Malta Union of Professional Psychologists president Bernard Caruana was recently nominated and elected executive council member of the European Federation of Psychology Associations (EFPA) at its general assembly held in Oslo, Norway.

He is now part of the core team of seven people forming EFPA's executive council, which represents psychology associations and federations from 34 European countries.

He is the first Maltese psychologist to be elected to such a post and the first Maltese psychologist to represent an international body of psychologists. He has been elected for a period of four years.

Mr Caruana is a clinical psychologist by profession and works as a senior clinical psychologist with the Health Division. Before joining the division in 1998, he worked with the Education Division. He has also lectured in psychology at the University and at the European Institute of Education.

He is a popular guest on many local television and radio programmes and is also a member of the national council of the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions (CMTU).

Mr Caruana studied psychology at the University of Malta and in 1993 was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to further his studies in India. He studied at Banaras Hindu University.

Apart from his training in psychology, he is a graduate of theology and has studied yoga and Indian psychology.