My academic journey was a surprise to me.

All my life I had banked on a career as a paediatrician and when it came to the crunch, the serendipity that is this life led me off the beaten track into social work and psychology. In fact, ours was the last cohort for whom it was possible to take both courses concurrently. At the time, both professions were in their infancy in Malta and largely unknown and, in the absence of professional structures and a warranting board, were not even considered such. Thankfully, for us who cherish this work and, I would like to think, for the people we serve, times have changed.

Eventually, after working in child protection, I moved into clinical psychology, specialising in child and adolescent issues mainly related to loss, trauma, abuse and developmental pathologies. Such topics still kindle strong emotions in me and spur me to engage in researching novel methods of unpacking the human experience of these life events, especially those pertaining to very young children, with the aim of unearthing more effective therapeutic interventions. This I now do as a resident academic within the Department of Counselling at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing.

Our Faculty has, as its mission, the promotion of wellbeing across society. In everything we are and in everything we do, we are committed to our stakeholders and to our service users, be these students reading courses with us, agencies and organisations that we join forces with and the client groups who give us the privilege of their trust. We are committed to pursuing and promoting scholarship, not only for the sake of it but because it matters and, more often than not, it matters to the most vulnerable of our society. In the ever-relevant words of Mahatma Gandhi ‘The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members’.

As members of this Faculty, we are uniquely, profoundly and, at times, challengingly individual and also vulnerable. But it is in embracing this individuality as a strength and this vulnerability as a means of connection that we become a microcosm of the society we seek to serve and worthy of aspiring to represent its voices. It makes what we do real as opposed to a caricature. To my mind, engagement with the latter is the instigator for so much continued suffering in society, notwithstanding a committed welfare state and the efforts being made by our communities to promote social equity.

So, should you choose to join us, get yourself ready for a roller coaster ride. We will challenge you to engage in profound introspection, creative and critical thinking, pushing the boundaries of what you consider knowledge, creating understanding, committing to furthering the wellbeing of all and to maintaining this wellbeing. In exchange we offer you our support and dedication in the pursuit of your aspirations and dreams as we believe in the uniqueness of your contribution to improving the lot of those who are discouraged and downtrodden, and fully uphold your taking on responsibility for the common good in whichever form you may wish to do that. And, whichever this form, the community cannot but benefit from scholarship that, in unison, seeks to serve.

‘E Pluribus Unum’ or ‘out of many, one’.

If you want to study with us send us an email on [email protected]