Christiana Bratiotis, PhD, MSW

 Christiana’s social work practice has long been guided by an inspired quote from medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer who says, “There is nothing more noble that accompaniment.”

Dr. Christiana Bratiotis is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where she teaches social work practice classes across the master’s and PhD programs and supervises social work doctoral students. She currently serves as Faculty Chair of the MSW program. Christiana has led work in the formation and operation of multi-disciplinary community hoarding task forces around the world and is the leading global authority on implementing community-based interventions for hoarding. Her current research interests center on hoarding treatment and intervention efforts in the context of affordable housing and community-based organizations. Christiana has authored two books on hoarding:  The Hoarding Handbook:  A Guide for Human Service Professionals (2013) and Hoarding: What Everyone Needs to Know (2020), both released by Oxford University Press.

Throughout her academic career, she has also taught courses in social welfare, mental health policy and social analysis. In addition to her scholarly work, she supervises students who provide clinical treatment and she offers national and international consultation on hoarding behaviour to families and communities.

In 2017 Christiana took advantage of an opportunity to relocate to Vancouver and became an affiliated faculty with the UBC Centre for Collaborative Research on Hoarding where she conducts cross-disciplinary research and co-supervises clinical psychology students.

She has given more than 250 invited community lectures, keynote addresses, agency clinical trainings and academic presentations around the world. In 2011, Christiana developed the HOMES Multi-disciplinary Hoarding Risk Assessment which has been translated into six languages and is a tool used by communities to assess risk and guide hoarding interventions.

Dr. Bratiotis earned her Bachelor of Arts in Social Psychology and Masters of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Nevada, Reno. She completed a 1-fyear post-MSW fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center. Christiana served as executive director for two non-profit organizations and has more than 23 years of experience working in and with communities to build capacity and address issues of diversity and social justice.

Her work has been highlighted by media outlets including the Canadian Press, The Vancouver Sun, the New York Times, Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune.  

In 2014, Christiana received the Tenancy Assistance Program Individual Award from Boston’s Mass Housing and in 2010, she was recognized with an Excellence in Teaching Award by Boston University. She consistently achieves exceptionally high teaching evaluations and in her words, “is honoured to contribute to the development of emerging social work practitioners and behavioural health interventionists.”