Unisa’s Departments of Psychology and Industrial and Organisational Psychology, in association with the 2019 Doctoral Students in Consulting Psychology, hosted the highly successful Consulting Psychology Conference at UNISA on 15 August 2019. PsySSA President, Dr Helen Dunbar-Krige attended the conference. Furthermore, PsySSA Executive Director, Ms Fatima Seedat attended the conference in her capacity as a Doctoral Student in Consulting Psychology.
This conference told the African story in a different manner, by emphasising how Africans grapple with familiar and unfamiliar challenges within organisations and communities. Africans were acknowledged not as passive recipients of the world’s civilization, but rather as active participants and in fact leaders in the promotion of basic values of humanity, such as mutual respect, consultation, and interdependence, to name but a few.
The conference broke new ground with the distinguished line up of speakers. Namely, Prof Tholene Sodi; Prof Augustine Nwoye; Prof Solomon Mashegoane; Dr Olga Coetzee and Prof Peace Kiguwa. There was also a specific focus on:
- Consulting to communities, methodology and ethical matters
- Methodologies of consultation underlining feminism and sexuality
- African psychology meeting positive organisational behaviour within the current South African environment
Specific highlights of the Congress:
- A group discussion facilitated by Dr Olga Coetzee which enabled delegates to engage with a skilled facilitator as well with one another to share in knowledge creation.
- Wits University Press relaunching Transforming Research Methods in the Social Sciences.
Overall, PsySSA would like to commend Unisa’s Departments of Psychology and Industrial and Organisational Psychology for a successful and responsive conference. We look forward to attending next year.
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