CONFERENCE
From 23 to 27 September 2024, the Faculty of Education Sciences and Psychology (FESC) of the University of Latvia (UL) hosted the study visit as part of the Erasmus+ KA project "Boosting University Psychological Resilience and Wellbeing in (Post-) War Ukrainian Nation" (BURN). This visit brought together university representatives, mental health professionals and educators from Ukraine to explore Latvia's approaches and experience to psychologist training, mental health promotion at schools, and trauma intervention strategies.
The programme covered all stages of psychologist training from undergraduates to master’s and PhD students. At the introductory sessions Laura Pirsko, Director of the Master’s Program, highlighting the structured path from undergraduate studies to professional qualification introducing also brief history of the development of psychology training in Latvia. During the visit, participants attended sessions focused on mental health promotion in educational settings. Led by Prof. Baiba Martinsone, these discussions highlighted key strategies for fostering resilience at schools and education environment. One day exclusively was devoted to the undergraduate training, when Anda Upmane, Director of the Bachelor’s Program, explained detailed structure and methods of the counselling skills training. In addition, our colleagues had an opportunity to observe training methods of the counselling skills for undergraduate students, participating at the classes guided by experienced psychology trainers. Anoher day was focused on master level training, allowing to discuss in detail training methods on master level counselling training course and share experience on student independent tasks and assesment, as well as psychological counselling practice, supervized by experienced professionals. Observation of the actual trainign methods for the master level students was possible during the class on CBT approach to anxiety and trauma led by prof.Ieva Bite, clinical psychologist and supervisor.
During the study visit participants visited several psychological service providers in Latvia, including the Crisis Centre "Skalbes," where they explored crisis counselling services, and the Centre for Safe Childhood "Dardedze," which focuses on violence prevention and psychological support for victims. The group also visited the "Child House" at the Children’s Clinical University Hospital, which provides specialized care for abused children. Department of Psychology express gratitude to their coleeagues and collaboration partners!
The study visit also provided participants with the opportunity to engage in team work on development of two study courses and one study module. Study visit concluded with a session, summarizing key learnings and discussing future collaborations. As for Latvian team this study visit was an excellent opportunity to recognize the job done during last 30 years on psychologist training in Latvia to develop it as we see today.
The sharing of expereince during this visit is expected to strengthen psychological resilience and wellbeing initiatives at the Ukraine universities, implementing the mission of the BURN project.
