After all, we are nothing more than a bunch of light

that occasionally goes dark

Despina Ploussiou is a psychοtherapist specializing in Trauma Therapy as well as in Individual, Family and Couple Therapy.
She is the co-founder of  the mental health institute Trauma2Therapy.
She has obtained her master’s degree from the University of Hofstra in New York and she has completed her clinical AAMFT status with hypnotherapist Dr Daniel Aaraoz, PhD.

Her therapeutic approach to the treatment of trauma (PTSD and C-PTSD) includes innovative modalities such as IFS therapy, Level 3 trained (Internal Family Systems), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Kalffian Sand play Therapy (for adults), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), psychodrama, mindfulness techniques, Milton Erickson’s Clinical Hypnosis as well as radical neuroscience-based methods, including Polyvagal Theory.

She has completed the five year theoretical and clinical training program in Systemic Family Constellations of the Bert Hellinger Institute and is a certified Constellations Facilitator.

She has worked as a family therapist in mental health institutions, kindergartens, elementary and high schools in New York and Athens, and as a psychotherapist and mental health supervisor at the Center for the support of abused women of the Archdiocese of New York and at the HANAC child and family psychosocial support program of the Child Protective Services (ACS) program for the City of New York.

She has collaborated with various research projects, publishing agencies, public and private institutions, has participated as a speaker in conferences and workshops in Greece and the United States.

She is responsible for the Greek translation of the book “Transcending Trauma – Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems Therapy” (publishing company 24 grammata), by neuroscientist Frank G. Anderson, MD. Despina is also currently supervising the Greek translation of the IFS terms for the developer of the theory-Dr. Richard Schwartz’s book “No Bad Parts” (publishing company Papasotiriou).

Since 2004 she works privately in her office in Voula, Attica, offering her services to adults and adolescents. She also coordinates self-awareness and parenting groups in collaboration with private and public institutions in Greece.

TRAUMA THERAPY

Rewrite your story.  Rebuild your life.

Trauma Revisited

“Childhood abuse and neglect, adulthood assault, poverty, and discrimination have devastating personal consequences, yet medicalizing subsequent distress permits a level of denial and distancing that absolves those in power of responsibility for addressing injustice and instituting legislative change.” 

– Eleanor Longden et al.

Over 50% of people who try to access mental health services have experienced trauma, defined by The American Psychological Association (APA) as “a person’s emotional response to an extremely negative (disturbing) event.”

Despite the indisputable link between trauma and poor mental well being, our current mental health system pays little attention to healing trauma. Our system has emphasized labels, diagnoses, biology—not understanding what happened to us and the understandable impact it has on us.

When you’ve experienced trauma, it can be excruciating. You may feel at a loss as to how to process what you’ve been through or how you can even start to heal. You just want to experience a sense of safety again. But the impact of trauma can cut deep.

Even if you feel lost, there’s hope and a variety of trauma treatment modalities that can help you.

In the last several years, the way we understand Trauma, its physical and psychological consequences and how to treat it, has evolved tremendously.

When our nervous system gets flooded, cognition is knocked offline, cognitive behavioral approaches, psycho-education, and insight-based techniques become ineffective, or even counterproductive.

Efficient Trauma work integrates developmental, neurobiological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment.

Find out more

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Trauma Therapy
Individual Therapy
Anger Management
Separation, Divorce
Personal growth
self-compassion, & self esteem

Family Therapy
Parenting
Couple Therapy
Families in Transition
Domestic violence
Abuse

Panic Attacks
Group Therapy
Phobias
Adolescents
Anxiety & depression
Sexuality & sexual identity
Stress management

Bereavement & grief
Midlife relationships
Retirement
Aging

Jungian Sandplay Therapy
(For adults)


Jungian Sandplay Therapy
(For adults)

“Often the hands will solve a mystery which the mind has vainly struggled to solve.”
Carl Jung

Sandplay therapy was founded by Swiss therapist Dora M. Kalff, (1904-1990). Kalff based her theory on Jung’s principles of psychology and the work of the famous child psychiatrist Margaret Lowenfeld. Sandplay therapy is a nonverbal, therapeutic intervention that uses a box of sand, miniatures, symbols, and sometimes water, materials which the client interacts with within a free and safe space and begins to create scenes of worlds that reflect his subconscious inner map, “deep-soul” emotions and struggles. Through this symbolic language, the unconscious communicates with the external reality in the here and now in a nonverbal way. This form of therapy uses tray as the safe physical framework where Spirit and body meet. The symbolic miniatures operate as great archetypal tools of non-verbal communication in a non-cognitive processing.

Sand therapy is often used with those who have suffered some form of trauma, neglect or abuse. Sandplay is suitable for young children, who often can’t express their inner feelings with words, it’s also a technique that is useful for teens and of course adults who have difficulty expressing themselves verbally, they may have suffered some form of severe trauma, experiencing relationship issues, or for those who are interested in deeper exploration of the psyche for personal development purposes.