My Approach
Welcome! Here’s an overview of some of my journey through therapy training and practice.
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.
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 deep 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.
So, ready for more, I travelled abroad to study this approach in more depth, completing three annual residential trainings and the 2020/2021 weekend training program with the Pacific Gestalt institute, California, as well as completing trainings with the InKontakt Gestalt Institut, Berlin.
Alongside my core and Gestalt training, I have several years’ experience working with trauma, including sexual trauma, as a psychotherapist in Rape Crisis, and as a support worker in a Women’s Refuge. During my time working with trauma as a therapist, I have amassed many hours of trauma-informed supervision and deepened my understanding of trauma-informed work while integrating this with my previous training and experience to offer you a safe and grounded therapy that is co-created with you, for you.
I have previously sat on Dublin Regional Committee of the IACP (The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and in 2019 received the Dublin Regional award for my contribution to the organisation which included co-founding the Gender and Sexual Diversity Interest group within the IACP, a group intended to discuss the needs of queer clients attending for therapy and which strongly encouraged the statement made by the IACP condemning conversion therapy.
In addition to the above, I am experienced in working with anxiety, depression, sexuality, feelings of shame, the effects of childhood abuse or neglect, eating and body image issues, bereavement (including traumatic and complex loss) and more. My approach is also well suited to working with people who are experiencing distressing relationship patterns and ongoing attachment difficulties.
More recently, I have been drawn towards practicing therapy outdoors and the need to understand our place in nature and our relationship with it at a deeper level. I intend to offer walk and talk/eco-therapy as an option very soon! So, please look out for it and join me if you’re moved to do so.