Research Activities
Research on health and well-being
As experienced postdoctoral-trained psychologists we are passionate about research and research-informed training and practice. We work collaboratively with partners to understand challenges, and find innovative community and behavioural solutions that are timely, feasible, effective and evidence based. Some recent projects include:
- primary and/or secondary data analyses incl focus groups, surveys and interviews
- literature reviews and critical evaluations on a wide range of topics linked to psychology, CBT, age friendliness and/or health and well-being
- evidenced based evaluating health and well-being interventions
- kindness and compassion projects at individual, organisational and community levels,
- projects around ageing and older adults incl corporate training on ageism; and also community interventions promoting age friendliness or health into later years,
- projects involving young people which includes "Teen Stress Busters" community interventions, and
- corporate training with health professionals and businesses helping staff manage stress.
External Projects & Evaluations
As highly trained researchers we can assist with evaluations on national and EU-funded projects especially those connected to health, education or community development incl volunteering. This work can include:
- literature or desk-based research, e.g. to review background literature incl measures
- cross-sectional and/or longitudinal data collection design, analyses and writeups.
- data collection/analyses using quantitative and qualitative methods, e.g. focus groups, surveys, or interviews,
- and advanced primary or secondary analyses to incl evaluations on projects in process, or with data already collected.
Supervision of Postgraduate students
We are passionate about supporting the next generation of clinicians and researchers. To that end we are very experienced supervisors having supervised 20+ postgraduate students or trainees to date at Masters or doctoral level.
We work professionally with:
- counselling students from the main universities and colleges
- trainees from CBT PG Dipl courses who wish to do their placement with us (applications Sept / Jan)
- research students at undergraduate, Masters (MSc / MBA) and doctoral levels
- business studies and marketing students
Our Projects
Collaboration and Training
We collaborate with industry, academic centres, and other organisations at local, national and international level to find the best solutions for health and well-being challenges. These solutions are then tested, investigated and developed further across diverse groups of individuals and organisations. Such partners in these efforts include those from Health and Social Care Services, transport, and community and voluntary organisations.
Health Innovation
Our centre offers a range of informal, community-based training courses that will support and promote better physical health and well-being, including supports to manage most types of cravings and compulsions.
We are also involved at the cutting edge of a range of interventions to address emotional health problems. These include innovative evidence-based solutions and training packages so that people can gain information and techniques to manage different health challenges, ideally before a significant hit or emergency occurs! More information on our community courses can be seen here.
Recent activities / achievements
The past few years have been very busy and exciting:
- Centre Director Ann was an invited speaker at the World Congress on Gerontology & Palliative Care, Paris, August 23-24, 2018, and the 4th World Congress in Nursing and Healthcare, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 2018.
- Ann completed a 2017 second edition academic textbook in developmental psychology (with Prof Peter Coleman, University of Southampton)
- Ann represented Ireland at the European Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (EABCT) in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept 2016, and presented a symposium paper on managing stress at the annual conference
of the British Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP), June 2016 - We successfully completed several commissioned pieces of research on age friendliness
- Ongoing evaluations of our community courses incl a new teen version of the adult Stress Busters course
- Ann received n Excellence Award for the best case study at the 2014 annual conference of the BABCP in a poster outlining CBT treatment for social anxiety. Co-authors were Gerard McAleer and Dr Joanne Younge.