Rhodes University Psychology Department had a strong presence once again at the 27^th annual PsySSA conference held at Emperor’s Palace, Johannesburg in October 2023.

Masters in Counselling Psychology, Masters by Thesis students and PhD candidates participated in a variety of individual oral paper presentations, and symposiums over the course of the conference.

Some of the notable highlights included:

• Dr Philippa Haine, who graduated with her PhD in Psychology at the October graduation, presented her findings on ‘Across the professional lifespan: Comparing the employment trends of counselling psychologists in South Africa’ (supervised by Dr. Duane Booysen and Prof. Charles Young).
• Masters in Counselling Psychology students Buncwanekazi Mankantshu and Constanze Steyn joined PhD candidate Catherine Parkinson in a symposium chaired by Prof Campbell (Rhodes University) and Prof Lesch (Stellenbosch) on the topic of ‘Contextualising Couple Therapy in South Africa’. Topics included Translation of the Composite of Abuse Scale into isiXhosa and Afrikaans and reporting on preliminary findings of Predictors of violence and protective factors in South African couples.
• Deneo Sekese presented her Masters research on ‘Current psychological distress and coping strategies reported by university staff in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic’ (supervised by Prof Campbell).
• Dr Duane Booysen chaired a symposium on ‘Prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD in a South African context’, where two of his Masters by Thesis students participated.
• Princess Shanbangu presented her work on ‘The feasibility and acceptability of task-shifting Prolonged Exposure for Primary Care for PTSD in a low-resource community in the Eastern Cape’ and Kate Markham presented their work on ‘Task-shifting Prolonged Exposure Therapy for the treatment of PTSD among refugees at a Trauma Centre’.