Welcome
In therapy, you will have a place to speak in confidence, to share uncomfortable or painful issues in your own time, to explore patterns, to play with ideas, to experiment with new ways of being in the world, and hopefully, to re-discover the forgotten or hidden parts of yourself that you need to live a fuller life.
About Joanne
Welcome! Here’s an overview of some of my journey through therapy training and practice.
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I began my training in counselling and psychotherapy in 2004, graduating with a B.A. (Hons) in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Dublin Business School in 2010. Shortly after this, I began working in private practice, in the warm, welcoming, and professional space, where I am still based, on Lower Abbey Street in Dublin 1.
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After my initial core training, which focused on humanistic and psychodynamic frameworks, I became interested in the Gestalt approach to psychotherapy and trained for two further years in relational Gestalt therapy with the Dublin Gestalt Centre, earning a Diploma in Gestalt Therapy. I was struck by the humanity of this way of working and its respect for the client in terms of its egalitarian feel and non-diagnostic ethos. It also sat well alongside a feminist and social justice framework as Gestalt has a long history of challenging the status quo and embracing difficult dialogue.
Importantly, Gestalt therapy meets each person as an individual, exploring their own personal meaning making and remaining open to what works or does not work for them.
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Services
General counselling and psychotherapy
General counselling is available to explore any difficulty that is troubling you. It is a space in which a person who is trained to listen to you in particular way can help you to spot patterns of behaviour that may be getting in the way of you living with greater ease. It is a place to be, to feel, to explore, to think, to play with ideas, and to experiment with different ways of being and relating, both to yourself and others.
Attachment and Relationships
You may have noticed patterns of difficulty in your relationships, or issues that keep coming up over and over again that you are at a loss to resolve. Maybe you have difficulties with intimacy that you would like to explore or you may have noticed that you often pull away from a partner(s). Maybe you get stuck in a ‘push/pull’ dynamic that is distressing for you. Or maybe you keep finding yourself in the position of wanting more from a partner than they can or will give.
LGBTQI+ Related Issues
If you identify as queer or LGBTI+, you might be looking for a person who has experience of Dublin’s queer community and some understanding of the issues that can arise both in the community and beyond as a queer person navigating a hetero-normative and cis-normative society. As a lesbian and queer cis-woman who is active in the community, I can offer you what experience and understanding I have.
Trauma incl. Sexual Trauma
Following a traumatic event the nervous system is overwhelmed and it is not unusual to feel like you’re going crazy, when in fact your body is doing precisely what it is supposed to do – sending a signal from your brain to your nervous system to be highly vigilant and prepared for the worst. It can be hard to think clearly, you may feel low in mood, afraid/anxious/panicky, jumpy, helpless, angry, disconnected or a bit ‘surreal’.
Childhood Abuse and Neglect
For many people who have experienced childhood abuse and neglect, even feeling deserving of being in therapy and offering themselves that space to speak and to nurture themselves can be a challenge. It is not unusual for the child’s experience to be diminished and minimised leaving the child, and later the adult, unsure of whether their experience is really worth tending to. For what it’s worth, if you are asking the question, if you’re wondering if your experience of abuse/neglect is still impacting your life and your relationships in ways that limit your peace and well-being, I believe it is worth tending to, in whatever way you choose to do it.
Outdoor therapy/ Walk and Talk
Outdoor therapy, also known as eco-therapy, is now available, and takes place in the Phoenix Park, Dublin 8, and in Marlay Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
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Therapy in the outdoors gives us the opportunity to explore our relationship to nature and our place in it, to draw on nature and the elements as metaphor and teacher, and to explore the experience of movement and the wisdom of the body in ways that are not available to us when we are sitting face to face in the counselling room.