Here at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPHMS), our Psychology Department is made up of a team of clinical and counselling psychologists who provide a range of inpatient and outpatient treatment to adolescents, adults, and older adults.
As a team, we believe that psychological distress is often an understandable response to the person’s past and present experiences. Psychological formulation is a framework that links the connections between a person’s individual behaviours, experiences and characteristics. Rather than focusing solely on a person’s diagnosis, we take a formulation-based, trauma-informed approach to psychological distress.
We work collaboratively with individuals using a compassionate, narrative and person-centred approach. Together, we develop a shared understanding of the person’s unique life experiences that may have contributed to their distress. This work forms the basis for guiding personalised and effective interventions.
Group programmes
We provide a range of evidence-based outpatient group programmes and therapies such as Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Group Schema Therapy. The aim of these groups is to empower individuals both personally and interpersonally.
Our programmes are also designed for specific age ranges. For example, we deliver an Adolescent Psychology Skill Group, which invites both adolescents and parents to attend, and an Emotion-Focused Therapy group for young adults. Our older adult psychology-led groups offer both brief and longer-term group psychological interventions, including Coping for Older Adults, Sage and CFT for Older Adults.
You can see more on our programmes here.
Research
As clinicians, we are guided by evidence-based practices to offer the highest standard of care. We also contribute to the evidence body by conducting research that furthers our understanding of the unique needs of service users.
Research has allowed us to refine and improve existing interventions. Our research is both qualitative and quantitative. This allows for service users to give feedback and help us develop and evaluate innovative group interventions, such as Group Radical Openness, the Formulation Group, the Trauma Programme, and CFT for Eating Disorders.
Training and development
We are committed to attending external expert supervision and ongoing Continuous Professional Development, so that our wide range of specialised interventions are delivered to the highest standard.
We also place a real value on training the next generation of psychologists. We currently sponsor two trainees a year as part of the University College Dublin Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology.
Our team
Adjunct Professor Clodagh Dowling is our Director of Psychology.
You can see our full team below. If you are interested in joining our Psychology Department, we would love to hear from you.
You can find our current vacancies here.
If a role you are interested in is currently not listed, you can make an enquiry to our Human Resources Department here.
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See our team members
Dr Claire Atkins, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Claire Coffey, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Eimear Crowe, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Liesl Dart, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Tara Deehan, Senior Counselling Psychologist.
Dr Aoife Durcan, Senior Counselling Psychologist.
Dr Rachel Egan, Principal Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Ruth Groarke, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Cliona Hallissey, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Georgina Heffernan, Psychologist in Clinical Training.
Dr Caragh Hesse Tyson, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Violet Johnstone, Senior Counselling Psychologist.
Dr Emer Long, Clinical Psychologist.
Adjunct Professor Dr Karen Looney, Principal Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist.
Dr Mairéad Losty, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Emma Maloney, Psychologist in Clinical Training.
Dr Cian McDonough, Senior Counselling Psychologist.
Dr James McElvaney, Senior Counselling Psychologist.
Dr Fionnuala McEnery, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Maria McMorrow, Administrator.
Dylan Moore, Principal Counselling Psychologist.
Dr Mary Nolan, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Elizabeth O’Brien, Psychologist in Clinical Training.
Dr Muireann O'Donnell, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Claire O'Driscoll Lawrie, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Kevin O'Hanrahan, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Aideen O'Neill, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Aisling O’Neill, Psychologist in Clinical Training.
Professor Gary O'Reilly, Principal Psychologist.
Dr Claire O'Sullivan, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Jessica O'Sullivan, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Rachel Parkinson, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Sarah-Louise Tarpey, Clinical Psychologist.
Adjunct Associate Professor Dr Conal Twomey, Senior Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Niamh Willis, Clinical Psychologist.
Find out more about our programmes
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Adolescent Mental Health Services