Dr GERGANA GANEVA

My interdisciplinary academic and professional background spans the fields of Classical Philology (The University of Sofia), Psychology (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Social Work (Liverpool Hope University), Counselling (The University of Manchester), Art Therapy (The University of Chester), Higher Education (PGCTHE- Edge Hill University), as well as Performing and Visual Arts. I have worked extensively with culturally diverse individuals, groups and communities to address inequalities and wellbeing issues through therapeutic approaches and co-create programs from the ground up through the use of creative methods.

My research interests include the areas of Modern slavery and human trafficking, forced migration and female offending, where issues such as inequalities, marginalization, transition, acculturation and identity, are explored through collaborative, creative, verbal and non-verbal methods. Methodologically, I have worked with Arts-based research, Visual methods, Phenomenology, Narrative Inquiry, Heuristic Research, Practice as research, Action research, Theatre for democracy and Collaborative approaches. My current research builds on collaborative, narrative and arts-based methodologies, to incorporate participants’ creativity and active engagement and systematically explore trafficked people’s lived experiences in the UK. Specifically, the research offers new insights into participants’ sense of self that includes emotive and aesthetic qualities, to illuminate the process of integration and better explore visions for wellbeing, rehabilitation and agency post-trafficking identification that add to the body of the literature on migration studies, therapeutic approaches and arts-based collaborative methodologies.

Within the Counselling and Psychotherapy Programmes, I contribute to a range of modules on Expressive Personal Development; Creative and Therapeutic Skills; Research Methods; Contemporary Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy; Client Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy; Integrated Personal Development; Advanced Supervised Practice; Therapeutic and Psychological Theories; Professional and Ethical Practice.

At the Department of Applied Health and Social care, I taught sessions on Sustaining Families & Communities; Vulnerability in Society; Women and Girls Offending; Global Families; Psychosocial Analysis of the Offending Behaviour and Communication Skills.