360° joined us for yet another insightful and inclusive discussion on campus! The concept of 360° was launched back in 2014 as a collaborative project between Betapsi and Willingness Malta in order to discuss a topic from a multidisciplinary perspective.
“The fact that I work in a multidisciplinary team helps me understand the legal perspective of separation, the children’s perspective on separation, and what other schools of thought think about the issue that I am dealing with while working with my client. I would say that all professions involved are getting a more holistic and round view of the same issue. Then when we report back to our clients, we are giving a much fuller service without having to refer them all to a lot of different people and without trying to fix it all ourselves. That is the whole concept of 360°”.
Matthew Bartolo, Founder of Willingness
The workshop revolved around the case of Jessica, where professionals from the Willingness team tackled the case from different perspectives. Participants were split into three groups all with a different mentor in a specialised profession.
An overview of the case
Jessica is a five-year-old girl and is perceived as a very sweet person. That being said, she gets a lot of emotional outbursts especially when her dad is around. The only way she sleeps is between the parents and her parents are fighting a lot due to this issue. This is mostly because the father does not want the child to sleep between then.
Joe is a 43-year-old man, very distant and always messing around with his car in his garage. He does not spend much time with his wife or his daughter. He is soon approaching retirement as he works as a soldier and he is worried about being bored.
Anna is a 38-year-old woman who is constantly thinking about her femininity and her role as a woman. She did not bond with her child. Anna is a very dedicated teacher and focused a lot on training and won a lot of prizes. She sends Jessica to all kinds of after school activities and pusher her to be a high achiever.
The issue and the possible solutions
The main information derived from this issue was that Jessica had a traumatic birth; Anna suffered a lot whilst giving birth and has been unable to have sex since then. Although there is no physical trauma, she refuses to have sex and have had a sex-less marriage for the last five years.
Looking at the case from a sexual perspective was Matthew Bartolo, a sex therapist who was in charge of the first group. Abigail Church, a therapist with a vast counselling experience with teens, children and parents, was the mentor of the second group. She focused on Jessica’s behaviour and the atmosphere with her parents. Assigned with the third group was Karl Grech, a counsellor who holds a Master’s degree in Transcultural Counselling. He and his group focused on Joe’s behaviour.
“Even though we have done these kinds of discussions quite often, I still learn something new every time. You are getting different perspectives, different personalities, different professions, different ages who are discussing the same issue and these are all questions that we go back to the clinic and use with our clients”.
Upcoming events
On the 7th of March, 360° is coming back with another conference to discuss broader perspectives on the topic! The speakers will be ranging from doctors and gynecologists talking about sex to a sex worker to an artist who paints nudes. This offers a variety of professionals coming together discussing sex in smaller workshops. At the end of the conference, a symposium will be held where individuals present their own research related to sex. Other than that, the conference will also be discussing relationships, sexuality, sexual dysfunction, gender, family, and education.
Another event of theirs will be held on the 5th of March where there will be a 3-hour long workshop called Sex and Porn Addiction. This workshop will be tackling the issues whether it is an addiction or not, and how to work with clients who have sex or porn addiction. The event will be held at Razzett l-Antik, Qormi.
More details to be out soon.