Portrait of Raffaella Di Schiena
New 2023 Lecturers Honoured
Lecturer in Clinical Child Psychology.
Could you briefly describe your background, your research topics and your conception of university teaching?
I obtained my PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Bari (Italy) in 2008, with a thesis on the role of emotions in decision-making processes. During this time, I spent two research periods at Cardiff University in the UK and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. I then decided to do a post-doctorate in Belgium, first at UCLouvain, then at the Royal Military School. My research themes evolved and I moved from investigating basic cognitive psychology to its clinical applications.
I discovered the importance and value of working in the field. In 2014, I left university to become fully involved in patient care and became a child psychiatry psychologist at the Jean Titeca Hospital in Brussels. I have always kept a scientific eye on my practice and based my choices of interventions on evidence-based practice, while promoting this vision within this institution with which I still collaborate.
Since January 2022, I have been a part-time lecturer in clinical child and adolescent psychology, enabling me to realize my ambition of combining research and practice.
In my teaching, I try to convey to students the importance of interweaving practice, theory and scientific research, which for me is at the very heart of the psychologist's profession, as well as being an ethical obligation. I also insist on the importance of dialogue with other disciplines, both in research and in clinical practice, which is particularly important when dealing with children and adolescents. My current research focuses on the co-construction of care between professionals and children and their families (I draw on basic cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, psychiatry and the history of health sciences).
Discussion of clinical cases and internship experiences, and the creation of links between theory and practice, are therefore particularly encouraged during my courses.
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