Dr Anna Plessas-Kafantaris, BPsych(Hons), MEd, BCBA, MSc, PGDipPracPsych, PhD, Clinical Behavioural Psychologist

​

Tēnā koutou.

Ko Kirihi te whenua,

ko Zante te motu,

ko Ionio te moana,

ko Bohali te maunga,

ko Zakynthos te iwi,

ko Ana toku ingoa.

Haere mai ki te Toi Haumanu o te Whanonga.

​

Anna was born to Greek parents in Adelaide, South Australia, where she began her primary education. Her family later returned to their home island of Zakynthos, Greece. Anna pursued her studies in Psychology across several countries, including Greece, the UK, USA, and New Zealand, focusing on applied and experimental analysis of behaviour, developmental psychology and neuroscience. With over 25 years of experience, Anna has dedicated her career to working with neurodiverse individuals and their families, particularly those with neurodevelopmental conditions. She has worked in various European countries, where she navigated the challenges of limited government funding for autism services and, time and again, witnessed the importance of strong relationships and
collaborations between professionals, clients and their families, were they to achieve positive treatment outcomes.
In 2004, Anna and her husband, Ignatios, established the first Clinical Practice in Greece that specialised in neurodivergent children and adolescents’ treatment and mental health. This
practice became the prototype for other multidisciplinary teams of health professionals that were providing much-needed support. In 2016, Anna and Ignatios founded the Monorodi Association for Training in Neurodevelopment in Athens, Greece. This association functions as an Institute, offering families and professionals valuable resources and training on neurodevelopmental conditions, empowering them to get meaningful outcomes from the
treatments they received. Anna is the Vice-President of Monorodi and visits Athens yearly to provide her services www.monorodi.com.
For the past 15 years, Anna has focused on working with individuals who present with mental health issues often linked to underlying, undiagnosed neurodivergence. Her extensive background in behavioural and developmental neuroscience, combined with her international experience in the UK, US, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and New Zealand, has also afforded her the privilege of mentoring allied health practitioners and students from diverse religious, sexual, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.
The financial crisis in Greece and Europe prompted Anna and her family to relocate to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2015. More recently, Anna was conferred her doctoral degree (Ph.D.) after a scholarship at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Her research
explored the potential role of new-generation Artificial Intelligence in designing interventions. Anna is currently a research collaborator with the Behaviour Data Science Research Lab at Endicott College, USA. She is particularly passionate about adapting the practice of psychology to different cultural contexts.
In her free time, Anna is working on exploring topics such as anxiety, depression, chronic suicidal ideation, self-injurious behaviour, and camouflaging behaviours in neurodivergent
individuals. She is also involved in projects using A.l. tools to better understand learning mechanisms.

​