Qualifications

I have been helping people deal with emotional and traumatic periods of their lives for over twenty years, since I began working as a volunteer counselling assistant at St. Brigid's Family and Community Centre in Waterford in 1991.  In 1992 and 1993 I gained NCEA Certificates in Psychology at St. John's College, Waterford.  In 1998 I gained a Diploma in Adlerian Counselling from the Irish Institute of Adlerian Counselling and Psychology.  I was trained by Colin Brett, a BACP accredited counsellor and a member of the Irish Institute of Training & Development and by Anthea Millar, a BACP accredited counsellor and lecturer in Cambridge University. Training took place at the Teachers' Centre, Waterford. I attend regular workshops and training as part of my on-going professional development.

Affiliations

I am a fully accredited member of the Irish Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) since 2004 and strictly follow their guidelines and code of ethics. From 2009-2011 I was a committee member of the IACP South East Regional Committee.  Since 1995 I have been a member of the Adlerian Network of Ireland. Many local companies use my services as part of their Employee Assistance Programmes and I have been an associate member of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association since 2004.  

Approach

My approach is very much client-centered and I draw on many theoretical approaches that I have studied, including Adlerian, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Gestalt, Holistic, Humanistic, Integrative, Short term/Long term face-to-face work, Person-Centred, Reality Therapy, Rogerian, Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Transactional Analysis.  

I have helped people from all walks of life with many different issues including Adoption, Anxiety, Bereavement, Depression, Infertility, Panic Attacks, Relationships, Self-Esteem, Sexual Identity, Stress and Work-Related issues.

The First Session

During the first session I will listen to your reasons for attending counselling and to your immediate emotional needs. We will agree the issues that you wish to address in your counselling and your hopes for counselling. Through discussion and exploration we will establish the core issues to be addressed in subsequent sessions.  

Reviews

To ensure that you get the most benefit from counselling it is helpful to review progess on an on-going basis. Informal reviews take place naturally during each session to adapt to changing circumstances in your life and to deal with new issues as they arise.  A more formal review takes place after every 4 sessions. 

Fee

€60 per session for individual counselling.  

€70 per session for couple counselling.