---

Register on Eventbrite

Registration fee: £38.62 (standard) - £14.79 (full-time students)

A limited number of full bursaries are available for students and individuals who may face financial barriers to attendance due to the economic circumstances of their country. If you would like to be considered for a bursary, please contact [email protected].

---

Schedule of Sessions
​

Thursday 18th June, 2026
​​
Morning
10:00am: Welcome
10:10am:  Jeffrey Jensen Arnett: The importance of taking a global approach to understanding transitions. Interview with Clare Mehta 
10:50: Break 
11:00am: Namibia Up
11:50: Break
12:00: Amber Thalmayer: Making Namibia Up. Interview with Jeffrey Jensen Arnett 
 
12:45: Lunch
 
Afternoon
2pm: Oliver Robinson: Quarter-life crisis around the world: An analysis of brief written accounts from emerging adults in 8 countries
2:30: Break
2:45: Researchers panel: Adult Transitions in India, Kosovo, and Lebanon 
3:45: Break
4:00pm: Practitioners Panel: Global approaches to helping clients navigate transitions
5:00pm: Closing remarks

​
NB. Timings below are Central European Time. British Summer Time is 1 hour earlier (so event starts at 09.00am), and Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Co-Ordinated Time is 2 hours earlier (so event starts at 08.00am).

---

Summer Symposium 2026
Detailed Programme

---

10:10 am: Jeffrey Jensen Arnett: The importance of taking a global approach to understanding transitions. Interview with Clare Mehta 
​
In this session, Clare M. Mehta, President of ESRAD, will interview Professor Jeffery Jensen Arnett, originator of the theory of emerging adulthood. Arnett will be asked questions relating to the development of his theory of emerging adulthood, and why it was so important to ensure that emerging adulthood was developed as a cultural theory. He will also be asked how and why culture continues to shape his work on adult transitions and adult development. This will be an interactive session and symposium participants will be provided with opportunities to ask professor Arnett questions of their own.

---

11:00 am: Namibia Up documentary screening
​
Namibia Up is a companion documentary film to the Africa Long Life Study (ALLS), an evolving, inclusive research initiative that centers the lived experiences of emerging adults in Namibia, South Africa, and Kenya. 
Namibia Up was created to bring the significance of longitudinal research on emerging adulthood into public view. Focusing on young Namibians, the film offers a deeply contextualised glimpse into their transitions into adulthood as they reflect on their pasts, imagine their futures, and navigate the complex realities that shape their lives. While rooted in Namibia, the stories reflect broader experiences across sub-Saharan Africa, offering critical insights often absent from dominant psychological narratives.
The film acts as a bridge between academic research and public understanding. By presenting grounded, authentic accounts, it encourages reflection on the contextual challenges and opportunities of growing up in contemporary Africa.
The screening of the film at the summer symposium will be followed by a post screening discussion between Jeff Arnett and researcher and film maker Amber Thalmayer.

---

12:00: Amber Thalmayer: Making Namibia Up. Interview with Jeffrey Jensen Arnett 
 
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, originator of the theory of emerging adulthood, will interview Amber Thalmayer about her research on the transition to adulthood in sub-Saharan Africa, and her experience filming Namibia Up. This will be an interactive session and symposium participants will be encouraged to contribute their own questions to the discussion.

---

2 pm: Oliver Robinson: Quarter-life crisis around the world: An analysis of brief written accounts from emerging adults in 8 countries
​​
Professor Robinson will report on research conducted with colleagues from across the globe that assessed prevalence and brief written descriptions of early adult crisis in 18–29-year-olds from eight countries (UK, Greece, Czechia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Brazil), with a total sample of N=2247. The three research questions that directed the inquiry were as follows:
1) What is the prevalence of self-reported developmental crisis episodes in emerging adults across the UK, Greece, Czechia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Brazil?
2) What emotions and events are conveyed within brief written descriptions of these crisis episodes?
3) How do the written emotions and events compare in content and frequency across the participating countries?
Crisis prevalence rates found ranged from 40% to 77% per country. Thematic analysis of descriptions of crisis elicited external and internal crisis features. With regards to external features, the most prevalent were career transition, financial difficulties, studying-based stress and struggle, and family difficulties. Internal features that were most prevalent were feeling fearful/anxious/worried, negative self-evaluation, feeling sad/down, and feelings of confusion/uncertainty. Some countries showed specific features, such as a high prevalence of political and economic issues in Pakistan, but there was a high level of consistency across countries, pointing to similar transitional challenges and issues faced by young adults around the world.

