Athena Matheou

I am a highly qualified Integrative Psychotherapist and Counsellor with 20 years of practice experience from voluntary placements, the NHS and private practice. I’m experienced with working with a huge range of issues and people from diverse backgrounds and differing contexts.

People come to therapy for a wide variety of reasons. My aim is to find out what it is you want from therapy and then to provide you with a safe, supportive and non-judgemental environment in which we can try to find what you, personally, are looking for.

All our work together will take place in a professional and confidential environment. I abide by the UKCP Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct.

I’ll explain a little about my practice below but please take a look at my website for a full picture.

Training

I completed an extensive academic and experiential training in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling at the Minster Centre in London. I am committed to practising with high professional standards. After fulfilling the requirements to be awarded an Advanced Diploma, which qualified me to practise, I continued my training and completed an MA which I was awarded with distinction. Since then I have continued to develop my practice to integrate mindfulness, somatic work, trauma-informed yoga, polyvagal theory and more.

Qualifications

• Diploma in Integrative Supervison
  
• MA with Distinction in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy (Minster Centre/Middlesex University)
  
• Advanced Diploma in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy (Minster Centre)
  
• United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy registered
  
• Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy
  
• Member of the Minster Centre
  

I’m one of the few UKCP registered supervisors in East London, with a great deal of therapeutic experience. I value supervision as a vital, reflective space and genuinely enjoy supporting other therapists in their work.

In my experience effective supervision involves offering a space that feels safe enough to bring all aspects of our clinical work. I work from a supportive position to facilitate any therapist in handling difficult material, countertransferential issues, embodied work, theory/practice gaps, managing self-care and much more besides, depending on what's needed by any particular supervisee on any particular day.

I aim to encourage practitioners to maintain and develop confidence in their work. I provide a place where we can celebrate success but also examine the cases that are more challenging. A space which accepts and allows exploration of our inevitable fallibility with curiosity rather than judgement. In this kind of space we can take care of ourselves, process the impact of client material, plus gain greater objectivity and a depth of understanding which is profoundly beneficial both to ourselves and our clients.

My approach is relational, supportive, and flexible. I work with a process-oriented model that allows for different therapeutic approaches to be thought about together and, informed by my earlier career as a musician, am particularly comfortable with working creatively.

I have worked with supervisees at many stages of their careers: from those in training or establishing their practice, to highly experienced practitioners, including lecturers and post-doctoral clinicians. I really appreciate being able to share the experience I’ve gained and chewing over the therapeutic process in supervision. I’m particularly interested in working with therapists who are open to depth, creativity, and embodied approaches.

I offer a short, free of charge, meeting to any potential supervisee.