-17)
Young adults (18-24)
Adults (25-64)
Older Adults (65+)
Couples
Families
Groups
Organisations
Employee Assistance Programme

Key details

DBS check info

In England and Wales, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS, formerly known as CRB) carry out criminal records checks for individuals working with vulnerable groups, such as children. To find out more, visit gov.uk , or contact this professional directly

Additional languages

Greek

Online platforms

Microsoft Teams
Skype
Whatsapp
Zoom
Anastasia Athanasiou
Anastasia Athanasiou