Diamando Rovania, MSc
Counselling Psychologist
My name is Diamando Rovania. I’m a Registered Counselling Psychologist with Reg number 1050. I completed my bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Cyprus. Part of my journey there consisted of becoming interested and occupied with investigating and understanding the meaning of “posttraumatic growth” and “human resilience”.
Wishing to acquire more depth into my understanding of these terms and how they can be applied in everyday life, and my wish to “see” how each person is shaped through their unique story, I chose to fulfill my specialization in Counseling Psychology.
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Hence, I began and completed my specialization at the University of Nicosia and my clinical practicum experience. There, I cooperated therapeutically with a population classified on a wide age range from childhood to old age. During this time, I was carried away by the investigative, in-depth, and long-term therapy, which evolved into a main feature of my professional identity as a psychologist.
Philosophy
A person’s everyday smile hides much more than another person’s glance at them allows their mind to imagine. Acknowledging the difficulty and perhaps
the fear of revealing deeply hidden parts to a psychologist – a previously unknown person – as a psychologist, I focus on helping the individual feel comfort, safety, understanding, and acceptance as a first step in therapy.
Once these features are established in the therapeutic relationship, I use an investigative, in-depth approach to understand and process the individual’s
requirements and needs from therapy. This approach usually lasts long-term. Of course, this is something that I discuss with the person in therapy and agree upon together. At the same time, considering everyone’s uniqueness, I alternate between therapeutic tools to allow the person to understand themselves and their feelings more, and evolve in the way they desire.
Experience
During my clinical practicum experience, I cooperated therapeutically with adults in a one-to-one setting on matters such as forming one’s identity, the
sense of oneself, and improving one’s relationship with the self. Other subjects consisted of facing and discussing difficulties that may arise in interpersonal relationships on a personal level or in the work environment. Similar subjects involved complications in a romantic relationship and maintaining a healthy relationship, with or without the existence of children. With each case, we worked therapeutically on a long-term and in-depth level, and occasionally, drew connections between the present and the past. These connections contributed to an increased awareness on behalf of the person in therapy around the ways they formed themselves through their experiences.
Moreover, I cooperated therapeutically on an individual, short-term level with children and teenagers. Together, we dealt with matters such as difficulties in interpersonal relationships, the experience of human loss, school anxiety, and thoughts arising during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. With each case, I maintained a cooperative and consulting relationship with the parents. Regarding therapeutic tools, we used art, matched colors and shapes to emotions and thoughts, and drew connections between feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
In addition, I cooperated therapeutically on a group level with people in the third and fourth age groups on existential matters and physical and emotional
concerns arising at this age. Therapeutic work in this setting consisted of discussing pleasant and unpleasant memories, as well as reviving sensory habits that, through the years, contributed as main features of the individual’s
sense of self (e.g., the use of art, music, and getting in touch with natural elements), among others. Furthermore, I also cooperated therapeutically on a group level with people with disabilities, with whom we focused on understanding and processing together their personal difficulties and emotional needs. Therapeutic tools that I used involved regularly identifying, responding and processing unpleasant emotions and thoughts, as well as utilizing symbolisms that arose in conversations, among others. Finally, I co- facilitated and co-founded a series of psychoeducational, experiential workshops about mental health in the work environment and promoting healthier ways of communicating with others in various interpersonal relationships.
At present, I have my therapy office at The Safe Place Project, while I also work as a psychologist at the Association for the Prevention and Handling of
Violence in the Family (SPAVO).
