Psychology

The research activity of the Psychology Division spans a broad range of topics that focus on overall well-being of individuals and groups of individuals; socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically across diverse cultural backgrounds.

Research Topics

Social and Emotional Competencies and Academic Success, EQ& IQ, Holistic Well-Being in Learning Environments, Virtual Learning, Diversity of Culture, Music Therapy and Refugee Children and Adolescents in Greece, Political Psychology, Relationship of Personality Characteristics, Social Attitudes, Health Literacy, Healthy Psychology, Community Psychology, Applied Linguistics, Volunteerism, General Public Health, Health Information, Graffiti Writing, Dynamics of Psychotherapy, Forensic Psychology and the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Team

Maria Agorastou

Maria AgorastouMaria Agorastou holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of New Hampshire and is a certified applied behavior analyst. She has extensive experience working in public schools in New Hampshire in applied research projects on inclusion, school climate and drop-out prevention, Response to Intervention (RTI), cognitive behavioral and existential therapy, as well as mindfulness and anxiety disorders. She is currently an advisor to the Network of Special Schools and a regular guest lecturer at schools and municipalities across Greece on the topics of behavioral analysis, inclusion, and teacher training. She is an adjunct faculty member for Hellenic American University’s undergraduate and graduate psychology programs, teaching courses in cognitive behavioral therapy, educational psychology, learning and behavior as well as clinical and developmental linguistics and disability and inclusion in the MAAL and BAELL programs. She also serves as a clinical supervisor to graduate students. Currently, she is the Coordinator of Counseling Center.

Eri Ioannidou

Erato-Maria Ioannidou (Eri) is a forensic psychologist with a degree from the Psychology Department of the University of Crete and an M.Sc. in Forensic Psychology from Maastricht University. She is also a life coach with a diploma in Life Coaching from the Athens Coaching Institute. Ms. Ioannidou has conducted research on issues related to correctional officers’ stress, on students’ attitudes and perceptions towards corruption and on psychopathy. Her latest main research interest has been police officers’ mental resilience. Her research has been conducted in collaboration with University departments, the Ministry of Justice as well as the Centre for Penal and Criminological Research. She has contributed to the creation of the first Hellenic Criminology dictionary and has also published several chapters in collective volumes. She has worked at the General Clinic “Asklipios” in Rethymno, the Special Detention Juvenile Center of Avlona, the Greek Official Centre for Resettlement of Ex-prisoners “Epanodos” and the Cyber Crime Division of the Hellenic Police. She also collaborates with the Center of Research on Crime. Her main work duties have included counseling of socially vulnerable groups, supervision of educational programs for underage and adult offenders, risk and recidivism assessment, prejudicial preparation of minors who have been victims of sexual abuse (domestic or not) and assessment of a minor’s competence to testify. Ms. Ioannidou is an adjunct faculty member of the BSPSY Program at the Hellenic American University.

Barbara Kondilis

Barbara Kondilis began her professional career working in the mental health field in the mid 1990’s with individuals, groups, and families, and is a clinical social worker licensed in Massachusetts, USA. Her background allowed her to work in settings such as hospitals, schools, health clinics, a health maintenance organization and US federal and state institutions in the areas of public health, mental health, research, and education/training. As a public health professional, she worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, coordinated a state-wide diabetes quality improvement initiative for the State of Rhode Island, and spearheaded several health communication initiatives. Additionally, she served as the Coordinator of the Career Office while at the Boston University School of Social Work, and the Coordinator of Student Affairs for over six years at Hellenic American College. Her professional interests include health education, communication, quality improvement, community and individual empowerment, policy, diversity awareness, financial psychology, volunteerism and non-governmental organization management. She has collaborated and co-authored several research articles, was a recipient of an EU Marie Curie Reintegration Grant, and member of a European team for the Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) project which received the 2012 European Health Award from the European Health Forum Gastein. Ms. Kondilis is currently completing her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, and already holds a Master’s of Public Health and a Master’s of Social Work from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Kondilis is an adjunct faculty member for the BSPSY Program at the Hellenic American University.

