Self-funded (inc. agency-funded projects): Professor Swales welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.  Please contact Professor Swales in the first instance with a 1-2 page draft of your idea, to see if she has any capacity for new students.

Professor Swales can be contacted as follows:

email: [email protected]

phone: 01248 382552

Professor Swales is Director of the North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme that provides Doctoral level training to 40+ trainees.  She is also the Director of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.

Professor Swales conducts research into Dialectial Behaviour Therapy with a particular interest in implementation of the treatment in routine healthcare settings. 

Professor Swales focuses on increasing competence in evidence-based psychological therapies in both her work on the doctoral programme and on the PGDip in DBT.  She also leads a National Team of Trainers in DBT whose skill and expertise are recognised internationally.  Professor Swales' team have trained over a thousand practitoners in DBT across the UK and Ireland.  More recently they have trained practitioners in Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hong Kong, Poland and the United States.

Professor Swales supervises PhD candidates and DClinPsy candidates.  Current projects are focusing on DBT for children with an ASD diagnosis, understanding effective processes in DBT Consultation Teams, shaping competence in DBT therapists and understanding relationships between ACEs and suicidal behaviour in Jordan.