Dr
Alice
McEleney
Academic biography
I am Assistant Professor in Psychotherapy in the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, and Chair of the Doctorate in Psychotherapy programme.
My research focuses on the role of psychotherapy in improving the mental health and well-being of trauma survivors. More broadly, my interests include adversity and resilience; cultural diversity and psychological well-being; and the roles of mindfulness, compassion and embodiment in psychotherapy.
I have a multi-disciplinary academic background in psychology, cognitive neuroscience and psychotherapy. I completed a BA and PhD in experimental psychology at Trinity College Dublin, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in cognitive neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University and the National Institutes of Health in the USA. I later trained as an integrative psychotherapist at The Tivoli Institute in Dublin. I am a Chartered Psychologist of the Psychological Society of Ireland and an accredited member of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Before joining DCU, I worked as a psychotherapist in private practice, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Limerick, The Open University, Mary Immaculate College and Northumbria University, and an international instructor at Lampang College of Commerce and Technology in Thailand and Japan International Cooperation Agency in Japan.
Research interests
The goal of my research is to contribute to improving psychological well-being by understanding the processes involved in mental health, resilience, recovery, and psychological growth. I am interested in how people maintain good mental health and well-being in the face of adversity; how people recover from potentially traumatic experiences; and the positive psychological changes that may occur following life challenges.
A specific focus of my research is how mental health, resilience, and psychotherapeutic processes are affected by socio-emotional factors, such as social support, attachment bonds, and interpersonal emotion regulation. Another area of interest is the roles of mindfulness, compassion and embodiment in psychological well-being and psychotherapy.
My current research focuses on the role of psychotherapy in improving mental health and well-being in culturally diverse survivors of trauma. I welcome enquiries from potential PhD candidates interested in conducting research in this area and related topics.
I have supervised the following doctoral theses:
Supporting refugee clients therapeutically: An exploration of therapists' perspectives
Culturally adapted parenting interventions: Parent and practitioner experiences, especially those of Irish Travellers
Maintaining the self: A grounded theory study on how members of the Irish Traveller community attend to their mental health needs
I am currently co-supervising the following doctoral theses:
The lived experiences of psychotherapists providing psychotherapy in forensic mental health inpatient services
Talking the talk and walking the walk: A narrative inquiry into psychotherapists’ lived experience of resilience in clinical practice
Adverse childhood experiences and perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
The role of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in psychotherapy for comorbid substance use and trauma