George Lagios

lagios researchDr. George Lagios holds a Master’s degree (MSc) in Mental Health Counseling from Hellenic American University (Athens campus). In 2022 he got his PhD in Sexology from the International Umiversity of Bircham and has certifications with honors in Sex Addictions, Sexual Abuse and in Psychosexual Therapy.

George is the author of two Best Sellers: Would you choose yourself as your parent?, published in 2019 and Inside Your Mind”, which was published in 2021. He frequently writes on psychological topics which are published in the press and on the internet, and he has been given the “Academic Achievement Award” (2020) from Hellenic American University. He is also a public speaker and organizes webinars on topics such as parental responsibility, financial stress, the importance of sharing, and sex disorders.

He is currently in private practice, working psychotherapeutically with adults. He also as an active humanitarian action as the ex-president and co-founder of “moirazomai.gr”, as a scientific associate of “Diadrasis”, and as an advocate for gender equality, as well as for the prevention and management of violence against women.

Eleftheria Moustaka

Eleftheria Moustaka is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist working as an Associate in the Bariatric Department of the Laparoscopic Unit at Ippokrateio Hospital in Athens. She holds a Bachelor degree in Psychology from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, Greece and an M.Sc. degree with Distinction from Swansea University in Wales She has been awarded a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. She is a Scientific Associate for iatronet.gr, psychologynow.gr and mednutrition.gr and a member of the Greek Association of Clinical Psychologists. She is a certified Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and has received her postgraduate Certificates in Clinical Psychopathology, Health Psychology, Parental Counseling and Psychological Approaches to Obesity. She has worked extensively with people suffering from anxiety and depressive disorders in the National Health System of Wales. Ms. Moustaka has taught courses in areas such as cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, clinical assessment instruments, clinical psychopathology, and health psychology. She works in private practice with adolescents and adults suffering from psychiatric disorders. She conducts various psychoeducational groups on anger and anxiety management in large companies. She is continuing her postgraduate training in Clinical Hypnosis. She is an adjunct faculty member and teaches in the BSPSY and MSPSY Programs.

Anna Nikolaou

Anna Nikolaou is a sociologist with extensive research experience. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.A. in Sociological Research from the University of Essex and a B.A. in Sociology from the American College of Greece. Her research interests include cross-border social, economic and cultural relationships, collective memory and identity, political violence and cultural trauma. She has worked as a Research Assistant and Junior Researcher at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) in Athens. As an external collaborator of the National Centre for Social Research and other academic institutions, she has participated in several research projects addressing diverse sociological topics and theories, produced and published research. She has a keen interest in sociological research and methodology. A significant part of her research has dealt with the methodological deficiencies in measuring child poverty. Dr. Nikolaou is an adjunct faculty member and teaches for the BSPSY and MSPSY Programs at the Hellenic American University.

Stamatina Stathopoulou

Stamatina Stathopoulou serves as the Coordinator of the University’s undergraduate Politis program. Since 2010, she is an adjunct faculty member and teaches in the BSPSY and MSPSY Programs. She graduated from the American College of Greece with a B.A. in Psychology, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA, with an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, and from Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, USA, with a M.Sc. in Counseling Psychology and a specialization in Couples and Family Therapy. She worked as a postdoc researcher at the Institute of Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania and at Drexel University, Philadelphia. She has published her research material in books and peer-reviewed journals and has presented at conferences in the USA and Greece. She has taught as a graduate teaching associate at the University of Tennessee and as an adjunct faculty member at Chestnut Hill College and at the American College of Greece, as well as at several centers of counseling psychology in Athens. She has been trained in Systemic Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral and Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy. She is member of the American Psychological Association, of the International Marriage and Family Therapy Association, of the Association of Study and Prevention of Sexual Abuse, of the Greek Psychological Association and of the International Society of Political Psychology. Her research interests include attentional deficits, disability and employment, parental abuse, substance abuse in families, volunteerism, psychology and politics and ecopsychology.

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