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Opening Speech of the first Warranting Ceremony for Psychologists in Malta on Monday 22nd January 2007.

The History of Psychology in Malta and the MPA.

An interview with Fr. Alfred Darmanin on the 26th January 2007
by Moira Cachia

Profile

Fr Alfred Darmanin SJ obtained his licentiate in clinical psychology from the University of Louvain, Belgium, and his Ph.D. from Berkeley, California with a specialisation in the psychology of leadership. He also holds degrees in mathematics, philosophy and theology. He was Head of the Psychology Department at the University of Malta from 1988 to 1994 where he teaches as a senior lecturer. Dr Darmanin has conducted several training courses for leaders and executives in various countries and is the author of four books and several articles and papers.


Book Publications:

- “The Skilled Leader: An Integrated Approach to Leadership”. Media Centre, 1985

- “Developing Leadership Skills – A Training Manual for Leaders”. Media Centre, 1992

- “Il-Psikologija f’Hajjitna”. Veritas Press, 1996

- “Wings to Fly: Paths to Inner Freedom”. Merlin Library Publications, 1999

MC: How did your interest in Psychology initiate?
AD: At first, mathematics was my favourite subject and in fact the Jesuits had sent me to the United States to obtain a Masters’ Degree in this area. I came back to teach Pure and Applied Mathematics at Sixth Form. However, then I realised that I preferred the Human Sciences. Also, I had thought that as a Jesuit, this turn would better fit my vocation. That is how I got involved into Psychology.

MC: How did it develop?
AD: My primary focus was on Clinical Psychology. Initially I was involved in one-to-one work, in counselling and therapy. Then I moved on to group work and eventually to working with organisations. I realised that as much as you need to concentrate on the presented problem of the individual, the system in which the individual operates also needs to be given attention. Indeed, my doctorate focussed on the psychology of leadership in organisations.

MC: Were there other psychologists prior to your return from your studies?
AD: Yes, there were two: Mr Alfred Zammit Montebello and Mr Joe Falzon. Both of them were involved in the field of Educational Psychology, working in a school setting and taking a Behaviouristic approach. I worked in counselling, therapy, training and group work so we worked in parallel with each other, although occasionally there were seminars in which we addressed different aspects of psychology.

MC: Can tell me more about your pioneering role in teaching and promoting psychology in Malta?
AD: I took up this role as from 1973 after I obtained my licentiate in Clinical Psychology. Back then, I brought together a number of people to form a training team which I coordinated. We trained people in what we then called “PDS” meaning Programme for Development of Skills which included intrapersonal, interpersonal, group skills and organisational skills. We held regular training sessions with the public in general, with whoever was interested. Eventually we introduced ‘Sensitivity training’ as we know it today at the end of the seminars. I took on the role of raising awareness and promoting psychology as an important tool in our everyday life. Apart from these seminars, I used the media, mainly television and newspapers to reach out to the public in general.

MC: How did the interest in studying Psychology spread out?
AD: Mainly through people who attended these seminars. A number of them decided to study Psychology and then get involved in this type of training themselves. That was a relief since I was increasingly being requested for services such as counselling, training and consultation. Soon enough, it was impossible for me to catch up with the workload. However since I had no one else to refer people to, I decided to dedicate most of my time on the training of future psychologists who could eventually take on this type of work.

MC: Were there other developments happening through this time?
AD: Yes, in parallel with the increased public awareness, interest in Psychology developed on an academic level too. When I had returned from my Clinical Psychology training in 1973, I was requested to teach psychology on a part-time basis in the Faculty of Theology, Philosophy, Social Studies and Management.

MC: When was the first Psychology course at Bachelor’s level held?
AD: Through great encouragement and support from Fr Peter Serracino Inglott, in 1984, the Institute of Philosophy and Human Studies was founded at Tal-Virtu’. The first Psychology course was held in that same year. The course was in Human Studies where one had to choose from the main options of Psychology, Philosophy, Social Studies and Communication Studies. I was in charge of coordinating the Psychology credits. Eventually, a separate Department of Psychology was set up in 1988 within the Faculty of Arts of which I was Head.

