As we bring 2022 to a close, we are mindful of the many ways in which a number of spaces have opened up over the past year. We faced countless losses over the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic – and we continue to remember those we have lost and we see the visible effects of the aftermath of the pandemic in the countless forms of suffering in our society. We know that there is much work to do.

In these seeds of crisis however, we see opportunities for harnessing energies and capacities in ways not easily imagined before COVID-19. The pandemic and its aftermath have offered us opportunities for imagining new modes of functioning – navigating and managing our daily lives, being together virtually, new modes of work, of teaching and learning, finding ways to build community, networks and solidarities across these difficulties. Ways that were hitherto not immediately accessible to us nor thought possible. I am keen for us to strengthen and build on the agility and flexibility that we have developed over the past three years – recognizing the ways in which we all, as a PsySSA community, have responded to the practice, research, community engagement, policy and advocacy work we have all been called upon to do. The energy and dynamism of our members, the reach of the work we do as PsySSA members as well as the ways in which this work impacts our society makes me extremely proud to be leading PsySSA.

This past year has been an immensely successful one for the Society. One in which we were able to take advantage of our stability as an organization, as well as consolidate and build on our strengths. A major highlight has been the opportunity to gather together at our 26^th Annual Congress between 12 to the 14^th October 2022. We are in the midst of consolidating feedback from the Congress but by all accounts, it was a very successful event – we had over 560 delegates in attendance and a vibrant, intellectually stimulating programme. Key amongst the feedback received in-person at Congress and thus far online – was the gratitude and joy for being able to gather together as a community in the name of PsySSA and a recognition of the vibrant, diverse community that we all are.

I look forward to working with the 2022/2023 Executive Committee and the broader PsySSA membership to continue to build and strengthen our society through enacting PsySSA’s vision, mission and strategic goals. I look forward too, to tending to the seedlings that have sprouted out of the crisis and expanding our horizons to imagine new opportunities, alliances, and partnerships.

Thank you for your energies, your labour and your ongoing support as we look ahead to a new year of productive, innovative and exciting work for the Society.

Finally, I would like to wish you and your significant communities health, happiness, rejuvenation and nourishment this holiday season as we look forward to the work we will do in 2023.

We bring to a close another pandemic year, facing the fourth wave of infections with fatigue and an altogether stark view of the synergistic and persisting social, economic, health, gender and political inequalities that continue to both drive and deepen the COVID-19 crisis. The viral pandemic has caused untold human suffering. Yet too, it has illuminated the fortitude, sense of community, collective support and action, and humanising care so critical to mitigating the pandemic’s impact.

I take this opportunity to recognise the frontline workers who have been selfless in their service to our nation during this precarious year. I am particularly heartened by the dynamic, responsive and ethico-social ways in which PsySSA members have responded to the practice, knowledge, research, community engagement, policy and advocacy priorities that beckon our commitment and best efforts as we strive to address the grave psychosocial sequelae and associated implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this, I am exceptionally proud of the leading vision and approach that PsySSA continues to chart in response to the exigencies of our time and context, the needs and interests of its members, and of course the responsibilities that we hold towards those whom we serve.

Together with 2021-2022 Executive Committee, I look forward to building on the major milestones and successes of the Society through both continuities and new departures. I hope to do so in engagement with our membership, as well as affiliates and key stakeholders within and beyond our disciplinary and geographical borders. I am committed to enacting PsySSA’s vision, mission and strategic plans, and broadening its horizons against the backdrop of the dynamic and complex social environments, actors, processes and practices that must necessarily inform the labours and contributions of the Society, and of course the psychology community more broadly. 

I thank you for your ongoing support, and await your active participation as we look ahead to what is clearly going to be another productive, innovating and exciting year for PsySSA.

Finally, I wish you and your communities of significance safety, healing, joy, and a nourishing holiday season. I hope that 2022 will be gentler and more just.

In Gratitude and Solidarity,
Prof Shahnaaz Suffla
PsySSA President