In the early hours of January 29th Ireland lost one of its most cherished psychologists, Therese Brady, a woman who combined a vision for how psychology could serve the community with a depth of compassion for each individual she met. We remember her as someone who asked of each of us "How are you doing", leaving us when we parted with the feeling that we had been truly listened to and that who we were and what we were doing was somehow very important. From her discussions with colleagues across many disciplines and the families with whom she worked, Therese identified needs for which she devised innovative responses. Her passion was to set in place structures that would address these needs and that would endure.
She started work as secretary of RTB, a unique voluntary organisation founded by Mr Frank Cahill for TB patients, later to involve other illnesses including psychological problems. To help the latter, Therese returned to UCD to study psychology and qualified in 1966. Her first clinical post was with the Mater Hospital Child Guidance Clinic and from here she helped set up the Ballymun Child Guidance Clinic, where her pioneering work was a model of community involvement. She played a pivotal role in founding the Psychological Society of Ireland and in the development of the fledging profession.
In 1979 she was appointed to UCD as director of the first postgraduate training programme in clinical psychology in this country. In 1985 she became a director of the Bereavement Support service of the Irish Hospice Foundation, serving Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, and later St Francis's Hospice, Raheny. The training programme she devised for volunteers reflected her capacity to "give away" psychology to both professionals and nonprofessionals alike.
Therese had a rich exposure to many of the legends of psychology in this century. Her long friendship with Theodore Alcock, who had been Anna Freud's supervising analyst, Donald Broadbent and Jerome Bruner, and her particular regard for the works of Bruno Bettleheim and John Bowlby were key influences in her understanding of the human person. She was an immensely skilful diagnostician who masterfully interpreted personality tests such as the Rorschach Ink Blot method. She always emphasised the need to evolve a balanced perspective on each individual we assessed, and to view them in the context of their complete life story, rather than solely in the light of discrete childhood experiences. Her assessments highlighted the hidden nuances of the individual's pain while being equally attentive to signs of strength in their overall personality.
Therese was a deeply private person and the great privilege for me over the months leading up to her death was the opportunity it afforded to speak to her about what had mattered most in her life. She made space for the humanity in others to grow, even when it became obscured by their severe mental suffering. Her trust in human nature to surmount difficulties was evident in all her conversations to the very end of her life. She passed away peacefully and with a profound sense of gratitude for the way in which her life had been enriched by so many.
She would understand very well our sense of loss for her. She recognised that loss is an integral part of life, and bereavement an integral part of love. A quotation of Tolstoy captured her empathy for the bereaved, but also her conviction that each of us can be strengthened by facing and accepting our losses:
"Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heal them."
T.B.