I am a senior lecturer in the school of psychology and a chartered counselling psychologist. I completed my BSc (Hons) in Psychology here at UEL and went on to work as a postgraduate research assistant, undertaking MRC-funded work, specifically looking at children’s acquisition of autobiographical memory, working with grant holder Dr Debra Bekerian, at UEL.

I was then employed as an assistant psychologist at Bart’s and the London NHS trust working in the area of sexual health, which then led to a move back to UEL as a research fellow on an ESRC-funded project, looking at sexual health in young gay men, with Dr Bekerian and I as joint grant applicants.

During this time, I also undertook MSc training as a counselling psychologist and, following a further, intensive period of clinical skills training, I became chartered earlier this year. My current clinical work is conducted in various prisons in the London area, where I am part of a forensic mental health team providing assessment and therapeutic interventions to prison inmates.

As a part of my academic role, I am module leader on PY1006: Applications of Psychology and PY2008: Counselling Psychology. I also teach outside of the school, to Health and Bio students as well as on a Cert HE programme in Gay Men’s Health studies in collaboration with the Terence Higgins Trust.

• Module Leader PY1006 and PY2008
• Research supervisor to undergraduate final-year dissertation students
• BSc full-time first-year tutor
• Link tutor to an MA in Counselling for The Place2B
• Member of the School’s Teaching and Learning Committee

My current research interests are in issues relating to the training of counselling psychologists and the sexual and mental health of young people.

• BSc Psychology
• Cert HE Gay Mens’ Health Studies
• BSc Health and Bio-Science

• PY1001/2: Research Methods
• PY1003/4: Introduction to Psychology
• PY1005: Skills for Psychologists
• PY1006: Applications of Psychology
• PY2001/2: Research Methods 3
• PY2008: Counselling Psychology
• PY3002: Professional Psychological Studies

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. O’Neill, M.H. (2001). Professional counselling and psychotherapy: guidelines and protocols: counsellors and psychotherapists in primary care [Book review]. Counselling Psychology Review.

Book Chapters

1. Bekerian, D.A., & O’Neill, M.H. (2001). Therapeutic techniques, therapeutic contexts and memory. In G. Davies & T. Dalgleish (Eds.), Recovered memories: seeking the middle ground. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/0470013486.ch8

Conference Papers

1. Bekerian, D.A., & O’Neill, M.H. (2001). Anxiety and explicit memory: the effects of a memory strategy. Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference on Memory, Valencia, Spain.

Poster Sessions

1. Davis, A.M., & O’Neill, M.H. (2006). Attitudes to religion and spirituality in counselling practice: a view from the perspective of christian and non-christian practitioners. Poster session presented at the 3rd Annual Mid-Year Research conference on Religion and Spirituality, Loyola College Maryland & Division 36 of the American Psychological Association.
2. Bekerian, D.A., & O’Neill, M.H. (2001). Children’s autobiographical memory inventory (CAMI): a normative test of children’s personal memory. Poster session presented at the 3rd International Conference on Memory, Valencia, Spain.
3. Bekerian, D.A., & O’Neill, M.H. (2001). First time memories: developmental differences in event memory?. Poster session presented at the 3rd International Conference on Memory, Valencia, Spain.
4. McNally, I., O’Neill, M.H., Conn, P., Henshaw, P., & Petrak, P. (2000). Developing a model for HIV prevention group-work for gay men in east London. Poster session presented at the 13th International Aids Conference, Durban.

• Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Full Member of The Division of Counselling Psychology of the BPS
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine
• Member of the European Society of Criminology