Dr Elena Panagiotopoulou

Dr Panagiotopoulou has taught and supervised students across a number of UCL programmes (undergraduate and postgraduate), and has been Deputy Programme Director for the MSc Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology. She is now Deputy Programme Director and Senior Research Tutor for the MSc Early Child Development and Clinical Applications. 

Dr Panagiotopoulou’s research interests revolve around how our embodiment, including the rooting of the mind in our embodied interactions with other people, influences how we understand ourselves. Her doctoral research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation (NPSA) and investigated how our body perception influences perceptual, social and motivational aspects of the psychological self. Her current projects are building a focus on perinatal mind and body research. Together with Dr Perez and Dr Roberts, they have established a new research group investigating longitudinal experiences of being a parent at different stages in early parenthood - the Longitudinal Experiences and Adjustments in Parenthood Study (LEAPS). She is also a research collaborator of Professor Katerina Fotopoulou’s lab at UCL.

Dr Panagiotopoulou is undertaking the Couple & Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Training at Tavistock Relationships. Dr Panagiotopoulou has worked with people across different stages of development (e.g. infants, toddlers, pre-school children, young people, and adults), both with individuals and couples, at Tavistock Relationships, the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, UCL Student Disability Services and the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Athens.

Selected publications:

Panagiotopoulou, E., Crucianelli, L., Lemma, A., & Fotopoulou, A. (2021). Identifying with the Beautiful: Facial attractiveness effects on unisensory and multisensory self-other distinction.  Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211050318

Stumpfogger, N. & Panagiotopoulou, E. (2021). Blurred Body Boundaries of First-Time Mothers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Neuropsychoanalysis. 10.1080/15294145.2021.1972441

Perez, A., Panagiotopoulou, E., Curtis, P., & Roberts, R. (2021). Barriers and facilitators to mood and confidence in pregnancy and early parenthood during COVID-19 in the UK: mixed-methods synthesis survey. BJPsych open, 7(4), e107.

Panagiotopoulou, E., Peiris, C., & Hayes, D. (2021). Behaviour Change Techniques in mobile apps targeting self-harm in young people: a systematic review. Translational Behavioural Medicine, 11(3), 832–841.

De Meulemeester, C., Lowyck B., Panagiotopoulou, E., Fotopoulou, A. & Luyten, P. (2020). Self–other distinction and borderline personality disorder features: Evidence for egocentric and altercentric bias in a self–other facial morphing task. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research and Treatment, 12(4), 377–388

Jenkinson, P., Koukoutsakis, A., Panagiotopoulou, E., Vagnoni, E., Demartini, B., Nisticò, V., ... Fotopoulou, A. (2020). Body appearance values modulate risk aversion in eating restriction. PsyArXIv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rnzgs

Panagiotopoulou, E., Filippetti, M.L., Gentsch, A., Fotopoulou, A. (2018). Dissociable sources of erogeneity in social touch: Imagining and perceiving C-Tactile optimal touch in erogenous zones. PLoS ONE, 13(8): e0203039

Panagiotopoulou, E., Filippetti, M.L., Tsakiris, M., & Fotopoulou, A. (2017) Affective Touch Enhances Self- Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration. Scientific Reports, 7: 12883

Gentsch, A., Panagiotopoulou, E., & Fotopoulou, A. (2015). Active Interpersonal Touch Gives Rise to the Social Softness Illusion. Current Biology, 25(18), 2392-2397.

Lord, H., O’Keeffe, S., Panagiotopoulou, E. & Midgley, N. (2023). Exploring Parental Perspectives on Dropout from Treatment for Adolescent Depression. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, DOI: 10.1080/15289168.2023.2191167

Chiang, C. P., Hayes, D., & Panagiotopoulou, E. (2023). Apps targeting anorexia nervosa in young people: a systematic review of active ingredients. Translational behavioral medicine, ibad003. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibad003