Robin Sturman-Coombs

Robin Sturman-Coombs is a Senior Lecturer in Social Welfare within the Faculty of Health, Education and Society. He completed his BA in Social Work at the University of Northampton, achieving a 1^st Class Hons degree and then went onto practice as Social Worker, then latterly as a Senior Social Worker in Northamptonshire. He graduated with an MSc in Attachment Studies from the University of Roehampton and is currently undertaking his DProf with a specific focus on “Intuitive thinking and acting” in Social Work and the People Professions. He contributes to a number of modules from Foundation stage to Masters and is an External Examiner for the University of Worcester. He works as an Independent Tutor for a number of Universities supporting students studying to become a Social Worker and is a free-lance trainer, again with a specific interest in attachment. He is a member of BASW (British Association of Social Workers) and is registered with SWE (Social Work England). He has a deep interest in what unknown forces drive action (intuition) and  attachment across the life course. He is a passionate runner and can often be found at Park Runs. 

Robin has a number of research interests and is currently undertaking his DProf in Professional Practice, with a specific interest in the Intuitive Reasoning in Social Work teaching and practice.  His empirical research so far has identified there to be a number of factors which influence how academics construct and teach intuition to social work students.  This has been presented at an Annual Social Work Conference and a Post Graduate Research conference at the University of Northampton.  He is approaching the final year of his DProf studies and will be disseminating this research to relevant journals.

He also has a keen research interest in the role of attachment between and within family relationships and the impact that these can have on life long outcomes for children, young people and adults.

He has developed a keen and emerging special interest in Critical Discourse Analysis as a methodology.