After my studies in Professional Dance in Greece, I obtained a postgraduate diploma and then a Master’s degree in Dance Movement Psychotherapy at the Laban Centre/City University of London (1998-2002). In 2018 I was trained in the innovative CRM®, trauma therapy model (Comprehensive Resource Model), completing the Basic Training with Domna Ventouratou and the Advanced Trainings (Core Self, Dissociative Disorders, Generational Trauma) with Lisa Schwarz, the creator of this model, who certified me in 2021. In 2022 I was trained in the DBR® (Deep Brain Reorienting) trauma therapy model by its creator, Frank Corrigan.
I taught Laban Movement Analysis at the Laban Center as well as at the Metropolitan University of London during my residency there and worked in nursing homes and community centres with children as a Dance Therapist (1997-2003). Since 2003 I have been working privately in Greece with adults with developmental, intrauterine and/or transgenerational trauma and Dissociative Disorders. From 2003 to 2020 I organized and taught various workshops in Athens and other cities in Greece. I have volunteered with HIV patients leading self-help groups for two years (2007-9) and with adolescent refugees who moved through Greece in 2015.
Since 2018 I have been using the CRM® therapeutic model exclusively and since 2020 I have been offering only online sessions as I live permanently away from the city.
Since 2000 I started to personally explore the action and properties of Flower Essences and since 2003 I have been using them in my work as an assistive healing agent. Since May 2021 I have been preparing and studying several new Flower essences from flowers growing in the Greek countryside, which have not been adequately studied in the international literature.
In 2008 and 2009 I presented findings from my work with women who have been abused as children at the Child Abuse Prevention Conference in Athens and published these findings in the scientific journal of the Australian Dance Therapists Association – “Moving On”, Vol 8: No. 1&2, (pp. 34-37). Findings from my thesis work on the therapist’s physical countertransference and the prevention of burn out have been reported in the books “Authentic Movement: moving the body, moving the self, being moved” by Patricia Pallaro (2007) and “Supervision of Dance Movement Psychotherapy” edited by Helen Payne (2008). In 2018, two of my books were published in Greek language. An autobiographical psychological novel (about accessing and healing fragmented pieces of the Self) and a scientific guide to Dance Therapy, the first in Greek. Currently both books are out of print but are available in digital format on my website www.sofosoma.gr.
I believe that psychological theories developed in the 20th century belong to an old scientific paradigm and that psychological trauma work which does not include the spiritual element of human existence is incomplete, like a chair missing a leg. I consider freedom and friendship to be the most precious possessions a human being can have and I am inherently optimistic and communicative as a person. Since 2020 I have been living away from the city, near the mountains and the sea, growing my own food and seeking to be surprised by the wonders of Nature every day.
Anastasia Nikolitsa
Body-oriented Movement Psychotherapist, CRM® & DBR® Practitioner,
Flower Essence Practitioner, Author
info@sofosoma.gr, www.sofosoma.gr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasia-nikolitsa/, Τel: +30 6979552193