International Women’s Day 2022
Our female led team are an inspiration across the board. Today we have chosen to profile Dimitra Theodoropoulou, Kids Inspire’s Assistant Clinical Director (Clinical Impact), Clinical Supervisor and Psychotherapist. This is her story about how as a full-time professional and part-time academic, she is breaking the bias
Creative therapeutic modalities are often perceived as less evidence-based approaches. Yet, having delivered Art Therapy at Kids Inspire for eight-years, and appointed to measure Clinical Impact in the past four-years, Dimitra has developed a passion for evidencing delivery…
What keeps me inspired working for Kids Inspire is how the charity embraces the healing possibilities of all the Creative Arts Therapies in supporting children who struggle with their mental health or who have been impacted by trauma. However, Creative therapeutic modalities are often perceived as less evidence-based approaches -in comparison to CBT and IAPT model- and are often misunderstood even amongst professionals. My role as Assistant Clinical Director for Clinical Impact involves supporting the team to capture the achieved outcomes and effectively report them to our commissioners. It is not always without challenges that we deliver these therapies within funding and time limitations. I have developed a passion on combining ‘numbers with narratives’, hard data illustrated with service users’ stories to demonstrate what we achieve and how. It is very rewarding to create bridges between commissioning and service delivery ensuring that we continue offering Creative Arts Therapies to the children and the families we support.
The Professional and the Academic
Researching for a PhD in Health Social Care, Dimitra told us why she chose to continue working full-time alongside part-time research
When my role at Kids Inspire developed from practitioner to supervisor and after training as an Integrative Arts Clinical Supervisor, I had the opportunity to supervise and reflect together with Art Therapists, Drama Therapists, Play therapists and Music Therapists on how the changes for their clients were often difficult to capture in words. When we could think about the reasons why the child had been referred for therapy and what our assessment process had indicated as therapy aims, we were able to unpick together all the changes in the creative process of the sessions and how these were translated into changes in the child’s everyday life at home and at school.
I was so fascinated by this process that I decided to bridge my Psychology and Art Psychotherapy qualifications with a PhD in Health Social Care with a focus on evaluation, monitoring and evidence-based practice that enabled me to further develop my role in clinical impact. Not wanting to put a pause on my role at Kids Inspire, I decided to pursue a Professional Doctorate pathway which enables me to work full time while doing my research part-time, allowing me to be both a professional and an academic.
My research is titled ‘Demystifying Art Therapy: using Grounded Theory methodology to make the tacit tangible’. I am currently interviewing Art Therapists who work for Kids Inspire having the space to think together deeply about the mechanisms of change that take place when they support a child’s emotional
wellbeing through Art Therapy. This process might help us find better words and a stronger voice when we need to explain to children, their parents, their teachers or other professionals who are wondering how Art Therapy is going to help.
I believe that the model of how Art Therapy is applied at Kids Inspire is worth capturing and that my research findings could help further understanding on how Arts Therapists can be supported to not only adapt but honour their practice in environments with ‘evidence-based practice’ pressures in the UK and beyond. I presented my preliminary thinking in the European Federation of Art Therapy Conference in May 2021 and I look forward to more presentations in the future; with gratitude to my team and colleagues at Kids Inspire.
Our Team
Find out more about the team that makes our work possible.
Our Impact
Some of the ways we have made an impact.
Therapy
One size of therapy does not fit all.