Biography

Clarissa Sammut Scerri is a Registered Counselling Psychologist, a UKCP accredited Family Therapist and Systemic supervisor. Before joining the University of Malta’s Dept of Family Studies, she worked for several years in the social welfare field.

She has been past Head and clinical supervisor of the Family Therapy and Psychological Services, Appogg within the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, Malta. As part of her designation, she was also a co-organizing tutor of two Post graduate courses in Systemic thinking, held in Malta, in collaboration with the Tavistock clinic. Between 2005- 2007, she was also appointed Visiting lecturer at the Tavistock Clinic and Portman Trust as a clinical tutor for the M6 Maltese trainees in Systemic Psychotherapy. In 2007, she was appointed assistant lecturer within the Dept of Psychology at the University of Malta. She is now a full time staff member with the Dept of Family Studies in the same University. She is reading for a PhD at the University of Surrey, UK.

Research Interests

For my PhD  research, I am using a grounded theory methodology to look at women's experience of being raised in a family where there is/ was domestic violence and exploring their understanding of how these childhood experiences have impacted their adult life.

My other research interests include adoption and parenting in challenging circumstances.

Supervisors: Prof Arlene Vetere (University of Surrey) and Prof  Angela Abela (University of Malta).

Publications

Sammut Scerri, C., Abela, A., & Vetere, A. (2012). Ethical dilemmas of a clinician/researcher interviewing women about their childhood experiences of witnessing domestic violence. International Journal of Qualitative methods, 11 (2), 102-131.

Abela, A., Borg Xuereb, R., Casha, C., Clark, M., Inguanez, J., & Sammut Scerri, C. (2012). The needs of Maltese families with dependent children. A focus groups study among professionals. Bank of Valletta Review, 45(2), 55-86.

Abela, A., & Sammut Scerri, C. (2010). Managing multiple relationships in supervision. Dealing with the complexity. In C. Burck & G. Daniel. (Eds.). Mirrors and reflections. Processes of Systemic Supervision (p.p. 289 – 308). London: Karnac

Abela. A. & Sammut Scerri, C. (2003). Collaborative enquiry versus didactic training with organizations. Human Systems. A Journal of Systemic Consultation & Management, 14(1-4), 41-54.

Teaching

During this current year, I am teaching the following study units at the University of Malta.

PSY 1315 Understanding Research in Psychology

PSY 1612 Research methods in Psychology

PSY 2629 Qualitative data analysis

PSY 5564  Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

PSY 5572  Family Therapy and Systemic Practice

PSY 5594  Research methods and Statistics

CVL 5035 Practical Applications in Family Law