Alan Carr

Professor Alan Carr has a personal chair in clinical psychology at the University College Dublin (UCD) School of psychology. He is founding director of the UCD doctoral programme in clinical psychology, and former head of the UCD School of Psychology (1999-2000, 2012-2015, 2016-2019). He treats individuals, couples, and families with a range of psychological challenges across the lifespan, currently in private practice and prior to that at Clanwilliam Institute, Dublin, the NHS in the UK, and in Kingston Ontario, Canada. Currently His research programme at UCD focuses on family therapy, clinical psychology, and positive psychology.

He has produced over 30 volumes and 300 papers and presentations. He received the Award of Special Merit from the Psychological Society of Ireland in 2001 for his contribution to the development of clinical psychology training and research. In 2011 he received an award from the European Family Therapy Association for his contribution to family therapy research. His books Family therapy: Concepts, Process and Practice, Handbook of Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology, and Positive Psychology: The Science of Wellbeing and Strengths are bestsellers in their respective classes, and have been regularly updated over the past 25 years. His book – Positive Psychology and You: A Self-Development Guide  – was written to communicate important findings from positive psychology to the general public.

His main passion is sailing – family therapy and psychology are very much a sideline in his life.