MC: How did the Department of Psychology move on to the Faculty of Education as we know it today?
AD: Being part of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology students had to take up 16 credits (32 ECTS) compulsory for all the Arts’ students, such as the History of the Mediterranean Studies. Students did not favour this and also we believed that these credits could be better utilised in more input on Psychology-related courses. So, in 1992, The Department of Psychology changed Faculty and started a new degree in Bachelor of Psychology. In this way, the course could be more specialised in Psychology. Another reason for this move was Rector Fr Peter’s desire for input from fields of psychology other than the behaviouristic approach in the Faculty of Education.

MC: Did you agree with this transition?
AD: Personally, I believed that Psychology did not fit either within the Faculty of Arts or Education but rather in Human Studies or Social Studies. However it was not practical then to create a new Faculty so we accepted to form part of the Faculty of Education. Back then, Dr Mark Borg and Prof. Joe Falzon were lecturing in Psychology and I joined them. Eventually others followed, some of whom were already part of the Institute of Human Studies and the Faculty of Arts.

MC: How was the University Counselling Service set up?
AD: I became aware that the University lacked this service even if it was already present at the schools up to sixth form level. Therefore I insisted with Rector Edwin Borg Costanzi on its set up. I also sought support from KSU (University Students’ Council). Initially there was not much interest and even opposition. However during this period, a student had committed suicide and someone pointed out that should there have been the Counselling Service, such an incident could have possibly been avoided. Basically, the guilt feelings this raised gave the go ahead for the service to be set up.

MC: Who was involved initially?
AD: I directed the service and some of the people involved in the Psychology Department also worked on part-time basis at the Counselling services. I was not so much in favour of having the Department and Counselling services as one unit although I agree that both should work in collaboration with each other. Eventually we got separate offices and interviewed people to be employed as counsellors and student advisors. The latter then moved on to become a separate entity. I had also employed a part-time psychiatrist initially but eventually this service was terminated.

MC: How did the Maltese Psychological Association (MPA) come about? What was its original name and purpose?
AD: As a provisional committee, Dr Angela Abela, Ms Mary Anne Agius, Ms Mary Anne Borg Cunen, Dr Sandra Scicluna Calleja and I realised the need to set up a formal association whose aims would be to promote the profession and protect and control the practise of psychologists. We published an article on The Sunday Times of 1st March 1992 (LINK). We did the preliminary work such as setting up the statute and announcing the first meeting. All those who held a Master’s degree or equivalent in Clinical or Counselling Psychology and who had the professional competence in the area were invited to attend. The initial name was ‘The Maltese Association of Clinical and Counselling Psychologists’ (MACCP).

MC: When was MACCP officially set up?
AD: The first general meeting was held on the 16th October 1992 where the Election Committee for the Association was voted for and the nominations for the council members were being received. On the 24th October 1992, the election of the President and Council members took place. I was elected as president while the other members of the provisional committee formed part of the first council together with Dott. Elena Tanti Burlo. The first meeting was held at the Federation of Professional Bodies, which the MPA is still a member of to date. I believe that we targeted the clinical and counselling fields because we assumed that those which later formed part of the Malta Union of Professional Psychologists were addressing the educational field. We did not want to overlap.

MC: Why was the original name changed to the MPA?
AD: People like Dr Mary Anne Lauri and later Ms Olivia Galea Seychell who specialised in Social Psychology wished to form part of the association. Therefore, we decided to widen to fields other that clinical and counselling. The MPA was registered as a Trade Union on the 24th February 2000.

MC: What do you consider to be the greatest achievements of MPA?
AD: Mainly it was the promotion of psychological services to the public in general, especially related to private practice. At that time, people sought advice from a doctor, priest or possibly a psychiatrist but not a psychologist. I believe that MPA paid a major contribution in making people aware of the psychologist’s role.

