Mariya Levitanus

Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Biography

Background

Mariya is a scholar, queer activist, and psychotherapist from Kazakhstan. She earned her Doctorate in Psychotherapy from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. Her earlier research explored the everyday narratives of queer individuals in Kazakhstan, while her current work focuses on Russian queer and trans* migration to Central Asia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Mariya’s publications, both past and forthcoming, examine the influence of Soviet discourses on queer narratives in Kazakhstan, the dynamics of queer activism, and the experiences of queer and trans* emigration in Central Asia. Her research foregrounds lived experience, critically engaging with how socio-political contexts shape everyday life under authoritarian regimes.

Deeply committed to alternative knowledge creation, Mariya works across academic and community spaces. As a practising psychotherapist, she primarily supports queer and trans* clients. Her therapeutic and scholarly work traces the intersections of place, marginalisation, and the unmaking of normative structures, grounded in decolonial and queer frameworks.

In her teaching, Mariya draws on queer and decolonial pedagogies. In recognition of her commitment towards her students, particularly to her LGBTQI+ and ethnic minority students, Mariya received the Edinburgh University Students’ Association Teaching Award in the Student Voice category in 2024.

Qualifications

  • Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
  • The Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE), University of South Wales
  • Professional Doctorate in Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Edinburgh
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling (Interpersonal Dialogue), with Distinction, The University of Edinburgh/COSCA 
  • Bachelor of Science in Psychology, First-Class, University of St Andrews

Postgraduate teaching

  • Between Counselling and Research 1: Approaches, Issues and Debates 

Postgraduate Certificate in Counselling Studies

  • Listening, Attunement  and Empathy
  • Self, Other and Society 
  • Ethics, Boundaries and Supervision

Master of Counselling / PG Dip in Counselling (Interpersonal Dialogue)

  • Beginnings in Counselling Practice
  • From Two Person to Three Person to the Group: A Psychodynamic Perspective
  • Difference, Diversity and Power

International and Cross-Cultural Counselling Studies MSc

  • Queering Health and Social Sciences: LGBTQIA+ Perspectives 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Eleni Evangeliou, Practising Radical Love as a Response to Patriarchy: How do (we) women make meaning of our traumas and abuse in a patriarchal world, through being with, sharing with and relating to each other and our bodies?

Jessica Baglieri,  Be Afraid and Do It Anyway - The Psychological Journey of a Young BRCA-positive Woman

Kartika Ladwal , Developing A Decolonial Eye: Paying Attention to the (In)Visible: Exploring Colonial Dynamics in Psychotherapy Training and Practice — an Indian perspective

Holly Schweitzer, Fragmented Roots: Half Cambodian, Daughter of a Refugee

Han Smith, ‘Dear Ellyn’: A Creative-Relational Inquiry into Intergenerational Resonance from a Transgender, Jewish Descendant

Satyam Rohira

 

Past PhD students supervised

Jonathan Stockwell, Making sense of father-son estrangement

Natalia Cisneros Buiton, Not our script: a Narrative Exploration of Voluntary Childlessness in Ecuador

Jasmine Halow, Stories from the River: Developing Political Awareness Within Psychotherapy in Counselling Sexual Violence

Research summary

  • Queer and trans lives in Central Asia
  • LGBTQ+ within authoritarian regimes
  • Queer and trans migration
  • Agency, queer activism, alternative forms of activism 
  • Gender, sexuality and relationship diversity within counselling and psychotherapy
  • Queer and Trans* theories
  • Queer Ethics
  • Narrative inquiry 
  • Discourse analysis
  • Decolonial Queer and Trans* Approaches

 

Current project grants

Primary Investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Networking Grant project entitled: "In Our Own Words: Documenting Everyday Lives of Queer People in Central Asia" (April 2024-April 2026) in collaboration with Mohira Suyarkulova (American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan).

Co-investigator on the University of Edinburgh Principal's Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS) project"Decolonising Counselling and Psychotherapy: Reflections from Psychosocial Perspectives" (September 2023- December 2024) in collaboration with Nini Kerr (PI) and Rhea Gandhi.

Co-investigator on the University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant project "Training for ethical counselling work with queer and gender expansive people" (May 2024) in collaboration with Edgar Rodriguez-Dorans (PI) and Deanna Cor (Portland State University).

Co-investigator on the University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant "Framing Racial (In)Equality: The Reflexive Bulletin Project " (May 2024-Dec 2024) in collaboration with Nini Kerr (PI), Amy Chandler, Mingxi Li, Catherine Clarissa, Samridha Sjb Rana and Sarah Huque.

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