Background

 

Having started a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Trinity College, Dublin in 1977 I soon found out that I had a voracious appetite for reading all sorts of Psychology books. This meant, not only reading what was proscribed but being in seventh heaven with everything else arms reach away.  Following this I spent a number of years living and teaching English in Colombia, Denmark and France before commencing my psychotherapy training in France and completing  my Psychodynamic/Primal Therapy training in London in 1990.   I undertook my Master of Arts Degree in the Psychology of Therapy and Counselling and this was also completed in1990.  During this degree I was privileged to have as a Course Director and Tutor, the renowned Existential Psychotherapist, Emmy van Deurzen-Smith.  Her passion led to the establishment of the Postgraduate Advanced Diploma in Existential Psychotherapy.  By 1994 I had successfully completed this training and qualified as an Existential Psychotherapist.

Orientation

 

I am registered as a Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist.  What my Psychodynamic/Primal training bring is my ability to explore where the roots of  what is currently creating disturbance or difficulty in your life have their origins.  Locating and making sense of this underpins its healing and allowing a fuller expression of yourself.  Existential Psychotherapy explores the givens of being a human being and all that this entails no matter what it is you lived in childhood.  It explores the joys and challenges and is seen to address the very basic questions we all face liberating us to live at our fullest potential of self expression. I am a member of  the  Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy and abide by their code of Ethics.  This Association is under the umbrella of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy. I also hold the European Certificate for Psychotherapy.

Working with Presence

When we arrive in life we are fully alive and present to all that is happening.  Little by little we lose this, conforming, adapting and reacting to events which cause us to recoil and twist away from our true nature.  The path of psychotherapy is a path of return to being fully alive and present in each moment rather than being in a constant pull to the past or fear bound in preparation for the future.  The more we become free and easy in ourselves the more our relationship with the world around us improves.