Published: October 2026
Keywords:
Niki Tsironi, systemic therapist–explorer, aesthetics, interaction, systems theory, phenomenology, Gestalt, narrative therapy, embodied knowledge, bodily sensation, emotional nuances, flow, relational pattern, relational experience, dialogical self, Gregory Bateson, von Foerster, Michael White, David Epston, Hubert Hermans.
Dr Niki Tsironi
Niki Tsironi is a psychotherapist, systemic mental health counsellor, and researcher at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. She studied History at King’s College London, where she completed her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., focusing on the history of the senses and emotions. She also studied Psychology at Deree – The American College of Greece, where she completed the Graduate Certificate in Psychology. She completed her specialization in individual and family systemic psychotherapy at the Laboratory for the Study of Human Relations, founded by Ch. and L. Kataki, and has undertaken further training in Compassionate Inquiry with Gabor Maté and Somatic Therapy with Peter Levine. Her clinical interests include personal and transgenerational trauma, depression, anxiety, and grief, with particular emphasis on the relational and contextual dimensions of psychological experience.
Since 2023, she has directed the research programme “Emotion in History and Psychology” at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. Initiated in collaboration with Harvard University, the programme continues in partnership with the American College of Greece and explores the role of emotion in individual and collective experience through an interdisciplinary dialogue between psychology, history, and the humanities.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of psychology, history, emotion studies, cultural and social experience, and the study of human relationships. She has published monographs, scholarly articles, and contributions to edited volumes, including Emotion and Performance (Harvard, Classics@ 24, 2025), “Storge: Rethinking Gendered Emotion a propos of the Virgin Mary” (in M. Mullett & S. Ashbrook Harvey, Managing Emotions in Byzantium: Passions, Affects and Imaginigs, Routledge series Studies in Byzantine Cultural History, Routledge, London & New York 2023, 184-213), Le livre : texte, image, objet (Études balkaniques – Cahiers Pierre Belon, 24, 2020), and Όψεις βιβλίων: από τον κώδικα στην ψηφιακή τεκμηρίωση [Aspects of Books: From the Codex to Digital Documentation] (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute of Historical Research, 2020). Her publications examine the relationship between emotion, historical experience, and human subjectivity, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches to the understanding of individuals and their relational worlds.
A systemic perspective informs both her clinical and scholarly work, particularly her exploration of the dynamic interplay between individuals, relationships, family and transgenerational systems, and the historical and sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded. She remains engaged in ongoing personal therapy and clinical supervision, regarding the therapist’s personal development and self-reflection as integral to professional and therapeutic practice.
Abstract
(Editorial Committee’s Note: A presentation rich in knowledge and wisdom. A truly aesthetic learning process. THE AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT, as included in the programme of the Metalogos two-day conference).
The aesthetics of relationship, within the framework of the systemic approach, refers to the way individuals experience, perceive, and make meaning of their interactions beyond the content of communication. Drawing on systems theory, phenomenology, and contemporary approaches to embodied cognition, systemic therapy focuses not only on what happens within a relationship but also on how it is experienced at the sensory and emotional levels. The concept of aesthetics concerns the quality of experience: the rhythm, tone, silence, intensity, and flow that characterise relational patterns. Scientifically, this perspective is supported by research highlighting the importance of nonverbal communication, bodily synchrony, and the interactive regulation of emotion in shaping relationships. In this presentation, the aesthetics of relationship is approached experientially, through exercises that allow immediate observation and reflection on relational experiences. Participants are invited to focus on elements such as the rhythm of communication, bodily sensations, and the emotional tone of interactions. At the same time, examples of such experiential exercises from clinical practice will be presented to demonstrate how a shift toward aesthetic experience can catalyse change. Through this integration of theory and practice, the dynamic potential of aesthetics emerges as a tool for understanding and transforming relationships.
