Research Activities

Research on health and well-being

At The I Can Centre™ we engage in multi-disciplinary research and training with a vision of "a kinder society" which includes health and well-being for all. Towards this vision, we work collaboratively with statutory and non-statutory partners to understand challenges, and find community and behavioural change solutions that are also timely, feasible, effective and evidence based. For instance, 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
developing, piloting and evaluating a range of health and well-being interventions using evidence-based theory and techniques
developing and evaluating theory and research on kindness and compassion, at individual, organisational and community levels,
research inspiring health and well-being among older adults, which includes community interventions towards age friendliness (see AgeSPIRE.org),
research on interventions with young people which includes "Teen Stress Busters" community interventions (see KidsSPIRE.org), and
research and training for health professionals and business incl culture change, and workshops to manage stress (see our corporate section).

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.

More shortly

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.

Supervision of Postgraduate students

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

Recent Activities

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) - see right for more information
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
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.

2nd edition 2017 textbook in psychology co-authored by Prof Peter G Coleman and Dr Ann O'Hanlon