Dr. Nicola O’Sullivan
I am an Independent Social Care Consultant to organisations and teams in Ireland and the UK. I am a Visiting Lecturer with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust on their Social Work and Social Care Doctorate Programme, and a visiting lecturer and tutor at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin. I am also a visiting lecturer at MTU on their Master of Arts in Art Therapy course and a consultant with Careers In-depth. Since 2021, my colleague Dr Anne Golden and I have been working with the SATU (Sexual Assault Treatment Units) Team, providing professional therapeutic spaces and group reflective practice to frontline forensic nurses and doctors.
I have worked with children and families in community and residential settings in Ireland since 2001. I am also a clinical supervisor to frontline practitioners and senior leaders in child and family services and private organisations. I have a special interest in teams at work in health, education, and social care settings. Much of my work includes facilitating reflective practice spaces for leadership teams in social care and social work in Ireland and the UK. Alongside this, I provide consultancy to senior leaders.
I hold a Master’s in Child Protection and Welfare, a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Supervision, and a Professional Doctorate in Social Care and Emotional Wellbeing. My professional doctorate training has allowed me to study and practice clinical work in a leading mental health setting.
My continued work at the Tavistock and in frontline practice settings has challenged me to consider diversity, race, and complexity as central aspects of our work in health, social care, and social work organisations. My research interests include complexity at work, supervision, leadership and consultancy, and reflective practice.
In my consulting work with organisations, I’ve been involved in supporting senior leaders to think about themselves in their role at work. Together we have reflected on their senior teams and getting the most from people at work.
What especially interests me is to observe organisations at work. To consider what motivates people, how to get the most out of people while attending to their wellbeing and personal and professional growth. My capacity to relate and engage and to think with a wide variety of people at work is what most leaders find supportive.
EXPERIENCE
- Visiting Lecturer at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. 2020-Present
- Clinical Supervisor to Frontline Practitioners in Health and Social Care
- Guest Lecturer at the Munster Technology University. 2020 – Present
- Visiting Lecturer and Tutor at Trinity College Dublin. 2014 – Present
- Associate at Ag Eisteacht. 2020 – 2022
- The Bessborough Centre. Head of Research, Education and Training 2009 – 2018
- Founding Member of BASCPAN – Irish Branch 2014 – 2017
Family Support
Working with parents and children is some of the most challenging and rewarding work I do. Especially because it takes humility and care and thoughtfulness. Parents and children are the experts in their own lives. Introducing an outsider like me into a family system can feel challenging and exposing.
So I try to be mindful of my presence and to take great care in the work that I do. My main objective in this work is to try to create space with families to think about their experiences and to begin to make sense of them in a safe and trusting relationship.
This isn’t always possible to achieve but a lot can be learned that can be helpful to all members of the family. In order to do this work attention to my own practice is essential and so my own supervision and reflective practice are critical and something I prioritise.
Supervision Consultation Group
This four-day training programme endorsed by Social Care Ireland provides a comprehensive introduction to supervision in Health & Social Care settings. It is ideal for practitioners who are currently providing supervision or those interested in taking on a supervisory role.
The course focuses on developing supportive, educational, and formative supervision skills, with special attention to diversity, culture, and context. Participants will work in both small and large groups, engaging with supervision models, including the 7-Eyed Model of Supervision (Hawkins & McMahon, 2020).
Who is this training for?
Professionals in Health & Social Care, such as Social Care workers, Social workers, Youth workers, and managers, who wish to enhance their supervisory skills.
Training cost: €500 per person, including lunch, refreshments, and training materials.
Published Papers
You go in heavy and you come out light
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of reflective practice experiences in an Irish infant mental health setting
Creating space to think
and feel in child protection social work; a psychodynamic intervention
Working in complex contexts
mother social workers and the mothers they meet
Centre-based supervised child-parent contact in Ireland:
the views and experiences of fathers, supervisors and key stakeholders
The danger of denying emotions in our work
BASW, Professional Social Work Magazine.
Anchoring social care and social work practice
in structured reflection: introducing a model of group reflective practice