Alice Shires

Alice has worked as a Social Worker and later as a Clinical Psychologist both in the UK and Australia where she has worked with a wide range of services including child sexual abuse services, severe mental health, trauma, pain and sexual health services.

She currently directs the UNSW Psychology Clinic where she is involved in the supervision of therapeutic and professional work undertaken during clinical psychology training.

Alice has also been involved in teaching Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Supervision skills for several years.

Alice has developed a keen interest in Mindfulness and its integration into CBT as a response to increasing frustration and awareness of the limitations of standard CBT. After attending ACT training with Stephen Hayes and MiCBT training with Bruno Cayoun, Alice set up some training courses given by Bruno Cayoun for both students and supervisors at UNSW. These training workshops also provided data for some research on the effects of MiCBT training on clinicians.

Since the start of 2007, Alice has been hosting a Mindfulness interest group for clinicians who are interested in the application of Mindfulness in Psychological therapy. Alice would very much like to see Mindfulness-based therapies established within evidence-based psychological therapies as well as establishing some accreditation process to support high standards.