Department of Psychology Represents Strongly at the PsySSA Congress 2025

 

 

The Department of Psychology at the University of Pretoria was proudly represented at the 2025 Psychology Society of South Africa (PsySSA) Congress, held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban.

 

Staff members and collaborators delivered impactful presentations that advanced critical discussions on a range of topics, including food insecurity, mental health, emotion, and LGBTQIA+ affirmative practice in psychology.

 

We congratulate all our colleagues for representing the department with excellence.

 

Dr Jarred H. Martin was invited to speak in the symposium Queering Psychological Practice, Training and Writing: Towards Affirmative (and Creative) Praxis for LGBTQIA+ People. His presentation, titled Ethics, Intimacy, and Reflexivity in Kink Research, explored the concept of aftercare in kink communities as a form of ethical intimacy, grounded in care, vulnerability, and relational accountability. Drawing on interviews with 24 kink-identified participants and a reflexive account of an intimate ethical failure from his own life, Dr Martin illustrated how researcher reflexivity can serve as a powerful epistemological resource in the study of alternative sexualities. As part of the presentation, Dr Martin also shared their poem Can My Hands be Trusted to Care?, offering a creative and affective lens through which to engage with the complexities of care, ethics, and embodiment in kinked intimacies.

 

 

Image: Dr Martin (far left) with symposium panellists (from left): Mr Suntosh Pillay (UNISA), Prof Juan Nel (Symposium Chair, UNISA), Dr Niel Victor (UNISA), and Mx Thembi Dlamini (UNISA)

 

 

Image: Dr Martin speaking at the conference

 

Prof Eugene Lee Davids presented a paper titled Narratives of risk: Food insecurity, transactional sex, HIV and teenage pregnancy. Drawing on recent research conducted in two underserved communities in Gauteng, he explored how food insecurity serves as a key driver of transactional sex among adolescent girls. The findings showed how taverns operate as hubs for transactional exchanges, thereby increasing vulnerability to teenage pregnancy and HIV infection. The presentation concluded with urgent recommendations for policy intervention and community-based programming.

 

 

 

In the Counselling Psychology stream, Dr Kamilla Rawatlal presented their paper Inclusion of practice-based evidence (PBE) research in mental health care provision: Implications for trainee and practitioner. They highlighted the significance of practice-based evidence (PBE) in supporting mental health service delivery in primary care settings. Her presentation focused on the integration of PBE into the training of psychologists, offering valuable insights into how research can inform real-world clinical practice and enhance the professional development of trainees. The talk was well received and contributed to broader conversations about evidence-based transformation in mental health systems.

 

 

Image: Prof Davids (far left) and Dr Rawatlal (second from the left) with other conference delegates at the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) booth.

 

Mr Sulaiyman Philander’s paper Exploring the Utility of Meta-Study to Qualitatively Construct Emotion in Psychology, examined the theoretical and methodological possibilities of using meta-study to understand how emotion is constructed within qualitative psychology literature. Anchored in Gadamerian hermeneutics, the presentation synthesised existing qualitative studies to reflect on how emotion is theorised and represented across time, context, and culture. He argued that meta-study offers a promising methodology for critically engaging with the diverse ways in which emotion is researched, experienced, and made meaningful in psychology.

 

Click here for the Congress Programme.