Education, Awareness, Advocacy & Sensitization Initiatives

As a researcher and clinician, I believe the most powerful knowledge exchange happens when patients, healthcare professionals, policy makers and researchers share the same room, because real transformation begins when all these voices are heard together.

Knowledge Exchange (KE) events, such as seminars, workshops and conferences, are spaces where people come together to share what they know and learn from one another. Through workshops, talks, and collaborative discussions, researchers, professionals, policymakers, and community members meet as equals to exchange ideas and turn research into something that can genuinely help society. These events spark real dialogue, turning knowledge into something living, shared, practical and useful in everyday life.

Sjögren’s disease affects millions of people worldwide, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood and underdiagnosed autoimmune conditions. Its symptoms, such as debilitating fatigue, chronic pain, cognitive difficulties among others, are largely invisible to the outside world, making the experience of living with it not just physically exhausting but profoundly isolating. In November 2024, I was honoured to participate as a psychologist and postdoctoral researcher in the SYNERG-IE program, at the first international knowledge exchange event dedicated entirely to transforming Sjögren’s care, bringing together rheumatologists, mental health professionals, researchers, and crucially, those affected by the condition. The event “Transforming Sjögren’s Care Together: Rheumatology and mental health perspectives” took place at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and marked a significant step toward the kind of integrated, holistic care that people with complex chronic conditions deserve.

Collaborations with organizations promoting care, inclusion, and awareness

As a psychologist and psychotherapist specializing in clinical health psychology, I collaborate with professional associations, patient organizations, and community groups working toward empowerment, information sharing, and support for people living with chronic conditions or psychosocial challenges. My talks and presentations focus on practical, evidence-based, and person-centred approaches, aiming to strengthen mental health, social participation, and quality of life.

The pandemic didn’t just disproportionately affect people with dementia and disrupt their daily lives, it severed the social connections that research shows are fundamental to their wellbeing. Suddenly, all the activities, social gatherings, and human contact that gave shape and meaning to their days disappeared. The question wasn’t just “how do we cope?”, tt was “how do we reimagine care when everything we knew has changed?”

Alzheimer Cafés exist precisely for moments like this. These warm, informal, and welcoming spaces bring together people living with dementia, their caregivers, families, and professionals not for clinical assessment, but for something equally vital: human connection, shared experience, and the quiet power of togetherness.

I explored how dance and creative movement offer far more than physical activity. They’re pathways to creative expression, joy, reconnection and meaningful engagement when words become difficult to find. How mindfulness practices help people stay anchored in the present moment rather than lost in confusion about the past or fear of the future. And how the pandemic, for all its devastation, revealed something important: that human connection isn’t supplementary to dementia care. It’s the heart of it.

The talk was received with warmth and enthusiasm, sparking conversations about what truly person-centred dementia care can look like, not despite cognitive decline, but in full recognition of the whole person who remains.

The Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists represents one of the most profoundly human corners of mental health care, where dance, movement, visual art, drama, and music become ways for people to express themselves, reconnect and eventually heal. IACAT exists because some of the most powerful therapeutic moments happen not only through words, but through the languages of the body and the imagination, those creative languages that help us externalise suppressed emotions, feel seen, accepted and understood.

My presentation explored the profound therapeutic power of creative expression—how movement, art, and music can reach places that words sometimes cannot, particularly for people whose verbal communication has been affected by illness, trauma, or cognitive change. I highlighted how integrating creative arts approaches within psychological care doesn’t dilute clinical rigor, rather it deepens it, opening new pathways to connection, self-expression, and genuine transformation.

My presentation explored the profound therapeutic power of creative expression—how movement, art, and music can reach places that words sometimes cannot, particularly for people whose verbal communication has been affected by illness, trauma, or cognitive change. I highlighted how integrating creative arts approaches within psychological care doesn’t dilute clinical rigor, rather it deepens it, opening new pathways to connection, self-expression, and genuine transformation.

The conversations that followed reinforced something the research consistently shows: when we create space for creativity in therapeutic settings, we create space for humanity. And that safe, non-judgmental, expressive space can be profoundly empowering, transformative and healing.

As a psychologist and researcher, I actively participate in national and international and European conferences, symposia, and research seminars, presenting my clinical and research work and contributing to dialogue around health psychology, clinical psychology, psychotherapies, clinical practice, and innovative, multicomponent interventions.

My presence at conferences, seminars, and symposia strengthens interdisciplinary collaboration, promotes knowledge exchange between researchers, health and care professionals, and patient communities, and highlights the value of holistic, person-centred and evidence-based care.

What does it look like to bring together dance, mindfulness, and psychotherapy in a single intervention for people living with dementia? This was the question at the heart of my doctoral research and the subject of my invited presentation at Maynooth University’s Psychology Research Seminar Series.

Research seminars are where ideas are rigorously examined, questioned, and refined. Being invited to present here meant bringing my doctoral work before an audience of peers, researchers, and clinicians, a process that both challenges and deepens understanding.

Notably, what emerged was a different way of thinking about dementia support, one that shifts the focus from loss to possibility. Instead of asking, “What can this person no longer do?” we begin to ask, “How can we create conditions where they can still engage, enjoy themselves, and reconnect with their bodies and their world?”

The response from the academic community affirmed what the research already suggested: that when we honour the whole person- their creativity, their emotional life, their capacity for connection- we find possibilities that deficit-focused approaches simply can’t see.

The British Psychological Society’s annual conference brings together some of the most rigorous minds in psychological science, comprising a space where ideas are tested, evidence is scrutinized, and the field moves forward.

The first strand of my presentation explored what builds genuine psychological resilience in young people, not the superficial “bounce back” narrative, but the deep, research-informed understanding of what helps young people face adversity, uncertainty, and pressure without losing themselves in the process.

The second strand challenged the prevailing reliance on pharmacological approaches to neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia, including agitation, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance among others while making the case for evidence-based alternatives that address the whole person rather than simply managing symptoms. Movement, mindfulness, creative engagement, and genuine human connection emerged not as “nice to have extras” but as powerful interventions in their own right.

These presentations were also great opportunities for international connection; meeting researchers, clinicians, and academics whose work intersects with mine, and contributing to the growing body of evidence that humane, person-centred care is essential and as effective.

Research shapes care. But research without patient voices shapes the wrong care. This was the guiding principle behind the All-Ireland Multiple Sclerosis Research Network Symposium and the reason I was proud to be included as a member of its organizing committee.

Multiple Sclerosis is a condition that touches every dimension of a person’s life, physical, emotional, relational, professional. Yet too often, the research agenda is shaped by what scientists find interesting rather than what patients find essential and need answers. The AIMS-RN Symposium set out to change that, deliberately building patient participation into the architecture of the event itself.

The symposium brought together researchers and clinical scientists from across disciplines, people living with MS and their advocacy organizations, healthcare professionals, and representatives from MS Ireland, thus creating a genuine dialogue where each perspective was valued not despite its difference from the others, but because of it.
The program reflected this polyphony: cutting-edge presentations on biomedical research and emerging therapeutic approaches sat alongside sessions on psychosocial interventions, empowerment programs, and innovative digital tools that support daily life with MS. Contributing to this event reinforced something I carry into all my work, that the most meaningful science happens at the intersection of expertise and lived experience, where rigorous evidence meets the complex reality of a person’s daily life. (The All-Ireland Multiple Sclerosis Research Network (AIMS-RN) 2025 Symposium).