Event Details:

On Friday 21st April 2023 The Psychologists Protection Society invited Deirdre Hayes to speak on the topic “Navigating Boundaries in Therapy with Separating Couples – Managing conflict over parenting”. This session was part of The Psychologists Protection Society’s 2023 Annual General Meeting, held in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Session Outline

As a systemic psychotherapist, as well as a supervisor Deirdre has over 30 years clinical experience dealing with children and their parents/carers in the area of child and adolescent work. This includes responding to conflict situations. In this session, Deirdre will explore and address concerns of therapists who get caught up in the midst of couples who are parents navigating their relationship which sometimes leads to separation and consequent struggles over the navigation of children’s lives. 

Deirdre will address the erosion of therapy boundaries and litigation issues,  in particular the challenges facing therapists being dragged into conflicting issues between hostile couples -such as parenting their child/ children, including issues which affect therapy with children .

Speaker Information

Deirdre Hayes, MSc Systemic Psychotherapy, M.SocSci, Dip Healthcare Management, CQSW Reg FTAI,EAP ICP, a qualified systemic psychotherapist and Supervisor – also known as a family therapist for individuals, couples and families. I have spent my working life first as a social worker in different fields of practice – Child Protection, medical, mental health, disability,  later as a family therapist moving into adult and child mental health and child guidance work, including being a clinical manager of a Child Sexual Abuse Assessment and therapy Centre in Ireland. I have a postgraduate qualification in Healthcare Management from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. I trained as a mediator in the UK.   I obtained specialist further training in working with couples with The Gottman Institute and Sue Johnson Emotionally Focused Therapy.   I have lived abroad at times, and have practiced as a psychotherapist and teacher of psychotherapy in the UK, Denmark, Russia, China, Egypt and Singapore, which has offered me much by way of intercultural experience and still continues to do so. 

My current private practice is largely couple work, with some individual and families also. I supervise therapists and teach systemic psychotherapy.  I am a lecturer and live clinical supervisor in the Systemic Psychotherapy Master’s Degree Programme in the School of Medicine in University College Dublin since 2018.