Meet the Team.
Our team
Dr. Niall Reynolds, DProf, MSc, BA
An experienced social care consultant, systemic psychotherapist, and research supervisor with 20 years of diverse experience in child protection, welfare, and clinical settings. Dr. Reynolds has a strong interest in working with disadvantaged communities and marginalized groups. Dr. Reynolds has expertise working in secure care for many years and has worked with children exhibiting challenging behaviours with complex clinical and social profiles. He spent ten years working with the Tusla NIAPP service, specializing in assessing and treating children who had engaged in harmful sexual behaviour. In his private practice, Dr. Reynolds specialises in working with family law cases referred through the courts and providing expert assessment reports to the family courts. As a published researcher, he has focused on aftercare, reflective practice, and creative responses to challenging behaviours in adolescents. Dr. Reynolds is currently a faculty member of the UCD School of Medicine- MSc Systemic Psychotherapy program, where he teaches and supervises systemic research. He also founded The Relational Space, a nationwide service providing training, consultation, and systemic psychotherapy for children and families.
Lavina Temple - Independent Social Worker
Lavina is a CORU registered Social Worker 005092 with 17 years of experience in the field of child protection and welfare social work in Tusla, previously HSE, in a variety of social work and management roles across the areas of assessment, safety planning, children in care and fostering. Lavina has experience of people management, supervision, auditing, file reviews, committee involvement, supporting students and new graduates and performance improvement processes.
When Tusla adopted Signs of Safety as its’ national approach to practice in 2017, Lavina stepped into the role of a practice lead for Signs of Safety. This role involved leading and supporting significant changes to the practice of assessment and safety planning in the agency. Over her 7 years in this post, Lavina provided consultative practice support on some of the most complex cases held by the teams she was supporting. Primarily this involved assessment, safety planning and reunification planning in the context of complex cumulative harm, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. In this role Lavina also led in the development and facilitation of training, practice based workshops and Signs of Safety briefings for frontline child protection teams, management groups, external stakeholders and third level students. Prior to working with Signs of Safety, Lavina facilitated attachment training for frontline social workers.
Lavina has experience in social work supervision having been a team manager for a number of years prior to taking on the practice lead role she most recently held and practices reflective, systemic supervision. In addition, Lavina is experienced in reflective practice, both 1-1 and in groups. This extends to the training room where Lavina has skills and experience in providing tailored training and workshops that privileges reflective and reflexive practice-based work in the room.
Lavina has worked with families, for 21 years, from a diverse variety of backgrounds, cultures, class, ethnicities and particularly enjoys working directly with children and teenagers. Having completed training in forensic child interviewing, attachment training and holding a considered developmental and attachment lens in her work Lavina has consistently received positive feedback from children and families over the years about her direct work with young people.
Through her work in Signs of Safety Lavina has a unique experience and a deep interest in helping parents and caregivers find ways of helping their children understand problems and experiences that adults often struggle to find language for that makes sense for the child. Lavina has often led the practice of this type of work using the Signs of Safety Words and Pictures tool based on narrative storyboard techniques.
Over the past 18 months in her work in the Child and Family Agency, Lavina’s practice was centred in the field of domestic violence and coercive control. She has completed the Safe & Together Core Training. She was lead writer on “Domestic Violence Informed Practice: Guidance for Practitioners”, the first agency practice guidance for working in assessment and safety planning where there are worries about domestic abuse and coercive control in families. Lavina presented in 2023 at the IASW/BASW-NI Domestic Violence Conference, leading an interagency parallel session on working with mothers who have experienced domestic abuse and has particular strength in the assessment of the impact of coercive control on children.
Lavina is currently in her final year of a MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy with the Clanwilliam Institute and in that context is completing a part time internship in a child sexual abuse service having working in that setting as part of a training team the previous year.
Lavina is bringing those decades of experience of working with systems, child protection processes, leading practice change in assessment work and working directly with children and families alongside her systemic psychotherapy training (ongoing, pre-accredited) to work independently in 2025. Please see Services Provided.
