Two academics from the Department of Family Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, Prof. Angela Abela and Dr Clarissa Sammut Scerri, Head of Department, presented papers from their research area of expertise. They were also joined by Ms Charlotte Busuttil who presented a paper from her dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Angela Abela and Prof. Per Jensen, Vid Specialised University, Oslo, Norway.
The EFTA conference is held every four years and brings together renowned researchers and prominent family therapy practitioners from all corners of Europe and the world.
Prof. Angela Abela read a paper on “How working systemically with families living in poverty can improve family well-being”. She was invited to deliver this presentation by the academic research network across Europe of the same Association by way of developing a European- wide study on this important topic. Other academics and practitioners forming part of the European association have already expressed their interest in being part of the study.
Dr Clarissa Sammut Scerri presented a paper from her Ph.D. research on the impact of growing in a family where there is domestic violence from the perspective of adult women. The paper is entitled “Living with intense and continual contradictions of love and abuse- a grounded theory study of women’s childhood experiences of domestic violence”.
Ms Charlotte Busuttil’s research looked at the interphase of psychotherapists’ work and how they were parented in her paper entitled “The school of life: Exploring the relationship between the therapists’ own parenting experiences and their clinical practice”.
All the papers were very well received and created interest in the Department of Family Studies’ work.