What people say
I can't share client feedback — that's the nature of the work.
But I can share what colleagues and professional contacts
have said about working with me.
About Yolande Anastasi
Yolande is a trauma and attachment-informed drama therapist supporting adults and adolescents. She offers calm, professional care in person across Southeast London and online throughout the UK.
About Yolande
Decades of care, dedicated to you.
How I got here
My background was in drama. But I found, early on, that performance could be a competitive, unforgiving world — one where you had to fight for your place.
What stayed with me wasn't the stage. It was a moment someone tried to describe snow to a person who had never seen it. Words weren't enough. You needed to feel it on your tongue, draw it or move through it. That gap, between what we know and what we can say, is where I've spent my career.
I trained in counselling first, then completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Drama Therapy at Roehampton University. When I did, everything clicked. The body. The image. The story. The relationship. It all made sense together.
Since 1999, I've worked across psychiatric units, domestic violence services, schools and children's charities. For fifteen years, I worked at Kids' Company in Southeast London. This was a formative experience that shaped how I think about people, community and what it means to show up consistently for someone. I've taught on MA programmes, run workshops from Dorset to Athens, and spent the last two decades deepening my own practice in therapy, supervision, CPD and life.
Qualifications & Registration
- Postgraduate Diploma in Drama Therapy
Roehampton University - Counselling Diploma
CPCAB (Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body) - Diploma in Creative Approaches to Supervision
- HCPC Registered — Registration No. AS0627
Health and Care Professions Council - Member, BADth
British Association of Drama Therapists
You can verify my registration on the HCPC website using my full name or registration number.
Outside the room
I believe that therapists need to know how to keep themselves well. Sitting with people's pain, week after week and year after year, requires its own kind of nourishment.
Mine comes from music. I'm part of a songwriting group and do open mics. I have a long-standing practice in movement, fitness and physical wellbeing. I also have a practice in clowning, which is not what you might expect: in its purest form, the clown is a deeply vulnerable figure. That vulnerability, I've found, is something to get comfortable with, not away from.
I'm of mixed Greek Cypriot and Irish heritage. I bring a lived understanding of diversity, cultural difference, and the complexity of identity. I work with people from all backgrounds and I actively welcome those from communities that have historically been underserved by therapy.
I'm also a queer-informed practitioner, which means, I bring awareness and sensitivity to questions of sexuality, gender and identity, whether or not they're the reason you've come.
Ready to say hello?
The first step is just a conversation.