Julie-Ann Lyons

MSW, MSc Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

Julie-Ann completed her Msc in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at Trinity College Dublin in 2008 and has 15 years’ experience working as a psychotherapist in a variety of settings including a specialist child sexual abuse service, a paediatric liaison service and a community setting.  

Julie-Ann is currently working as an Infant Mental Health Specialist in Youngballymun, an Area Based Childhood Programme, where she provides one-to-one therapeutic support to infants and their caregivers. Julie-Ann also facilitates an infant mental health masterclass training and provides reflective supervision to relevant professionals working in the area. She is a member of the Irish Association of Infant Mental Health (IAIMH) and the World Association of Infant Mental Health (WAIMH).

Julie-Ann is an accredited supervisor and provides clinical supervision to trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists as well as to qualified therapists and social workers. Julie-Ann lectures in a number of Universities on a variety of courses including psychoanalytic psychotherapy, child art psychotherapy, psychology and social work. Having stepped down from her role as the Child and Adolescent Strand Lead on the Msc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at Trinity College, Julie-Ann remains the Infant Observation Module Coordinator there and is an active member of the training committee of the Irish Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (IICAPP). She is the former Chair of the Irish Forum for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (IFCAPP) and is registered with the psychoanalytic section of The Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP) and the European Association of Psychotherapy (EAP).    

Julie-Ann has a background in Social Work and worked previously in the child protection services.  The Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy training encouraged Julie-Ann to step out of a place of ‘doing’ as a social worker into a more reflective ‘being’ space. This allowed her to tune into her countertransference in order to help her make sense of what she was faced with. The infant observation experience, in particular, provided the grounding for a much deeper understanding of the importance an infant’s start in life, how relationships and personality develop and the significance of holding a boundary in our work. It privileges ‘reverie’ over ‘action’ and this ultimately allows for better therapeutic and child protection decisions to be arrived at.