MC: What do you consider to be your greatest contributions to the development of the profession?
AD: I think that I contributed on four counts. Firstly, I gave a standing to Psychology on an academic level, moving from a couple of seminars to the organisation of a Bachelor’s degree in the field, within a separate department. Secondly I consider my pioneering in raising public awareness of Psychology, from an individual level to organisational level. Thirdly, since I am also a priest, I helped the Church to change its negative view of Psychology and its role in our life. I believe that I served to bridge the distance between psychology and religion. Last of all, by being the author of four books, one of which I wrote in Maltese (Il-Psikologija f’Hajjitna). I truly appreciated the 16-page letter I had received from Profs. Oliver Friggieri where he congratulated me on my ability to communicate Psychology in Maltese.

Opening Speech of the first Warranting Ceremony for Psychologists in Malta on Monday 22nd January 2007.

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Address delivered by Ms Mary Anne Agius, Chairperson of the Malta Psychology Profession Board.


Honourable Minister – fellow psychologists, guests

Our Past
Let us celebrate. Yes, thank God that today we have good reason to celebrate. From very small beginnings we have moved to a significant number of people (62 in all) who will be receiving their first psychology warrants today. The journey has been long and difficult. Establishing psychology as a profession has not been easy at all.

Ms Marianne Agius, Minister Dolores Cristina - Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity, and Mr Joseph Ebejer - Permanent Secretary.

In 1971 when I obtained my first counselling qualifications there were in Malta only two or three educational psychologists.. A few individuals were working in schools in Educational guidance and at Mount Carmel. Slowly people started training abroad and we have people who studied in Australia Belgium, Canada, England, France, Italy, Ireland, Russia, Scotland, the USA, and even in India. We all came from different traditions, different schools, different qualifications, and different focus and above all with different views of how to start working in the fields we were trained for. And what richness all this resulted in!! However the beginning was a difficult time especially as psychology was not seen as very important. When I wanted to study counselling I was told by a person in authority at that time that we did not need counsellors in Malta since we had parents and priests!! The educational psychologists had already been doing sterling work in the Faculty of Education and in the Department of Education. Training in psychology began with a core team who set up the Institute of Humanistic studies at Tal-Virtu. There we had the first people starting the course which eventually was to lead them to become psychologists.

Later on this Institute was dissolved and the training was now moved to the University. As time went on the Department of Psychology grew, the number of students increased and the need was felt to start the Masters Degree. Now one can train to become a psychologist in Malta and does not need to travel aboard anymore to become a qualified psychologist. Hopefully the Department will keep on expanding to train students to the doctoral level and also to train supervisors which now more than ever before, are greatly needed for the profession.

The Present
By August of 2004 we had the Psychology Profession Act passed through parliament and finally signed by the president. This happened after a great deal of hard work by a few individuals most of them here present, whose aim was to prepare the Act regulating the Psychology Profession. They can tell us how many meetings were held and how many hours spent to come up with an Act designed to put psychology at par with other professions. Here I would like to thank all those who were involved and who put in all their energy and efforts to draft the Bill and lobby hard enough to see it become the Psychology Professions Act. The Malta Psychology Profession Board was set up and the first meeting of the board took place in the beginning of February 2005. We held 42 board meetings in all, (17 in 2005, 23 in 2006 and 2 in 2007) . Obviously our topmost priority was to work on the warranting process. We took the first year to find a way of working together, set up priorities, discuss supervision and continual professional development and then issue the call for application. The second year was taken up mostly with the vetting of applications. During last year, in 2006, alone we had 23 board meetings, most of them lasting three or four hours and three times we held three whole day sessions to be able to issue the warrant in due time to enable the second board to be set up. We faced the difficult task of preparing criteria, and vetting the applications which were as varied as there are psychologists in Malta – with the exception of the eleven who were the first graduates of the University of Malta.

