THE DEATH has occurred of psychotherapist and author Dr Áine Tubridy. Dr Tubridy, who trained as a medical doctor, is known for promoting a holistic approach to mental health, an area which she wrote about and taught throughout her career.
Her 2003 book, When Panic Attacks, called for a change in the way Irish society viewed mental illness and showed anxiety sufferers how to control episodes through thought management and relaxation exercises rather than medication. Dr Tubridy also co-authored two books with her partner, the late Dr Michael Corry, Going Mad? Understanding Mental Illness(2001) and Depression: An Emotion Not a Disease(2005).
The pair founded the Dublin-based Wellbeing Foundation in 2005, following a series of articles by Dr Corry on depression which were published in The Irish Times.
The foundation’s goal was to provide holistic techniques for managing and healing psychological distress. Dr Tubridy was its clinical director.
Speaking about her death yesterday, communications director of the foundation Basil Miller said: “Her friends, her patients and the movement for different approach to mental health in Ireland will regard her loss as enormous.”
Dr Tubridy died at St Vincents, Hospital after a short illness. She was 54. She is survived by her mother and three children.