Biography

I was born in a small island called Cyprus in 1983 and lived there until I was 18 and graduated from High School. I served the Cypriot Army Forces for 2 years (2001-03) and then went to Athens in Greece where I completed my BSc in Psychology at the Pantion University of Social and Political Sciences (2003-07). During this period I did a placement at the “Agia Sofia” Children Psychiatric Hospital and my dissertation was focused on breast cancer patients’ Health-Related Quality of Life. I obtained an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey (2007-08) with my dissertation focused on management of food in families with children aged 5-6, supervised by Prof Jane Ogden. Subsequently I started my PhD in Health Psychology investigating how prostate cancer survivors manage and make sense of dietary behaviour changes and their impact on and possible associations with their Quality of Life using both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

At the same time I am also training to be an HPC-accredited Health Psychologist (Stage 2 route) and for this purpose I did a placement at the Queen Elizabeth Foundation for Disabled People in Leatherhead (2010) where I designed, conducted and evaluated a Men’s Health Group. For the PG Certificate in Health Psychology Practice I have also attended courses on Ethics and Professional Competence and Teaching.

In 2012 I did an internship at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, working at the Management of Substance Abuse Unit contributing to the Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (supervised by Dr Alexandra Fleischmann). Further training includes the “Athena Test” for Learning Disabilities Certificate (University of Athens, 2006), a Counselling Skills Workshop (City University, 2006), a CPD Course on Paediatric Neuropsychology (UCL, 2010), a General Certificate in Psychotraumatology (European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, 2011), and two Fellowships (2009 and 2012) to attend the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) course on “Quality of Life, Symptom Research and Patient Reported Outcomes (PROBE) in Cancer Clinical Trials” in Brussels. In 2013 I was awarded a Fellowship from the British Psychological Society (BPS) to conduct a study visit at the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria to work on computerized assessment of Patient-reported Outcomes (PRO) including Health-related Quality of Life. Finally I am a newly elected Cyprus national representative in the Management Committee (MC) of the European COST Action “Pain Assessment in Patients with Impaired Cognition, especially Dementia”.

PhD Supervisor: Dr Monique Raats

Research Interests

Behaviour Change

Health Behaviour Theories

Psychooncology

Health-Related Quality of Life and Patient-reported outcomes assessment

Doctor-patient communication in primary care consultations

Behavioural indicators of health policies and interventions

I am a member of the Health Research Group.

Publications

Kassianos, A., Raats, M. and Gage, H. (2012, December). Association between Health-Related Quality of Life and dietary changes among cancer patients: a systematic review. Poster presentation at the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine Annual Conference, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Kassianos, A., Raats, M., Rayman, M. and Gage, H. (2012, August). Information needs and information-seeking behaviour among prostate cancer patients. Poster presentation at the 26th Annual European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.

Kassianos, A., Raats, M., Rayman, M. and Gage, H. (2011, October) Information needs and information-seeking behaviour among prostate cancer patients. Oral presentation at the Prostate Cancer Charity National Research Conference “From laboratory to life: progress in prostate cancer”, London, United Kingdom.

Teaching

Between 2009 and 2012 I had several teaching and marking duties at the Department of Psychology, University of Surrey marking undergraduate students’ essays, posters and lab reports on various modules (Research Methods-Cognitive, Social Psychology, Bio-bases of Psychology) and serving as a Teaching Assistant on Research Methods modules.

As part of the Stage 2 in Health Psychology training I attended a course in Teaching and Training after which I became an Associate Member of the Higher Education Academy.

Affiliations

Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society

Member of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) and of the EHPS-UN Committee

Member of the Organizing Committee of the 2012 University of Surrey Postgraduate Research Conference

Other interests

In my spare time I enjoy listening to music, attending concerts, watching good movies, reading anything from literature to newspapers and (of course!) watching football!

Please feel free to contact me using my contact details above.