Dr Eirini Efsevia Koutantou

Biography

Dr Eirini Efsevia Koutantou is a Visiting Fellow at the Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies Department of the University of Essex (PPS), having graduated from PPS with a PhD, fully funded by the PPS. Her doctoral thesis, "Young Adults, Subjectivity, and the Desire of the Other during the Greek Economic Crisis" relates to the psychoanalytic investigation of familial attachment bonds in Greece and the socio-economic forces that form the individual as well as the effects of these factors to the individuation of young people in Greece during the 2009 economic crisis. She has attended series of seminars and training on psychoanalytic research and practice. She has been trained in the basic principles of psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and later, she has attended training in Group Analysis at HOPEinGA in Greece. She also attends training in Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for adults at DI.KE.PS.Y. and she also attends Psychology program at Marconi University, Italy. She is a Sociology graduate from the University of Crete, with a MSc in Sociology: Social Organisation and Social Change. She has worked with psychotherapy groups to support families with members with psychosis at EPAPSY. She has also worked with the Greek Association of anti-rheumatic fight where she has undertaken experiential groups for psychological support as well as individual sessions for individuals with rheumatic illness. She is the Scientific Director for the branch of the Psychodynamic Center of Psychotherapy and Research in Athens (details at the link: www.psychodynamics.gr), where she has worked as a co-therapist in group psychotherapy. At the present time, she undertakes individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy for adults. She has worked as a Social Researcher for European funded programs and more specifically, towards the application of social policies to fight violence in vulnerable populations. She is an Associate Fellow of Higher Education (AFHEA). She has taught Psychoanalysis and Sociology at the University of Essex and more specifically, Psychodynamic Approaches to Trauma, Psychoanalytic Approaches to Popular Film, Literature and Television, Qualitative Methodology for Social Research, Childhood Studies, etc. Her research interests lie between Psychoanalysis and Social Theory and include but are not limited to: Psychoanalytic Research of family and family bonds in Greece, Youth and Subjectivity, Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic research with individuals who have experienced crisis (social, financial, health crisis, etc.), Art and Psychoanalysis, Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic Adult Psychotherapy. Her research has been presented to international conferences and has been published to international journals. Recently, she has published the book under the title: “Psycho-Social Approaches to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Change, Crisis and Trauma” with Dr. Athanasia Chalari, Palgrave MacMillan Publications, UK Selected publications: •. Koutantou Eirini Efsevia. (2022). Towards a psychosocial approach in forming the subjectivity of young people in Greece during the Greek economic crisis", Epetirida Kentrou Erevnas tis Ellinikis Koinonias (in Greek) • Chalari, Athanasia and Koutantou Efi – Eirini. October 2020. "Narratives of Leaving and Returning to Homeland: the example of Greek Brain Drainers living in UK" in Sociological Research Online. • Chalari, Athanasia & Koutantou, Efi – Eirini. March 2020. “Greek Brain Drainers in the UK: The deeper causes of this flight beyond the Greek crisis” in Koinoniologiki Epitheorisi (in Greek), V. 7 • Koutantou, E. 2017. “Young people’s constraints in contemporary Greece: the self in crisis” in Crossing Conceptual Boundaries IX, PhD Annual Yearbook New Series, Social Sciences, UEL, UK Selected Conference presentations: • “Lived Experiences of COVID-19 Crisis: The meaning making of a pandemic” in Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futures, 15th ESA Conference 2021, 31 Aug – 3 Sep, Barcelona (virtual conference). Athanasia Chalari, Efsevia Koutantou. • “Greek Lived Experiences of Covid-19 Crisis: The meaning making of a pandemic” in the ‘Contemporary Societies in Motion’ virtual conference, 27 – 28 May 2021, Athens, Greece. Athanasia Chalari and Efi Eirini Koutantou • “Greek Brain drainers in the UK: the deeper causes of this flight apart from the Greek crisis” in the 7th Conference of the Greek Sociological Society: Societies after the crisis, societies without crisis in Athens, Greece 23 – 25 September 2020 (online zoom conference). • Subjectivity in the making: A Psychosocial exploration of the influences of familial relationships in young people in Greece during the crisis”, at the PPS Conference “The Unconscious and Everyday Life”, University of Essex, Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies Department, 30-31 May 2019. Funded by University of Essex. • 'Religions' as haunting ideologies - transforming potential in 'possessed' subjects, at the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS) 2018 Annual Conference: “Transformations: Disrupting Dystopian Futures”, at the Rutgers University In and Conference center, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, 20 October 2018. Funded by the University of Essex. • Sublimation of emotion into ‘logic’ on the stage at the International Conference: Laban’s Philosophy ant Theatre Practice, Athens, 16-18 July 2018. Funded by the University of Essex. • Loss and Trauma during the Greek crisis: A Collapse of an ideal? at the “Psychoanalysis and Politics” Conference Series. Conference Subject: Psychodynamics in Times of Austerity in the Portuguesa Sociedade de Psicanalise, 18-20th May 2018, Lisbon, Portugal. Funded by the University of Essex. • Research Forum Presentations, University of Essex, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, February 2018. • Greece: the self in transition or maybe not? at the 8th Biennial HO PhD Symposium on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus, 1st July 2017, London School of Economics and Political Science (presentation will be published on the Hellenic Observatory website). Travel grant from LSE. • Psychosocial Dimensions of Identity and Subjectivity in Greek young adults: what place does ‘family’ have? at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Association for Psychosocial Studies at the University of West England, 29th June – 1st July 2016.