Theo Kostidakis

I am a dramatherapist offering creative clinical supervision to:

• psychological therapists,
• counsellors,
• psychotherapists,
• clinical psychologists,
• arts therapists,
• play therapists,
• mental health practitioners
• and other professionals working with people, such as social workers and teachers.

Regardless of the supervisee’s therapeutic approach, the supervision I offer can incorporate creative techniques alongside verbal reflection, including methods such as mark-making, use of images and embodiment. These aim at allowing you as the supervisee to reflect on your practice in ways that are both within the context of your psychological approach and understanding, and also offer alternative perspectives. I use creative techniques which are based on the depth and wealth of exploration that creativity, imagination and embodiment can offer.

After several years of working as a dramatherapist, I trained at the London Centre of Psychodrama (Creative Approaches to Supervision).

My experience – alongside and before the supervision course – spans across diverse contexts: supervising trainee arts therapists in placements, providing clinical supervision to experienced practitioners, offering reflective spaces for other professionals (caseworkers, teachers, artists, facilitators, experts-by-experience), and undertaking safeguarding lead responsibilities.

Both my therapeutic practice as a dramatherapist and my management experience in therapeutic services also inform my practice, allowing me to support supervisees in grounding their work in ethical standards, understanding organisational dynamics and processes, while also fostering psychological insight, creative inspiration and empathic connection.

While I have worked across a wide variety of settings, my main expertise lies with intercultural and trauma-informed work with people - especially young people. I have also been working with adults and children of all ages in charities, community projects, schools (including SEN, PRU, and SEMH settings), and private practice.

My approach is culturally-sensitive, anti-oppressive, LGBTQIA+ affirmative, trauma-informed, anti-racist and anti-oppressive: considering the systemic dimensions of power, privilege and oppression within each individual's intersectional experience. My practice is grounded on theoretical frameworks that span from psychodynamic, developmental and somatic to systemic, social and solution-focused approaches.

I understand my supervisory role as one that holds space for the supervisee’s own ways of making meaning, while keeping the boundaries of ethical practice. I value the need for self-reflective practice (including my own as a supervisor) alongside a discipline of radical self-care.