Published Papers

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You go in heavy and you come out ligh

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of reflective practice experiences in an Irish infant mental health setting

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Working in complex contexts

mother social workers and the mothers they meet

Dr Nicola O'Sullivan Logo

Creating space to think

and feel in child protection social work; a psychodynamic intervention

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Anchoring social care and social work practice

in structured reflection: introducing a model of group reflective practice

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The danger of denying emotions in our work

BASW, Professional Social Work Magazine.

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Centre-based supervised child-parent contact in Ireland:

the views and experiences of fathers, supervisors and key stakeholders

Dr. Nicola O'Sullivan
Qualifications

B.Soc. Science Youth & Community Work

MA Child Protection and Welfare

Prof. Doctorate Social Care & Emotional Wellbeing

Post Grad Diploma Clinical Supervision

Professional Membership – Social Care Ireland

 

Bio

Dr Nicola O’Sullivan has worked in community and residential settings in Ireland for 20 years. Nicola is an independent social care consultant to organisations and teams in Ireland. She is a clinical supervisor to frontline practitioners and senior leaders in children and family services. Nicola facilitates reflective practice group spaces for leadership teams in social care and social work in Ireland and the UK. Her approach is underpinned by systems psychodynamic principles which have an appreciation of the worker, the work and the context in which the work is carried out. In her work with groups, Nicola draws from a Case Discussion model (Ruch, 2002) and the Tavistock Work Discussion Model (Rustin & Bradley, 2008).

Nicola provides therapeutic support in a small number of complex cases to foster carers and their foster children over extended periods, particularly in cases where children were exposed to early and ongoing neglect and physical and sexual abuse. As a result, she has a sophisticated and well developed clinical sensibility and a capacity to think carefully about very difficult and emotionally challenging work processes

Nicola graduated as a mature student in 2007 with a First Class Honours Degree in Youth and Community Work from University College Cork. In 2012 she was awarded a Masters from Trinity College Dublin, having completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Child Protection and Welfare and then a Research Masters. Since then she has taught on the course on the topic of Parent-Infant Mental Health and Child Protection, and on the subject of working in complex settings at TCD. 

 

In 2012 Nicola pursued a Professional Doctorate at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This programme included clinically supervised practice and portfolio, primary research and the production of a Doctoral Thesis. She was awarded a Professional Doctorate in 2017 in Social Care and Emotional Wellbeing. Her doctoral study looked at the provision of a group supervision space to child protection social workers working with infants, and she has published on aspects of her research in the psychoanalytically informed Journal of social work practice (2018, 2021, 2022). Nicola is an Visiting Lecturer at the Tavistock. Nicola also supervises Doctoral students.