Anastassis Spiliadis is a psychotherapist and psychologist based in London & Athens, currently working in private practice and offering consultation to public sector services. He has worked for many years with people of all ages affected by eating disorders, gender-related distress, relationship challenges and often enduring mental health difficulties.

 

Anastassis worked in the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at The Tavistock Clinic as a clinician and trainer between 2015 and 2019 where he also established and led a Family Therapy Clinic. There he witnessed and reported unethical clinical practices alongside some thoughtful work by other therapists. He disagreed openly with the service’s treatment model and in 2017 coined the term Gender Exploratory Therapy aiming to develop a therapeutic approach away from conversion and affirmative practices. Anastassis also testified as a key witness during the Appleby v Tavistock employment tribunal, where we provided evidence on how some safeguarding processes were blocked by senior executives.

 

Anastassis continues to work with gender-related distress alongside his generic practice and supervises and trains clinicians and University students from different modalities.

 

He is particularly interested in the development and evaluation of treatment approaches for eating disorders, gender-related distress and co-occurring difficulties holding on to a family-focused and developmental lens. 

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Anastassis appeared on the Transparency podcast in September 2023.