I cannot say that things were always easy. However for the sake of the profession we tried to deal with the issues that arose in a responsible and ethical way. We have acted with consciousness of the seriousness of our task and a keen responsibility towards the vulnerable client populations that psychologists deal with. We held meetings, discussed, explained and offered our goodwill to solve any difficulties that arose.. We worked under pressure yet we persevered in our task. Today we are proud to say that we have 62 warranted psychologists. We kept to the law, interpreting certain articles in the law in a just and fair way Naturally some claims could not be met but we assert that each of these was more than thoroughly examined with both sensitivity to the claimant and an ethical responsibility towards a Maltese public that deserves a safe and a high quality standard psychological service. From now on we hope the journey will be easier than it has been so far.

What about the future?
1. During these two years we have encountered difficulties which could not be solved with the law as it is at the moment. We will be making our representations to the Minister and we hope that we can have some important amendments to the law passed through parliament in due course.

2. There is now talk of a warrant as a European psychologist. We have been in contact with Thomas Wiedmann, Director General of the European Commission for Internal Market and Services and Regulated Professions. Last October he informed us - and here I am quoting from his letter- that there is no EU regulating body for psychologists as the regulation of the profession of psychologists falls into the competence of the Member States. So I want to put everybody’s mind at rest that whoever wants to work as a psychologist in Malta has to go through our local warranting process. Nevertheless relationships with the European Union are important and now, that the hard work of licensing is done, the MPPB will be able to turn its efforts towards other important functions. One such important function is the forming of links with European professional bodies and professional exchange.

3. In the future there are several things me and my board and I would like to see happen. First and foremost we would like to see all the psychologists working together to model to the people unity, communication, ways of handling conflict and teamwork. Together we can do great things. Divided in two we will only weaken the profession and the image that people have of us. Here I urge everyone to work for dialogue, communication and understanding. But we also need goodwill and trust. If we work to bring peace among people, couples, families, in society, peace in individuals we need to start with our group, with us. We cannot help people reach targets which we have not reached ourselves. We are all aware that the best way to help someone learn something is through modelling. May our modelling be such that people can believe in what we say and do.

3. Another factor I would like to stress is that of power As psychologists with power we need to adhere to the basic norms ‘beneficence and of nonmaleficence. We need to be aware of the fact that we have power especially over clients who are vulnerable. We have to see that in our work we do not harm the people who entrust themselves in our hands and always to seek their good over our good. We need to be aware that we are responsible to behave appropriately especially in setting and keeping boundaries.

4. Finally I would like to see us committed to work for the best interests of the people who need our services. And here I mention three ways we can do this:
a. By respecting the dignity of each person and so provide service without regard to the economic status, physical or mental abilities gender, sexual orientation or age.
b. By being approachable and available to help others.
c. By working hard to ensure that nobody needing our help will be denied of the service on economic basis.

Conclusion
I would like to remind you that receiving the warrant is just the beginning. We hope to have it renewed every two years. However we need to give proof of ongoing formation, of continual professional development and of supervision. We hope that in a short while you will be given detailed account of what will be expected for the renewal of the warrant.

I therefore encourage you to do your work with integrity, courage and dedication worthy of being professional psychologists. Let us see this as a beginning, a beginning of another stage in the development of the profession of psychology. We saw the profession being born and today we are seeing it coming of age. We now urge you to nourish it and see it grow in a healthy and mature way and thus continue the work of the few pioneers who dedicated all their energy and time to come to this most important date in the history of Psychology in Malta.

Before I end this short speech, I would like to thank the members of the board who have worked so hard and under so much pressure to make this ceremony possible. Special thanks go to the secretary of the Board Ms Anne Scolaro who has served the board in a very professional and efficient way. My thanks go for the members in the ministry especially to Jesmond Schembri and Jean Killick who have always supported us in our work. Above all our thanks go to the Honourable Minister Dolores Kristina whose support has never failed us and who has always been ready to listen and to help us in all that we needed to do.


Click here to download the Psychology Profession Act of 2004 [PDF].


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