Professor Persephone Sextou is a leading expert in Applied Theatre for Health and Wellbeing. Her co-design, arts-based and cross-disciplinary research model in paediatrics and palliative care informs policy and practice of health and education services in the UK and Australia.
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persephone sextou
Professor Persephone Sextou leads creative, digital innovations that transform children’s hospital experiences.
Professor Persephone Sextou is a renowned expert in applied theatre for health and wellbeing. As Director of the Creative Arts & Health Research Laboratory (CAHREL) at Leeds Beckett University — and Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Sydney — she has developed a pioneering bedside participatory theatre model for children in hospitals. Her interdisciplinary approach blends storytelling, puppetry, animation, and immersive digital media to give young patients agency, reduce anxiety, and transform hospitalisation into a more human, creative experience.
Her current flagship research, Glowing Stars, uses augmented reality, avatars, and gamified digital apps to prepare children aged 4–10 for MRI scans. By allowing them to explore a virtual MRI environment, meet a nurse-avatar, and even “disassemble” a digital MRI machine, the project helps demystify the process and reduce anticipatory anxiety. Glowing Stars is conducted in partnership with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as well as collaborators from universities and digital-health providers. Its aim is to make potentially frightening medical experiences more understandable, engaging—and less stressful—for children and their families.
Beyond MRI preparation, Sextou’s broader vision is that illness and hospitalisation need not silence a child’s creativity or sense of self. Through mixed-media, combined qualitative, quantitative and arts-based methodologies, participatory, co-designed arts and digital methods, she advocates for a model of paediatric care that supports emotional well-being and mental health, gives children a voice, and acknowledges their capacity for resilience and imagination.
