Deirdre Egan Email & Phone Number

Dublin South West

Dublin South West

Child And Family Psychology Service, Limerick

My Child Psychology placement will consist of 70 days as a trainee educational and child psychologist. This placement is with a Clinical Psychology Service in a Child and Family Centre, under the broad category of Primary Care Psychology. During this placement, I have worked with children and adolescents across the age range 3 to 15. The child and family centre provides psychological assessment and intervention for children and adolescents with mild to moderate mental health difficulties and comorbidities. One specific client group supported by the child and family centre is children in care and their families. I had the opportunity to gather experience and develop competency in the area of assessment, formulation, intervention, evaluation, and reporting across a range of clinical presentations during this placement. These included attachment difficulties, anxiety disorders and mood disorders. Furthermore, I have gained experience working with clients with a history of trauma, clients with significant numbers of adverse childhood experiences (ACES), clients experiencing emotional regulation difficulties, clients presenting with behaviours that challenge and clients at-risk of school refusal. The placement was interrupted due to COVID-19 restrictions. I have gained experience in the provision of psychological first aid and teletherapy.

I have taught as a mainstream and special education teacher both in a full-time and substitute capacity.

As part of my training I completed a 120-day placement under the direct supervision of an educational psychologist. I was based in the South Western region. NEPS psychologists specialise in working with the school community. During this placement I worked in partnership with teachers, parents and children in identifying educational needs. I offered a range of services aimed at meeting these needs, for example, supporting individual students (through consultation and assessment) and supporting the school community through systemic work and training and development. I developed experience and competencies in delivering intervention in the school setting. I developed research skills and presented an evaluation of training delivered by psychologists in the NEPS office via a poster presentation at the 2019 NEPS business meeting.

St. Gabriel'S Service

My second Child Disability Psychology placement as part of my training consisted of 60 days as a trainee educational and child psychologist under the direct supervision of a senior clinical psychologist. This placement took place with a school age disability team. During this placement, I worked with child and adolescent clients across the age range 3 to 17. I worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team including psychologists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and social workers. I was facilitated to work with children engaged with the Early Intervention team as part of my caseload. I had the opportunity to build on my previous placement in child disability and further develop competency in the area of assessment, formulation, intervention, evaluation, and reporting across a range of disabilities.

North Tipperary Child Disability Service

I completed a 60 day placement in the area of Child Disability Psychology under the direct supervision of a senior clinical psychologist. The school age team provided a multidisciplinary service to children and adolescents with a disability attending primary and post-primary school. During this placement, I primarily worked with clients across the age range 6 to 17. I gained experience working with children and adolescents with a range of disabilities and clinical presentations. I engaged with children and their families in the home, school, and clinic setting. Through initially observing and thereafter taking on my own caseload I demonstrated my ability to deal with complex issues and make informed judgements under supervision, considering multiple sources of information. This placement allowed me to acquire a range of practical and conceptual skills associated with working as a psychologist within a multi-disciplinary team in child disability services. I had the opportunity to gather experience and develop competency in the area of assessment, formulation, intervention, evaluation, and reporting.

Ireland

I have supported children with a range of special educational needs including Autism and Physical and Multiple Disabilities on the July Education programme in both the home and special class setting.

Uganda

I spent three weeks with as a volunteer Nurture Africa. I was in a position to share the skills I had developed as a primary school teacher with teachers and students in a school in Uganda.

Professional Doctorate In Educational And Child Psychology

The Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology (DECPsy) is a three-year, full-time professional training course.

Bachelor Of Education - Bed, Education And Psychology, 1:1

This programme, which is awarded by the University of Limerick and accredited by the Teaching Council and the Psychological Society.