VAMHN'S ECR BURSARY WINNER Zoe Moula DISCUSSES HER ATTENDANCE AT THE World Conference for Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling

Have a read below to see what our ECR bursary winner Zoe Moula did with her award money. To find out how you can apply to our ECR Bursary Scheme click here.

My name is Zoe Moula (well, Dr Zoe Moula!) and I’m an early career researcher investigating the effectiveness of arts therapies for children’s quality of life and wellbeing. During my PhD, I designed and conducted a pilot RCT for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties across five primary schools in the Northwest of England. The intervention included art therapy, music therapy, dance movement therapy, and dramatherapy. The 64 children who participated in this study had experienced domestic issues, such as divorce, parental separation, and on several occasions, domestic abuse. Some children were also adopted, while some were in foster care.
 
I was expected to present the findings of my study at 14th World Conference for Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling in Auckland University, New Zealand. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the conference was postponed for a year when I was no longer a student, and as such, the university where I conducted my research would not support me with the expenses.
 
I was very fortunate to receive the VAMHN ECR training bursary, which allowed me to present my PhD online. Following my presentation, I received excellent, constructive feedback from experts in this area, while I was also able to connect with other person-centred counsellors and psychotherapists nationally and internationally. I received great advice on how to apply for future ECR funding and which areas of my PhD could be improved to make my applications stronger. I am extremely thankful to the VAMHN network for offering me this opportunity and I would strongly advice fellow-ECRs to apply for this bursary.