After completing my BSc Hons degree in Psychology (1st Class), I obtained my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Queens University Belfast in 1997. Since qualifying as a clinical psychologist I have worked primarily within the field of addiction. I am a full member of the British Psychological Society, including the Division of Clinical Psychology, and am registered as a clinical psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council.

Since 2003 I have been employed as Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Addiction Services in the Northern HSC Trust (0.6 wte).  Clinically my areas of interest include working with individuals who have a history of trauma or co-morbid difficulties, and neuropsychological assessment.  I also have a strong interest and extensive experience in consultancy and supervision.

I have worked as a member of  the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme team at QUB since 2003, and have held a variety of roles including Academic Director, Clinical Director, and Joint Programme Director.

A selection of D.Clin. Psych theses supervised to successful completion:

The Assessment of Premorbid Intelligence in Traumatic Brain Injury (Bravey, S.A., 2008)

Executive functioning in relation to age of onset and pattern of consumption in problem drinkers (McCullough, E., 2008)

An exploratory analysis of voice hearing in PTSD: Potential associated mechanisms (Anketell, C., 2008)

The Trauma Still Goes On: The Multigenerational Legacy of Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ (Downes, C., 2009)

Information Processing Biases in Adolescents at Risk of Developing Adult Alcohol Problem Drinkers (Gallagher, J., 2009)

The Impact of Shame on therapeutic alliance and intimate relationships. (Black, R. 2010)

The impact of trauma on Therapeutic Alliance in an Adult Addiction population (McLaughlin, E., 2011)

Outcomes of decompressive hemicraniectomy following MCA infarction (McKenna, A., 2011)

Impact of illness perceptions on outcome in alcohol problems (McMurray, K., 2012)

Alcohol misuse therapy and child protection: an interpretive phenomenological analysis of the experiences of mothers. (McCallion, A,. 2014)

Impact of experimental manipulation of attentional bias to alcohol-related stimuli on initial orienting and maintained attention in heavy social drinkers: An eye-tracking study (Mallon, P., 2014).

Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia as mediators between Attachment and the Therapeutic Alliance within Addictions. (Toye, L., 2014)

Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation and Alcohol Attentional Bias in a Sample of Outpatients Attending Addiction Services. (Darcy, D., 2015)

The Mediating Role of Trauma Appraisals between Traumatic Experiences and Trauma-Related Distress. (Mitchell, R., 2016)

Examining the role of compassion in predicting both resilience and psychological difficulty among a sample with a history of childhood adversity. (Brennan, K., 2016)

Long-term Neuropsychological Outcomes Following Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Acoustic Neuromas (Brownlee, N, 2017)

Psychometric Evaluation and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (Moore, J., 2017)

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of Trauma History Measures (Johnston, J., 2017)

An Evaluation of Trauma History Measures in Clinical and Research Practice (Coyle, L., 2018)

The relationship between alienation appraisals and trauma (McIlveen, R., 2019)

Impact of experimental manipulation of attentional bias to alcohol-related stimuli on initial orienting and maintained attention in adolescent drinkers using eye-tracking methodology (McGivern, C., 2019)

Neuropsychological and Psychosocial Outcomes for survivors of Sub-Arachnoid Haemorrhage (Burke, M., 2019)

An Exploration of Alcohol Use, Attachment, and Recovery in Psychosis (O’Connor, M., 2019)

Current Research Supervision

Neuropsychological and psychosocial outcomes following endovascular thrombectomy versus intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke.

Exploring the Impact of Alcohol on Neuro-rehabilitation Outcomes Following a Traumatic Brain Injury

Vicarious Post-Traumatic Growth in Therapists who work with Trauma

Using 360° Video Virtual Reality Graded Exposure for Social Anxiety

Post-traumatic Growth and quality of life among survivors of the Northern Ireland troubles

Undergraduate Teaching

Psychological Approaches to Distress (level 3)

Postgraduate Teaching

DClinPsych Placement Co-ordinator                    

DClinPsych Addictions sub-module                                           

DClinPsych Modules (various)