Carole Brophy M.Sc, H. Dip Psych, P/G Dip. Soc Pol, B.A. Hons
Carole Brophy has been practising as a Systemic Psychotherapist since 2017. Carole has a double 1st Class Honours from UCD in H.Dip Psychology and MSc: systemic Psychotherapy, UCD & Mater Misericordia. Carole completed training in a variety of trauma-informed approaches such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, specialist training in trauma and developmental trauma and Play, Family Therapy with a major component in Child Development. Carole has recently trained as a Clinical Supervisor at Clanwilliam Institute in Dublin.
Carole has experience as a Family Therapist for direct clinical provision to children and families who are survivors of torture and complex trauma through family, couple therapy, play therapy and group therapy. Carole has developed a systemic approach to working with separated young people seeking international protection including direct clinical work, consultancy and trainings for social care/work teams such as working in a trans-cultural context, trauma informed approach and reflective practice. Carole also worked as a family therapist team lead where she was responsible for clinical management of a team of family therapists. Carole has experience of providing specialised clinical and Court reports for the International Protection Office and other agencies as required.
Carole has developed a broad practice base which includes working as a Systemic Psychotherapist/Family Therapist in private practice. She has extensive experience working systemically with children in care and foster families. In previous employment, she has worked with agencies such as Family Resource Centres, Barnardo’s, One in Four, Genesis Psychotherapy and Family Therapy Service and in the UK in agencies such as London Connection, London Borough of Lewisham, and Ealing, and London Borough of Greenwich as a community worker.
In 2024 Carole joined Relational Space a nationwide service providing training, consultation and systemic psychotherapy for families.
Dr. Aileen Tierney PhD, MSocSc, BSocSc
Dr. Tierney has been practising as a systemic family therapist and independent social worker since 1988 and trained both as a therapist and clinical supervisor in Clanwilliam Institute, where she held the role of CEO for over 10 years. In her current role with Clanwilliam she continues to be the director of academic courses. Dr. Tierney qualified with a Phd from Tilburg University in 2011 where her research focused dialogical approaches to disability, constructions and discourses.
Dr. Tierney has a broad practice base which includes systemic family psychotherapy, external clinical supervision, design and delivery of reflective practice groups and training in various areas using systemic approaches. She has provided organisational consultation and staff support provision to several state, charity and voluntary organisations. Dr. Tierney has taught clinical counselling skills in both Trinity college and UCD for over 15 years on the Masters in social work courses. She works directly with individuals, couples, children, adolescents and their families. In 2023 she joined the Relational Space a nationwide service providing training, consultation, and systemic psychotherapy for children and families.
Viv Cummins - M.A Systemic Psychotherapy, M.A Social Work, B.A Hons Applied Social Care.
Viv completed her Masters in Science in Systemic Psychotherapy and Professional Qualification in Family Therapy at Queens University Belfast and Clanwilliam Institute, Dublin. She works directly with individuals, couples, and families. Viv has a broad practice base, which includes working as a Systemic Psychotherapist in private practice and also does private work in community family resource centres, which provide a wide range of therapeutic services to children and families.
Viv also works as a qualified Senior Social Worker in the Health Service Executive (HSE) in adult mental health since 2006 and is qualified with a Master’s in Social Work at Trinity College Dublin. Viv was one the lead social workers who developed the Systemic and Family Psychotherapy Service in Dublin North HSE Mental Health service, which provides a therapeutic therapy service for both service users and their family members experiencing mental health issues. This service was vital in creating a more inclusive model of care and introduced talking therapies for service users and their families. She is trained in CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and DBT (dialectic behavioural therapy), which are useful therapy modalities that can support a range of difficulties when a person is struggling with their mental health. Viv has management experience within the mental health services and provides supervision to social workers, auditing, and performance management processes. Viv has previous experience working with children in care who present with challenging behaviour and complex backgrounds.
Jennifer Arkins, Office Manager
Jennifer has developed her administrative expertise in a variety of settings over a 20-year period, including time spent at the Oasis therapy centre in Dublin. In addition, she brings with her a long-standing experience in community and youth work, including with St. Agathas’ youth project and the Lourdes youth and community service. Jennifer has a strong interest in equality, human rights and social justice and has worked for the community action network (CAN) for 16 years.