Zoi Simopoulou

Lecturer in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences

Biography

Qualifications

PhD in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh

PgDip in Therapeutic work with Children and Young People: Psychoanalytic infant observation and reflexive practice, Human Development Scotland

MSc in Art Therapy, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

BA Hons in Philosophy and Pedagogic Psychology, School of Philosophy, University of Athens

Responsibilities & affiliations

Member of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT).

Member of the editorial board in 'Psychoanalytic Social Work'.

Postgraduate teaching

- From two person to three person to the group: a psychodynamic perspective

- Between Counselling and Research 2: Qualitative Methodologies

- Counselling Across Borders (MSc International and Cross-Cultural Counselling Studies)

- Counselling Across Languages and Culture (MSc International and Cross-Cultural Counselling Studies)

- Humanities and Arts Informed Research Methods

- Practice Seminar in Counselling and Psychotherapy

 

Current PhD students supervised

Roxana Marcas: An exploration of identity and belonging amongst Romanian women immigrants through collective re/membering (DPsychotherapy)

Juliana Ramírez-Muñoz: Bridging the Fragmented Self: Autohistoria-Teoría on Dialogue, Identity, and Spirituality in Conflict Transformation (PhD Health in Social Science)

Sreya Sudesh: Writing the In-Between: Explorations of the Transnational Sick Female Body (DPsychotherapy)

Austin Cunningham: Autoethnography of Psychiatric Hospitalization (DPsychotherapy)

Aliyah Naseef: A Creative-Relational Inquiry exploring the fluidity of bereavement, loss and grief (DPsychotherapy)

Maro McNab: Pregnant anecdotes: An exploration of what happens when posthuman feminism and psychodynamic theory are used to make sense of pregnant inter- and intra-subjectivity (PhD Counselling and Psychotherapy)

Nourhan Ibrahim: The Role of Culture, Religion and Spirituality in Muslim Child and Adolescent Mental Health (PhD Counselling and Psychotherapy)

Jing Xuan Yap: Self-harm, Body Perception, and Existential Phenomenology (PhD Counselling and Psychotherapy)

 

Research summary

Psychoanalytic methodologies, researching the unconscious, research relationships, arts-based methodologies, writing as inquiry

Relational psychoanalysis, existentialism/literary existentialism

Childhood

 

Publications

Simopoulou, Z., Chandler, A. (2023). Provoked perplexity in live methods. Qualitative Research, 24(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231210766

Simopoulou, Z., Willis, A., & Georgiadou, L. (2022). ‘Things on Your Doorstep You Don’t Even Think About’: Thinking Intercultural Engagement with Psychodynamic Theory. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 34(2), 302–322. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v34i2.742

Chandler, A., Simopoulou, Z. (2021). The Violence of the Cut: Gendering Self-Harm. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (9), 4650. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094650

Simopoulou, Z., Chandler, A. (2020). Self-harm as an attempt at self-care. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 10, 110–120. https://ejqrp.org/index.php/ejqrp/article/view/101

Simopoulou, Z. (2019). Young Children’s Existential Encounters. Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-10841-0

Alexander, D., Bradford, J., Gannon, S., Murray, F., Partridge, N., Simopoulou, Z., Wyatt, J., McCulloch, C., Naylor, A., Williams, L., (2018). An Experiment in Writing that Flows: Citationality and Collaborative Writing. In Riddle, S., Bright, E., Honan, D. (eds.) Writing with Deleuze in the Academy. Australia: Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2065-1_8

Current research interests

Living losses, grief, life history, death and dying, intergenerational work, spirituality

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

Journeys of Grief: Understanding how people experience grief and how they navigate their loss. With Edgar Rodriguez-Dorans, Sarah Nghidinwa, Joana Alexjuk.

Spirituality in health care. With Carolina Borda-Nino-Wildman.

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