Primary Department
School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health
Role
Academic Staff - Psychotherapy
Phone number: 01 700
7363
Email Address
stephanie.swales@dcu.ie
Academic biography
Stephanie Swales, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychotherapy in the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health at Dublin City University. She also works with individuals and couples as a clinical psychologist and Lacanian psychoanalyst. Stephanie serves as an editor for the PCSreview section of section of the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society and as a member-at-large for the Association for Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Stephanie’s research predominantly focuses on empathy and the processes of change within psychotherapy. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters as well as two books: Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan: On and Off the Couch (Routledge, 2020), co-authored with Carol Owens, and Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject (Routledge, 2012).
Research interests
Stephanie’s research interests are in the areas of psychotherapy change–pursuing questions related to how therapy leads to therapeutic change—psychotherapy outcome research, and psychopathology research. Her current projects revolve around the theory and practice of empathy in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and how it relates to subjective change. Her research is also concerned with the subjective and cultural conditions which foster certain types of psychological suffering, including the experience and effects of social justice issues including racism, xenophobia, transphobia, and food insecurity.
