Kate O'Connor

Experience

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  Empowerment Plus

  Mar 2011 - Mar 2011

  Volunteer

  Empowerment Plus is an organisation that provides assistance to at-risk families and children by devising individual care plans to suit the families’ needs. My role involved accompanying and observing an experienced psychologist while visiting her clients. I was also required to ensure sessions were kept confidential and I gained a further awareness of the Code of Professional Ethics, as defined by the Psychological Society of Ireland.

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  Ability West

  May 2013 - Nov 2013

  Volunteer

  In May of 2013 I began to volunteer for Ability West. Ability West is an organisation that assists adults and children with intellectual disabilities, by offering them a wide range of community-based services, and aims to enhance the social lives of those with intellectual disabilities and to ensure their participation in the local community. I volunteered 1-2 days per week in a centre that provides day services for those with moderate levels of intellectual disability.As the team at Ability West includes members from a wide range of professions, this position has given me the opportunity to work as part of a multidisciplinary team. The role demonstrated the importance of combining expertise from different professions in order to deliver services to best suit the individual's needs. My role involved assisting staff members in planning and delivering programmes such as; interpersonal and relationship skills, communication skills, literacy classes, and sign language classes, amongst others Show less

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  NUI Galway

  Dec 2013 - Dec 2013

  Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

  In December 2013 I was invited to attend a series of lectures by Éamonn Ó Dochartaigh of the student counselling service at National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). This course was aimed at psychology graduates and student counsellors and ran for 60 hours. The course focused on applying cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorders, health anxiety, eating disorders, panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. Throughout the course we became familiar with assessment and case formulation, how to identify and re-evaluate core beliefs, assumptions and automatic thoughts, how to structure a CBT session and how to devise behavioural experiments. These skills were then applied by engaging in role-plays with classmates, which were supervised by an experienced student counsellor. This introduction to CBT re-affirmed my desire to develop further counselling and clinical skills pursue a career in clinical psychology Show less

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  Aware

  Sept 2014 - Jun 2016

  Beat the Blues Online Supporter

  This position involves providing support, guidance and non-judgemental advice to those participating in the Beat the Blues programme. This programme is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and aims to equip adolescents with coping skills to overcome difficulties and challenges they may encounter.

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  Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

  Jan 2015 - Jan 2019

  • Assistant Psychologist

    Aug 2017 - Jan 2019

  • Research Associate

    Jan 2015 - Aug 2017
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  First Tutors

  Sept 2017 - Jan 2018

  Private Tutor

  Statistics Tutor (Private)Giving private lessons in statistics to psychology students, using SPSS. Topics include data entry, screening, coding, identifying statistical tests for use, analysis, and reporting results in APA style (6th Edition). Many of my students have received distinctions in their exams and dissertations and gained entry into postgraduate courses.

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  Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

  Aug 2019 - now

  • Clinical Psychologist

    Jan 2022 - now

  • Trainee Clinical Psychologist

    Aug 2019 - Sept 2022