Dr. John O'Connor

  Bipolar states   Professional training in psychotherapy   Suicide

Over the last twenty years, I have been involved in a number of projects that have looked at the experiences of people diagnosed with OCD. This has involved collaboration with various clinical settings, and the work of psychologists in clinical training. A number of different populations here:: a general adult population; a population of people with longstanding diagnoses; a population of women peri-natal and post-natal presentations. In recent years, this work has related strongly to the role of trauma in a wide sense in the development of these thoughts, as also the part that transgenerational transmission of anxiety may play here. I have been involved in supervising a range of research projects on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology relating to compulsions " to eat, to gamble, to view porn, to cut oneself, to binge on food, etc. This has reflected my own clinical interest in the area of compulsions, partly connected to my work on obsessive-compulsive disorder, but also related to ritualisation in groups, organisations and society more generally. I have an ingoing Interest in practice-based evidence, and I am committed to bringing the experiences of people who practice clinically into a more public sphere. I am concerned that this kind of learning is left at an individual level or as a part of small groups of professionals, in the relatively-protected, even closed, context of the clinician-only conference. I am also interested in the meeting place between distress and creativity, and I have supported and continue to support students and trainees engaged in work in this area (Music, Sport, Art). Among these are projects exploring elite athletes" experience of retirement, musicians" experiences of performance anxiety, and the process of art therapy in a group context. I have an ongoing interest in the dynamics of clinical interactions, including in psychotherapy and supervision.