Iulia Sîrbu

Psychological Counselor

The experience of 12 years as a nurse (first at the neonatology section of the Polizu Maternity Hospital in Bucharest, then at the operating room of the St. Pantelimon Emergency Clinical Hospital) and my studies in dental technique helped me to be elected, in 2000, in the team of the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation, to work in the first itinerant medical project in Romania at that time, the Dental and Dermatological Assistance Program through the Mobile Unit (UM), whose beneficiaries were HIV-infected children from all over the country. A drawing made by a 13-year-old patient and the meaningful interpretation made by the psychologist in the day ward where the girl was a patient caught my attention.

I followed, almost naturally, the study of psychology in order to understand how to better prepare myself to accompany people on the path of accepting a difficult diagnosis and how to put myself in the best shape to psychologically assist patients who are dealing with the trauma of a chronic illness .

Continuing to be involved in projects aimed at children’s health, I coordinated the First Bebe prenatal education program and contributed to the qualification of unemployed women as baby-sitters, within the School of Midwives project. Currently, I am an active part in most of the foundation’s projects that aim to provide medical and psychosocial services to people from vulnerable groups.

After graduating from the Faculty of Sociology-Psychology, I trained in psychological counseling through the Association of Short, Collaborative, Resource and Solution-Oriented Therapies, and now I am studying the methods proposed within Multigenerational Psychotherapy, which explores the way in which difficult events in our lives and family of origin can significantly influence our identity.