Director, Post-Graduate Diploma in DBT, Bangor University
Prof. Michaela Swales is Programme Director of both the North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme and Post-Graduate Diploma in Dialectical behaviour Therapy both at the school of Psychology and Sports Science, Bangor University. She is also a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
Michaela worked for 20 years in a regional Tier 4 inpatient service for adolescents serving North Wales. She specialises in delivering a DBT programme for adolescents with suicidal and self harming behaviours. She completed Intensive Training in DBT in Seattle, USA in 1995 and became the director of the UK DBT Training Programme in 2002. In this role, she trains staff and consult to programmes in a range of settings with a variety of client groups in the UK and internationally. As a result of both her clinical work and her role in training, Prof Swales has developed a particular interest in the effective implementation of evidence-based treatments. She is co-author, with Heidi Heard of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in the ‘CBT Distinctive Features Series’ and of ‘Changing Behaviour: Problem Solving in Action’ (2015). She edited the Oxford Handbook of DBT – the definitive desk reference of DBT published in 2019.
She was awarded the Cindy Sanderson Outstanding Educator Award by the International Society for the Improvement and Training in DBT in November 2009 and their Outstanding Researcher Award in November 2021.
Prof. Swales was a member of the guideline development groups (GDGs) that, on behalf of the National Institute of Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE), wrote the guideline on the Treatment and Management of Borderline Personality Disorder (2009) and the Longer-Term Management of Self-Harm (2011).
She participated in the Working Group on Classification of Personality Disorders, which reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Advisory Group for the revision of ICD-10 Mental and Behavioural Disorders, Prof. Swales is the President of the World DBT Association and the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders.