Nassos Theodor

I have availability for both online and face-to-face sessions throughout the week, including evenings, and on Saturdays by arrangement. I do not see clients on Mondays. 

Hello, I’m Nassos Theodor (he/they). 

I offer LGBTQ+ affirming, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive counselling and psychotherapy for adults, face-to-face in Exeter, UK, and online wherever you are.

Experience

Before training as a therapist, I spent over a decade in Academia, studying and teaching drama and critical theory, and another decade making a living as an author of fiction and a game designer. I hold a Master’s Degree in Religion from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Media and Cultural Studies from SOAS. I am intimately familiar with both the pressures and joys of intellectual and creative pursuits.

Now in my 40s, I bring to the work my lived experience as an immigrant, a transmasculine person, and a passionate advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. I have been on my own journey of recovery from different forms of trauma and have worked extensively with people facing similar challenges. I am acutely aware of the fact that people can sit at the intersections of multiple forms of oppression and marginalisation at once. We are social beings inhabiting a world facing climate collapse and increasing threats to freedom. In my experience, issues of power and cultural complexity will always, in some form, find their way into the counselling room. I do not shy away from how our social and political worlds affect mental health, while I also hold firmly onto our personal responsibility and power to heal.

Qualifications

• Advanced Diploma in Integrative Counselling (Level 5, Iron Mill College & Connexus Institute)
• Certificate in Counselling (Iron Mill College) 
• Further training & CPD includes:
• LGBTQ+ affirming therapy
• Internal Family Systems
• Working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse
• Sand tray therapy and other creative interventions
• Working with dreams
• Domestic Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence
• Working with neurodivergence
• Kink & BDSM awareness
• Gender, Sexuality, and Relationship Diversity (polyamory, relationship anarchism, ethical non-monogamy etc.)

How I work

I work with people navigating a wide range of experiences, from trauma, questioning sexuality or gender identity, to anxiety, relationships, and life transitions. My approach is integrative, which means I draw on multiple therapeutic modalities — including person-centred, existentialism, psychodynamic, and Internal Family Systems — and adapt them to suit your individual needs. As a therapist, I am not going to give you advice or tell you what to do. Instead, my focus is on creating a safe, welcoming, non-judgemental space where I will do my best to be present with you and to walk alongside you as you move towards greater awareness of who you are, what has led you to this moment, and where you want to go from here.

Who I work with

Among the diversity of people that have trusted me with their stories are trans people, immigrants, academics, artists, survivors of childhood trauma, and more. I find this work immensely rewarding, in part because I bring both professional training and lived experience to this practice. I am trans-healthcare informed, sex-positive, kink-aware, and versed in the worlds of polyamory, relationship anarchism, ethical non-monogamy, etc.

Many of us hold more than one of these experiences at once — a queer academic, a trans immigrant, an artist processing childhood trauma. You don't need to fit neatly into one category — or in any category at all — for us to work together in a way that makes sense to you.

I offer an initial 30’ consultation online free of charge. There is no pressure and no commitment required after this first meeting. I firmly believe that one of the most healing elements of therapy is the therapeutic relationship itself. This is an opportunity for us to meet, talk about what's brought you to therapy, and explore whether we're a good fit.