---

2:45: Researchers panel: Adult Transitions in India, Kosovo, and Lebanon 
 
Featuring:

Dr. Deeya Mitra
​
Adulthood in contemporary India is shaped by tensions between autonomy, family responsibility, and social expectations. Drawing on survey and interview findings, Dr. Mitra will discuss how emerging and established adults understand adulthood, regulate developmental goals, and navigate dissonance between the self, parents, and society.

---

Anila Shala

​Ms. Shala will report on research exploring the experience of transitions and turning points in emerging adults from Kosovo and their impact on well-being and future orientation. To further investigate their experience and provide insight into potential future pathways, a group of established adults was also involved. The findings are discussed in relation to Kosovo’s unique landscape, emphasizing that developmental transitions and turning points may unfold in close connection with the country’s own recent trajectories of social and historical change.

---

Dany Abi Hadir
 
​Mr. Abi Hadir will report on research investigating the patterns characterizing developmental crises in over 90 emerging adults from Lebanon and Italy. This research explores the relationship between various dimensions of resilience and the experiences reported by participants. Additionally, the study examines the variations in  the reported major stressors across these cultural contexts, providing insights into how the social, political and economic contexts  can shape the experiences of developmental challenges.

---

4:00pm: Practitioners Panel: Global approaches to helping clients navigate transitions
 
Featuring:

Simon Lovegrove - Harthill Consulting
Simon is an experienced consultant, executive coach, change leader, and facilitator. He brings intention and deep creative energy to his work and blends this with strategic and business understanding to support his clients’ own development and their commercial ambitions. His work with organisations focuses on developing the emotional and strategic competence of leaders and their teams, and through this, developing organisation wide capability for change and collaboration.
Over 30 years, he has worked in several industries focusing on pharmaceutical as well as consumer brands, and utilities. He is familiar with the challenges for global organisations having consulted in every continent and in emerging markets. His previous experience includes consulting in strategy and building entrepreneurial and high growth companies.

---

Melissa George - Grounding leadership
Melissa George, Ph.D., has always been most alive in the work of building community — creating conditions where people belong, learn, and trust one another. A leadership and organizational development consultant, she brings two decades of experience across educational communities in six countries, having served as teacher, principal, and director of teaching and learning. Her graduate work covers Human Development, International Educational Administration, and Organizational Change and Development.
Melissa's expertise centers on supporting leaders in and through transitions — the moments when the work gets harder, the stakes feel higher, and growth becomes possible. Trained in Cognitive Coaching and Theory U, her work draws on adult development theory and sits at the intersection of change leadership, organizational development, and leadership formation, accompanying leaders as they build the capacity to navigate complexity and create cultures where people genuinely thrive.

---

Bettina Wichers - Conscious Ageing
Bettina is an intuitive researcher and consciousness teacher who combines solid academic training with deep spiritual exploration and lived experience. With a background in gerontology and educational sciences she focuses on how people’s consciousness develops over the lifespan, and especially in (old) age, whilst emphasising the need for an integral conscious ageing practice to ensure that consciousness development remains stable and healthy.
As a gerontologist and adult education specialist, she has worked in geriatric psychiatric care, taught in care settings and universities, and coached people on consciousness, adult development and dementia. She also advises organisations on ageing and dementia, trains leaders in communication, and works as an independent researcher, author and reviewer in the fields of ageing, consciousness and dementia.

---

Lorette Theron - Valpeo
Lorette Theron is an Industrial and Organisational Psychologist with over 20 years of experience in leadership assessment, organisational transformation, and psychological development. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, she has worked with clients across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the United States. She is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, previously lectured in leadership, and is a Partner at VALPEO.
Her work focuses on helping leaders and organisations navigate complexity, build psychological safety, and create environments where people can thrive and lead authentically. Outside of work, she performs as a flautist in symphony orchestras and enjoys endurance hiking.

---

Prerna Mehta - Kaha Mind
Prerna is an executive coach and RCI-licensed Clinical Psychologist (MPhil) with Kaha Mind, where she works closely with founders, leaders, and high-performing professionals navigating the psychological demands of leadership, growth, and decision-making. Her work integrates psychological depth with practical insight, helping individuals build self-awareness, resilience, and healthier ways of relating to themselves and the people around them. Known for her grounded and collaborative style, she brings a nuanced understanding of human behaviour to conversations around performance, identity, relationships, and leadership.
Alongside her coaching practice, Prerna leads clinical services at Kaha Mind and heads The Edge, Kaha’s professional development and training space for therapists. As an RCI-licensed Clinical Psychologist, she works with individuals across age groups using evidence-based, trauma-informed, person-centered, and queer-affirmative approaches to psychotherapy, supporting concerns including anxiety, depression, addiction, and sexual dysfunction, among others.

---

Register on Eventbrite