Profile

Paulina Szydłowska-Klakla, Ph.D., is a child psychologist, psychotherapist, and a cultural researcher She researches migrant experience of families and children and the process of acculturation. She also investigates the wellbeing of migrants and support available to migrant children in schools and beyond. She specializes in qualitative research.

Her doctoral thesis on “Acculturation of Polish parents and children living in Spain. The Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM) approach” won the first place in the Joanna Matejko competition for the best doctoral thesis concerning international migrations to and from Poland, and the Polish diaspora.

As a child and adolescent psychotherapist she uses the systemic and psychodynamic approach. While working at a specialized clinic for children with learning difficulties in Kraków, she carried out psychological assessment of migrant children and youth. She collaborates with the Lesser Poland Non-public Center for Teaching Excellence, where she trains teachers on working with multicultural classes at schools. Additionally, she cooperates with Bilingualism Matters in Kraków, an international organization that makes the research-based evidence on multilingualism and language learning available and accessible to families, communities, and professionals in education, health or policy.

At SWPS University she teaches classes in developmental psychology and cross-cultural psychology.