Psychotherapy can be effective for clients who have experienced traumas like Childhood Sexual Abuse, Incest, Physical and Emotional abuse. Therapy is phase-based and relies on there being a very strong therapist/client therapeutic relationship. Complex Trauma is an umbrella term that refers to;

• experiences of repeated trauma as a child, young person or adult (e.g. childhood sexual abuse, incest, physical, emotional abuse, war, community violence).

• trauma that is often planned, extreme, ongoing and/or repeated

• trauma may cause you to feel shame

• may stop you feeling trust and/or safe especially in relationship to others

• may make it hard to manage feelings

• may mean you use coping strategies such as alcohol, drugs, self-harm, disordered eating etc.

• may impact physical and mental health

• may affect your relationships, intimacy and sexual intimacy

PTSD symptoms may develop following a traumatic life event e.g. natural disaster, accident, sexual assault, sudden death of a loved one etc. Most people experience a traumatic life event(s) over their lifetime and the symptoms often resolve within weeks but sometimes those symptoms persist affecting the person’s health and relationships. Symptoms may include flashbacks, night-mares, avoidance, anger impacting day to day life.

Anxiety can severely affect a person’s ability to function at work, college, and in social situations and can interfere with a person’s relationships. Everyone may feel worried or anxious from time to time. It is a normal response to stressful scenarios. Anxiety may present in various forms such as; panic disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety. Through cognitive and behavioural components of psychotherapy, clients learn techniques which may help resolve the symptoms.

Depression is a term used to denote a cluster of symptoms that may include fatigue, malaise, low motivation, poor appetite and so on. Many people may experience these symptoms as a normal response to life events e.g. grief or break-ups. Others may not understand what their experience of depression is related to, thus psychotherapy can be an effective way to explore the present experience to past life events and relationships. Through therapy a client may be supported to overcome hopelessness, low mood, loss of pleasure etc.

Psychotherapy & Counselling may benefit clients to;

• Emotionally prepare for the anticipated loss of a loved one

• Grieve the loss of a loved one

• Process loss of a romantic relationship

• Receive support following a death

• Process loss relating to life changing medical diagnosis, injury or illness.

• Cope with terminal illness

Therapy focused on topics of sexuality, coming out, gender, identity, coping with discrimination and oppression, relationships, family and cultural challenges.

Exploring patterns of relationship attachment style, concerns, understanding one’s needs in relationships.

Cultivating assertiveness, self-compassion and develop ways to reduce self-neglect, withdrawal and anxiety.

Therapy to support people living with dementia or the people who care for them through, psycho-education, acceptance, cognitive stimulation therapy, activity programs, social prescribing, how to deal with a new diagnosis and understand symptoms and stages. Coping with stress, fatigue, anxiety, burnout related to care.

Coping with anxiety, stress, fatigue and burnout related to caregiving. Provide support and links to services in your community and healthcare services locally and nationally who provide support, training and education.

Psychotherapy support for clients who are living with chronic illness including auto-immune disease. Receiving a diagnosis, adjusting to lifestyle changes, coping with changes in mood, emotions and impact on relationships.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder features a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears (obsessions) that may lead a person to do repetitive behaviours (compulsions). It usually includes both obsessions and compulsions and may take up a lot of time and cause a lot of stress and impact your social life, work and functioning. Obsessions often have themes such as; - fear of contamination -need for order -aggressive thoughts like losing control or hurting yourself or others -intrusive thoughts including sexual or religious subjects. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours that you feel driven to perform. These repetitive behaviours or mental acts are performed to reduce anxiety related to the obsession. The key to treatment is to understand your subjective experience and identify how OCD affects you and what type of OCD it is (assessment), providing psychoeducation on OCD and Anxiety, introduce techniques to help reduce panic and stress, and perform exposure therapy (in mind or in vivo) and acceptance based therapy (ACT). Successful therapy happens where there is a fundamental shift in the person’s relationship with his symptoms and thoughts. The key is to develop a new perspective and attitude to OCD before attempting new techniques to manage it and to learn more about anxiety. There are subtypes of OCD like Scrupulosity, Hypochondriasis OCD, Contamination OCD, Sexual Orientation OCD, Paedophilia OCD etc. Ciaran has completed a training course on Effective Treatment for OCD.

This approach to therapy combines different theories and techniques tailored to meet the needs of each client. Personality development theory and various theoretical modalities and research evidence inform this approach. The therapist combines various tools and techniques from these sources so the approach becomes more responsive to the client’s needs than more traditional, singular forms of therapy.

This is a positive approach to therapy that is based on a person’s unique self and nature. It does not seek to cluster people into groups based on similar characteristics as having the same life challenges. Humanistic therapy focuses on the clients own strengths to find healing, growth, change and wisdom. It is also known as humanism.

The individual’s childhood and family context are especially important in this approach, since psychodynamic theory views childhood experiences as key defining factors of a person’s psyche.

Psychodynamic therapy began with Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of unconscious drives—id, ego, and superego—and how they shape personality, but it also incorporates the later theories of those who expanded on Freud’s work. Psychodynamic therapy emphasizes gaining insight into how the past influences the present and using that insight to understand the unconscious aspects of the psyche and change present behaviour.

Also called Somatic Therapy. This is a body-centred therapy that examines the interplay between the physical body and mind. Both psychotherapy and physical therapy techniques are used for healing. This involves talk therapy as well as mind-body exercises and other physical techniques to help release symptoms of resistance in the body or psyche.

At its core, Counselling is the skilled use of relationship to enable self-knowledge, acceptance, growth and development. The focus may vary but range from addressing and processing a specific problem, making decisions, coping with crisis, improving relationship with self/others.