Dr Miltos Hadjiosif

• Qualifications:MA Hons (Edin); MSc (Edin); PsychD; CPsychol; HCPC Reg; FHEA
• Position:Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
• Department:HAS - Health and Social Sciences
• Telephone:+4411732 87009
• Email:Miltos.Hadjiosif@uwe.ac.uk

About me

I studied for an MA (Hons) Psychology and an MSc Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, where the seeds for my interdisciplinary approach to psychotherapy were planted.  I taught statistics to undergraduates at the University of Edinburgh, got heavily involved in student radio, and worked in the music industry for several years, before undertaking a Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic & Counselling Psychology at the University of Surrey, on a full scholarship from the A.S. Onassis Foundation. 

I am a Chartered Psychologist, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an HCPC Registered Counselling Psychologist. I am trained in humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural (CBT), dialectical-behavioural (DBT), narrative, EMDR, and multi-systemic (MST) models of therapy. I have integrated these models via an appreciation of intersubjectivity and the psycho-social situatedness of therapeutic practices, while recognising that this is an ongoing and fluid process.   

My work has a community and relational focus. I would like to see Psychology impact society (and vice versa) in more nuanced ways than at present. I aim for this through public engagement as I am involved in various activities that aim to 'give psychology away' and make it available for public scrutiny. I welcome critical interrogation of its practices and resist subjugation of indigenous knowledges and intuitive ways of being in the world. I co-founded the Community Psychology Festival (2014) and led as Festival Organiser for the Bristol Festival (2017) and the upcoming (2023) Edinburgh Festival. I sat on the BPS Community Psychology Section Committee for 7 years and the DCoP Committee as Training Lead for 1. I believe that counselling psychology has much to gain from closer alignment with community psychology and developments in the relational and depth psychotherapies; as such I advocate for protecting the reflexive components of doctoral training which are currently under threat.   

At UWE I supervise research and teach on our highly regarded Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. I also lead 'Principles of Counselling & Psychotherapy', a final year undergraduate Module I designed to demonstrate the value of relational teaching and embodied learning. I lead an Autoethnography network within UWE as I suspect that this orientation to scholarship holds enormous potential for personal development that is equally grounded in self-reflection and critical awareness of context. I have been nominated for the 'Outstanding Teaching Award' several times and won the BPS Division of Counselling Psychology 'Best Supervisor/Mentor' Award (2019). I consider UWEVision and the graduation parties I have co-organised with our students as significant achievements and am proud to contribute to UWE Psychology's vibrant social environment.  

Area of expertise

In the past, I conducted experimental and qualitative research and developed my interests in narrative and discourse. I turned to Autoethnography and Creative-Relational inquiry due to my disillusionment with publication practices and psychology's obsession with facts, method, and outcome. I am supervising undergraduate and doctoral research using Autoethnography and work closely with my students and colleagues as we navigate together this exciting methodological approach to deliver 'research with feeling' that speaks to the audiences it is intended for.

I combine counselling and community psychology in order to understand therapeutic aspects of various cultural activities and open up spaces for the de-professionalisation of healing practices.  Within this remit, I have researched how psychotherapy is discursively constructed as expert knowledge and the narrative construction of the 'wounded healer' archetype. I am currently interested in perspectives that bring 'soul' to community development and wonder what must be done to enable a more soulful and sustainable academia.

I co-edited a special edition of the Counselling Psychology Review (with Dr May Karlsen) which collected stories of psychotherapists' development in an attempt to mitigate against prospective trainees' presumptions regarding the kind of experience(s) and skills they need in order to get on professional training courses. I draw on shamanic and post-colonial perspectives in my research and am keen to develop collaborations striving towards critical pedagogy, social justice, and relational teaching. Critical community psychology and relational psychoanalysis are two of my favourite tools in the de-medicalisation of suffering as they feature prominently in my teaching, life, and scholarship. I also hold my own experiences of being a carer and a service user near when talking about mental health. 

I supervise research that speaks to the above areas and am open to PhD supervision enquiries. Some of the doctorate projects I have supervised to completion include:

Gaining prescription rights: A qualitative survey mapping the views of UK counselling and clinical psychologists.

A phenomenological inquiry into therapeutic aspects of tabletop roleplaying games.

Negotiating an alcoholic identity within the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve-Step recovery model: A Narrative Inquiry

The experience of Wiccan counsellors: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.

Publications

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