Rate My Professor Michaela Swales

Professor Swales' research focuses on Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), with particular emphasis on its implementation and effectiveness in routine healthcare settings. She leads a nationally and internationally recognized team of DBT trainers that has delivered training to over 1,000 practitioners across the UK and Ireland, as well as in Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hong Kong, Poland, and the United States. Notable publications include her editorship of the Oxford Handbook of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (2019), co-authorship with Heidi Heard of Changing Behavior in DBT: Problem-Solving in Action (2015) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: Distinctive Features (2008), and numerous peer-reviewed articles such as "Benchmarks for dialectical behavioural therapy intervention in adults and adolescents with borderline personality symptoms" (2024) and "Evaluating the national multisite implementation of dialectical behaviour therapy in a community setting" (2020). She has received the award for outstanding contributions to research on DBT from the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of DBT (2021) and the Cindy Sanderson Outstanding Educator Award from the same society (2009). Additionally, she is President Elect of the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (since 2022) and President of the Society for DBT in the UK and Ireland (since 2012). Professor Swales contributed to NICE guideline development groups for borderline personality disorder (2009) and self-harm management (2011), and to the WHO working group on personality disorder classification for ICD-11.