Dr Irene Dudley-Swarbrick

Profile

Biography

My background includes working in clinical health sciences in the NHS, as well as teaching in both Further and Higher Education, then a diversion to women-focused community work in a Social Enterprise, and back to academia.

Research Interests

My interdisciplinary interests come from my theoretical background in Science and Technology Studies, (After)Actor-Network Theory,  Women’s Studies, and Humanistic Psychotherapy. I focus on women’s health, including experiences of cancer, and of eating disorders. Methodologically I have used method assemblage (after Law, 2004), ethnomethodology, interviews, documentary analysis, and framework development.

Teaching

I am a joint Programme Leader for the MSc Psychotherapy and Counselling: Contemporary Creative Approaches. This innovative programme reflects my feminist desire for widening participation in the training of creative psychotherapists to support the emotional and mental health of individuals and their communities. It offers a unique hybrid model supported by technology-enhanced learning (TEL) to train creative psychotherapists that pleases my science and technology studies (STS) sensibilities.

Lectures/Workshops: I teach on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules. Topics include research methods, ethics in professional practice, eating disorders, feminist research.

Specialist modules: I teach Process-Experiential Counselling and Psychotherapy Skills across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, Expressive Art Therapy at postgraduate levels, and provide Clinical Group Supervision. I also teach using TEL for psychotherapeutic skills development.