Persephone Sextou (PhD)
Professor in Applied Theatre for Health & Wellbeing, Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom. Visiting Professor at the UNSW Sydney, Australia.
Leading expert in Applied Theatre for Health & Wellbeing with a Creative Health agenda aiming at social and cultural benefits. Highly experienced academic, director of research centres, author and consultant with international repute.
Pioneer of a bedside theatre model in children's hospitals as a creative, mixed-media research methodology using acting, storytelling, puppetry, interactive digital apps and animation films. Her model evidences the positive role of applied theatre on children and young people's experience of hospitalisation at NHS settings in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Her books provide tools for actors, puppeteers, artists-in-residence, mental health and paediatric nurses, play specialists and hospital teachers to understand sick children's worlds, support their wellbeing, communicate with children ethically, assess and manage their pain better, reduce perioperative anxiety and prepare a smooth transition from hospital back to normality.
Education
2004 Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Drama and Theatre Education, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
1992 Master of Arts (MA) in Contemporary Theatre Practice, Lancaster University, Theatre Studies Department, U.K. Major in Theatre-in-Education
1991 BA (Hons) with a Teaching Qualification, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Ioannina, Greece. First class.
Authorship
Author of 5 research-evidenced monographs (English x 2) and (Greek x 3) and 50+ peer-reviewed publications, cited in 9 languages.
Monographs in English:
Applied Theatre in Paediatrics. Children, Stories and Synergies of Emotions (2023). Publisher: Routledge.
Theatre for Children in Hospital. The Gift of Compassion (2016). Publisher: Intellect U.K.
For more, click 'books' and 'journal articles' on the menu.
Consultancy
LERIO Consulting Co-Director. Expert Advisor for academics, early-career researchers, artists, healthcareteams and arts organisations. View at: https://www.lerioconsulting.co.uk/about-us.php areer