Dr. Adriana Giotta is an Italian Clinical Psychologist, registered with HCPC (Health Care Profession Council) and BPS (British Psychological Society), the latter as a Chartered Clinical Psychologist (CPsychol), a registered Clinical Supervisor (RAPPS) and an Associate Fellow (AFBPsS). She is also a Certified Schema Therapist (ISST) and an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing practitioner (EMDR) and has a Ph.D. in Psychoanalytic Studies in the areas of femininity, gender role behaviour, power dynamics and identity.

Peak Performance/C-Suite Coaching

Dr. Adriana is in the unique position of having worked in a corporate environment and trained in depth psychological modalities which allow her to impart her own experience and unique perspective on her c-suite clients. Often those in positions of power are striving to feel less lonely in large part due to being surrounded by others who may simply agree (the so called “echo chamber”), so Adriana’s clients find her approach refreshing and ground breaking.

Her approach is systematic, holistic and in-depth and focuses on strengthening the individual from within. The service she offers may vary from other traditional C-Suite and Board Members coaching insofar as it focuses on the individual’s inner world and on all levels of existence, on the overall person’s attitude but also on the most subtle and personal nuances.

Psychological Consultations

As a pluralist, Dr. Adriana drawing on a wide range of approaches to the psyche, having trained for over two decades in Depth Psychological, Psychodynamic, Psychoanalytic, Relational, Integrative, 3rd Wave Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Attachment, Systemic, Somatosensory, Sensorimotor and Trauma Theories. She roots her work in the quality of the therapeutic/coaching relationship and the phenomenology of human beings (their embodied lived experiences) and she integrates Eastern and Western philosophies, working on all levels of existence, including the body, breath, intellect, mind, memory, emotions, transpersonal, sociocultural dimensions and the structure of the self.

Dr. Giotta provides clinical consultations, psychotherapy for individuals, couples and families, professional training and talks. For the corporate world, she provides in-depth executive coaching, retreats and workshops to C-Suites and heads of corporations. She specialises in empowerment, self-actualisation, authenticity, self-expression, the individuation process, peak performance, life and wellness coaching, power dynamics, relationships, chronic stress, burnout, anxiety, depression, femininity, gender role behaviour, body image discontent, eating and feeding challenges and personality disorders.

Dr. Giotta has served on several committees, including the Singapore Psychological Society Research Committee and the ISST Committee for Environmental Awareness and Action, and has been supporting multi-ethnic and multi-cultural people from all walks of life, having worked internationally in various settings including hospitals, day centres, universities, private practices and the corporate world. She directed a leading clinic in Singapore and set up a training centre to upskill the clinical population throughout the APAC region with the provision of state-of-the-art and pioneering Continued Professional Development (CPD), which was subsequently integrated within Elephant Therapy & Training, an organisation she founded to continue her endeavours in support of the larger population and clinicians.

Qualifications

PhD, Depth Psychology – University of Essex, UK – Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies. See link to thesis.

Masters, Clinical Psychology – G. Marconi University, Italy

Bachelors, Psychology –  La Sapienza University, Italy

HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologist (Reg: PYL32977), RAPPS Registered Clinical Supervisor, BPS Chartered Clinical Psychologist & Associate Fellow (AFBPsS), Certified Schema Therapist (ISST), EuroPsy, SRP, SPS Full Member

PhD

Title

Clinical, cultural and personal dimensions of fashion modelling as a basis for phenomenological and depth psychological exploration of femininity in Western societies

Abstract

This study investigates the lived experiences of female international fashion models, a shortcoming within extant literature. An interdisciplinary, pluralistic approach was embraced. Using clinical vignettes, an autoethnographic account and an interpretative phenomenological analysis of qualitative interviews of a group of fashion models, this study overturns the idealised image of the fashion model life within the collective consciousness and shows the embodiment and personality of female fashion models to be socially constructed within a field wherein several forces, illuminated herein, are at play. Intrapsychic forces, interpersonal dynamics and the role of transgenerational trauma are also illuminated.

The results show the embodied lived experiences of female fashion models and their performances to epitomise metaphors for the predicaments faced by many females in contemporary Western societies. A hegemonic, normative ideal, that compresses all feminine qualities into an impossible composite icon, is pursued. A specific persona holding the characteristics of the puella is culturally offered, through media dissemination of models’ imagery, as the ultimate signifier of high status and feminine ideal, leaving women with limited external reference to the multiple feminine attributes and roles necessary to express themselves fully and to respond to life situations effectively.

The research findings also confirm that subjective embodiment contains relevant information about individuals’  challenges, intersubjective dynamics, collective shared experiences and vicissitudes, precious for advances within multiple academic disciplines. According to the researcher, conscious fashion models, engaged on a journey of individuation, supported by an ethical industry and by their striking socialising power, could embody inspirational role models of wholeness, authenticity, interconnectedness and diverse feminine qualities for the larger population.