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Dr Gina Di Malta

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Lecturer in Counselling and/or Psychotherapy
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Psychology & Counselling
  • Psychology
  • gina.dimalta

Web links

Professional biography

Dr Gina Di Malta is a lecturer in psychotherapy and counselling at the Open University. She also coordinates a pluralistic therapy research clinic at the Centre for Research in Social and Psychological Transformation (CREST), where she collaborates on research focused on the developments of pluralistic therapy.

Prior to this, Dr Di Malta was an Associate lecturer for the University of Roehampton and the Existential Academy, where she taught primarily Humanistic approaches and research methods on Counselling Psychology doctoral courses.

Dr Di Malta is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. She has worked in various clinical settings including NHS Increasing Access for Psychological Therapies (IAPT), NHS primary and secondary care, Mind, University counselling services, and in private practice.

Qualifications

2016. Doctor of Counselling Psychology (PsychD, awarded May 2017), Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton, UK

2013. MA in Clinical/Counselling Psychology (Valedictorian), Department of Psychology, La Salle University, USA

2010. MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK

2009. BA in Psychology (Distinction), Department of Psychology, Empire State College, USA

Professional Memberships

Health Care Profession Council - HCPC registred (July 2017, PYL34509)

British Psychological Society - Chartered Psychologist (248376)

Higher Education Academy - Associate Fellow (Oct 2017, PR135330)

Pluralistic Research Steering Committee - Member (April 2019-present)

Research interests

Dr Gina Di Malta has research interests in the developments of psychotherapy and counselling, specifically around patient choice. Research topics include client agency, goal-oriented practices, client preferences for therapy, shared-decision making, relational depth and mutuality, scale development, and pluralism in research and practice.

Published/Forthcoming papers

Di Malta, G., Evans, C., Cooper, M. (2019). Development and validation of the relational depth frequency scale. Psychotherapy Research. DOI: 10.1080/10503307.2019.1585590

Di Malta, G., Oddli, H. W., Cooper, M. (2019). From intention to action: A mixed methods study of clients’ experiences of goal-oriented practices. Journal of Clinical Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/jclp.22821

Farr, J. Di Malta, G., Cooper, M. (2019). Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial of Counselling in a Community Mental Health Setting: Pitfalls and Learnings. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. DOI: 10.1002/capr.12262

Di Malta, G., Oza, M., Pauli, R., Cooper, M. (2019). Development and validation of the Measure Assessment Form. Pluralistic Conference.

Wright, N. D., Bahrami, B., Johnson, E., Di Malta, G., Rees, G., Frith, C. D., & Dolan, R. J. (2012). Testosterone disrupts human collaboration by increasing egocentric choices. Proc. R. Soc. B, 279(1736), 2275-2280.

Di Malta, Cooper, M., Vos, J., Van Der Veer, K. (in press). The Use of Three-Step Test Interviews in the Validation of a Psychotherapy Scale: An Evaluation. Quality and Quantity.

Knox, S, Cooper. M, Di Malta, G, Oddli, H., Swift, J. (In preparation). Clients’ experiences of therapeutic preferences: A Consensual Qualitative Research. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 

Cooper, M., Di Malta, G., Evans, C. (In preparation). Relational depth and therapeutic outcomes. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 

Cooper, M. Di Malta, G., Norcross, J. (In preparation). Client Preferences Inventory II. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 

 

Teaching interests

  • Person-Centred theory and practice
  • Pluralistic practice
  • Quantitative research methods
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Psychological assessment and formulation
  • Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy
  • Third wave approaches and mindfulness 

 

Taught Modules and Lectures

2019.    Pluralistic therapy in context. DPsych, City University, UK.

2019.    Qualitative Research methods. Whole module (online), DPsych, New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC), Middlesex University, UK

2019.    Clinical supervision. Whole module (online), DPsych, NSPC, UK

2019.    Focussing/ Emotion Focussed Therapy. PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2018/19. Person-centred skills practice. Whole module, PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2018/19. Professional Practice Group. Whole module, PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2018.    Quantitative research methods (online). Whole module, DPsych, NSPC, UK

2018.    Person-centred theory: The necessary and sufficient conditions. PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2018.    Psychological contact and relational depth. PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2018.    Person-centred theory: Active client-active therapist. PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2017/18. Collaborative Assessment. PsychD, University of Roehampton, UK

2017.    The Identity of a Counselling Psychologist. DPsych, NSPC, UK

2017.    Counselling in a Higher Education Setting. DPsych, NSPC, UK

Publications

From intention to action: A mixed methods study of clients' experiences of goal-oriented practices (2019-10)
Di Malta, Gina; Oddli, Hanne W. and Cooper, Mick
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 75(10) (pp. 1770-1789)

Development and validation of the relational depth frequency scale (2019)
Di Malta, Gina; Evans, Chris and Cooper, Mick
Psychotherapy Research ((Early Access))

Pilot Randomised controlled trial of counselling in a community mental health setting: Pitfalls and learnings (2019)
Farr, Joanna; Di Malta, Gina and Cooper, Mick
Counselling and Psychotherapy Research ((Early Access))

Testosterone disrupts human collaboration by increasing egocentric choices (2012-06-30)
Wright, Nicholas D.; Bahrami, Bahador; Johnson, Emily; Di Malta, Gina; Rees, Geraint; Frith, Christopher D. and Dolan, Raymond J.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1736) (pp. 2275-2280)