Rosa Maria Stefanini de Macedo, Ph.D.
Brazil
08 July 1934 – 06 May 2024
A week after a warm and joyful celebration commemorating her 90th birthday in advance, our beloved PhD, Rosa (or Rosita, to some) bid us farewell. In the Brazilian context, she was a highly regarded educator, family therapist and psychologist. She was a mentor, friend and an inspiration to many of us. Although she has passed away, her luminous legacy will endure. Several generations of students from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP), including undergraduate, master and doctorate students, along with family and couple therapy trainees, clinical psychologists and human developmental psychologists, learned from her and were inspired by her wisdom. Rosa was a pioneer, founder of family and couple therapy training and research at PUCSP, who laid the groundwork for this field in Brazil. She published many books and articles which will remind us of her greatness for years to come. Rosa left us with many stories and warm memories.
Rosa Maria held a degree in Education, with a specialization in Clinical Psychology. She obtained her PhD in Psychology in 1973. Since 1958, she had been a research assistant at the Institute of Experimental Psychology in the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she worked as teacher, clinical supervisor, researcher, and adviser of doctoral and master thesis in the Post Graduate Program of Clinical Psychology. She attended a course in Family Therapy in the Medical Center of the Berkshires, Massachusetts, organized by Minuchin, Sluzki, and others (1985), and another training in Family Therapy at the Institute of Juvenile Research, Illinois Un., Chicago, with Beth Mc-Kune Karrer to become a Family Therapist. In 1989, she created the first specialization course for training in Family and Couples Therapy for graduate Psychologists in Brazil, at the Catholic University (540 Hours). Her areas of interest were in Family Relations, intra and inter system, for instance, family and public policies, health, justice and education systems, gender, racism and other cultural topics. At the ICCP, her themes were: “Complexity and Large Systems and Collaborative Practices: Tools and Professional Competence.”
She has published books and papers in scientific journals related to two main research groups: Family Relations: Structure and Dynamic, and Systemic Interventions in Different Contexts. Some of her books include: Qualitative Research in the Context of Family and Community; Family Therapy in Brazil, in the Last Decade; Expanding Horizons of Family Therapy; and Family and Community. Her research and interventions in emergent themes include: Homoparentality and Gender, and Living with Adolescents at the Present Time.
Most recent books:
For more information: Rosa Maria Stefanini de Macedo CV