Dr. Christina Moutsou BSc MSc PhD UKCP Reg

Abuse, Addiction to Love and Sex, Anger, Anorexia Nervosa, Anxiety, Assertiveness, Bereavement, Bipolar Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, Bullying, Cancer, Career Issues, Childhood Issues, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) (ME), Codependence, Confidence Issues, Couple Relationships, Creativity, Cultural Issues, Depression, Disability, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Eating Disorders, Fear, Grief, History of Mental Illness, Hysteria, Identity, Immigration, Impotency, Infertility, Inhibitions, Integration of Experience, Internet Addiction, Lack of Meaning in Life, Loneliness, Loss, Marriage (Marital relations), Midlife Crisis, Mixed Race Issues, Mother and Baby Issues, Obsessions, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Attacks, Personal Growth, Personal Relationships, Personality Difficulties, Personality Disorders, Phobias, Physical Illness, Post Natal Depression (PND), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Pregnancy, Psychosexual Issues, Psychosis, Psychosomatic Symptoms, Racial Abuse, Rape, Redundancy, Same Sex Relationships, Schizophrenia, Self Development, Self Esteem, Self Harm, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Behaviour, Sexuality, Sleeping Problems, Smoking Addiction, Spirituality, Stage Fright, Stress, Transitions, Trauma, Unresolved Issues, Work Issues and Relationships

Eclectic Therapy, Existential Therapy, Psychoanalytic Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy

Female

I have been working as a psychotherapist for almost ten years. I have acquired my clinical experience in private practice, a counselling centre for young people in Cambridge, at the Women's Therapy Centre, and in the intensive care unit of an adolescent Psychiatric Hospital.

I have also worked as a house psychotherapist in a Philadelphia Association therapeutic community household for five years for people with severe and enduring mental heath problems and I was centrally involved with the reopening and setting up of this community household. I have been a member of the Philadelphia Association's Management Committee for three years and I am currently a member of the Ethics Committee. I have published widely in the fields of anthropology and psychotherapy.

I have long clinical experience in women's and young people's issues such as body image and eating problems, self harm, pregnancy and motherhood, depression, anxiety and lack of self confidence.

I also have experience in working with people having a diagnosis of personality disorder and or psychosis.

I am particularly interested in working with cultural diversity and issues around race and ethnicity. I have a very good understanding of the French language and I can also provide psychotherapy in Greek. I have experience of working with individuals, groups and couples.

I am able to offer counselling and psychotherapy in both Kilburn and Islington.

Although I am psychoanalytically trained, my background in social anthropology has enabled me to keep some critical distance from some 'orthodox' psychoanalytic approaches liable to thinking that it is possible for the therapist to have a map of the patient's mind and or to know the patient's unconscious motives and wishes. In my experience, assuming such knowledge can often be experienced by the client as patronising and disempowering and or can quite simply lead to false conclusions. In my view, therapy is a form of attentiveness to the experience of and relationship with another. Mental suffering can often be a state of not feeling comfortable in one's skin and in one's ways of being, a state which can be altered and alleviated through accepting and understanding one's experience of the world. Making sense of a person's history and how it has contributed to their difficulties can be an empowering and healing experience. I am very interested in diversity and thinking about difference, be it cultural, ideological political, gender etc, rather than adopting a universal theory of health and pathology. I also pay close attention to existential struggles that come about through important life events such as bereavement, dislocation, having a baby etc. I believe that people who find their way to therapy can feel more contented in their lives through developing a therapeutic relationship of trust and respect, where they can be honest and safely explore their difficulties. Through being given space to listen to their voice, opinions and needs, people can activate and use their own healing powers.

Sessions last forty to fifty minutes for individuals and one hour for couples. Once in ongoing therapy, sessions take place between one and three times a week. Short term therapy of one session a week is also offered, when suitable for the client's needs.

I have been practising as a psychotherapist since February 1999. I obtained my Phd in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 1998. I have trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist with the Philadelphia Association, London, because of the training's emphasis on the social context and the encouragement to adopt a thoughtful position in one's practice and a critical distance from orthodox psychoanalytic theory. I have successfully completed the training and I have been UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) registered since September 2002. I am also British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) registered.

I am also a Lecturer on Psychoanalysis at the University of Birkbeck, London.

I offer clinical supervision to trainees and trained counsellors and psychotherapists. This follows my experience of teaching and facilitating group work in a number of trainings across London as well as supervising students doing a placement. I have a particular interest in 'cross-cultural' supervision. This can include supervising therapists working with a particular ethnic group, or facilitating therapist - client work when the therapist is unfamiliar with the client's cultural origin.