Health is both body and mind, not just mind. Bodies are built to move, stretch, breathe, extend, challenge and respect. We as humans are not built to be stationary all day every day. We are built to use our limbs. Movement can be done in a multitude of ways, not just running! The most important thing about movement is listening to what our bodies need. Knowing what supports us and what does not support us. Then finding that middle ground. Running might be one persons exercise of choice, but for another it is hard on the [...]

What is counselling? Counselling can mean different things to different people. Everyone may need counselling at some time of their lives. It's a safe place to speak, explore ones feelings and emotions. To understand ones behaviours or to change unwanted thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. Counselling is a fully supported safe place for people to talk about how they are feeling. What is going on in their lives and what might be troubling them. It's important when looking for a counsellor that one feels comfortable with that counsellor. Comfortable in the space and supported at all times. [...]

When a parent dies we are never prepared. There is no handbook or manual for loss. Whether a parent is sick and we know they are going to die, or they die unexpectedly we're not prepared. A parent in care, palliative or with a terminal diagnoses, gives us no sense of readiness. Parental loss in whatever way comes into our lives, leaves us exposed, painfully wide open, broken, disillusioned and full of grief.   This is how I felt when I lost my father in May 2006. I was living in Australia, I got a call [...]

They say often. There is no manual for raising your children. Ain’t that the truth! There’s also no manual for when you loose a parent. Instead it’s a time of despair. Hopelessness. Chaos and heartbreak. I lost both my parents in equally traumatic (but different circumstances) a few years apart. Neither loss prepared me for the other. I felt broken and I thought I would never heal. Parental loss needs to be given time and space. It needs to be respected. No matter what age we lose a parent. It’s hard. The list of NEVERS. My [...]

In September 2019, my then 8 year old son, our two dogs, and one hamster moved to the West of Ireland. We had rented a wonderful cottage on the outskirts of Dublin since my son was born. But our time had come to an end there. Our wonderful landlady needed her cottage back, and we knew it was time to move on. I had lost a baby a couple of years before and I was ready to change our lives, to start a fresh. Staying in Dublin was non negotiable. We had no prospects of affording [...]

The old, half painted, tired hospital ceiling was a patchwork of cracks. Following them with my eyes, as I lay on my back on the examination table, waiting.   Routine scans are never quite ‘routine’. Instead always tainted with a hint of fear, anxiety, excitement, relief and unknowns. Busy places, filled with stories. Stories of peoples lives. Mums, filled with a new future, a new hope. Some exited, some fearful, all there for the same common goal, to have a scan to check how the progress of their baby is coming along. A busy, bustling noisy [...]

Brain fog, anxiety, irritation, short tempered, overwhelmed, heart palpitations, hot flushes, exhaustion, do any of these sound familiar? They sound familiar to me now, but a year and a half ago I actually thought I was losing the plot!. I thought it was just overwhelm from juggling things in my life. But now I realise, from my own searching it was menopause knocking at my door. But I am only 44 I said to myself, surely not! I am too young, (or so I thought). Since I have started talking about menopause on my social media, [...]

Gratitude or heartbreak, we all have our own answers to this question. Today is march 14, 2021. Mothers day on this side of the world. This photo is of my mother. My mother died at age 33. She died doing what she loved the most, riding her horse. A tragic end to a young life, she died on a day that she was most exited about, competing in one of the largest horse riding competitions Ireland has to offer, the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin Horse Show. As a grief therapist. This year I have sat with [...]

‘Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.’ Aristotle As a psychotherapist, I presently work with a large number of college students. My work with these incredibly talented, bright, funny, kind and clever humans has led me to write this blog post. Among all the students, their range of ages, and their range of beliefs, attitudes, interests and followings. I am finding they all have very distinct aspects in common. The effects Covid has had on them as individuals and in groups. The effect it is, and has had on their ‘new way’ [...]

A Familiar Sound. The old, half painted, tired hospital ceiling was a patchwork of cracks. Following them with my eyes, as I lay on my back on the examination table, waiting.   Routine scans are never quite ‘routine’. Instead always tainted with a hint of fear, anxiety, excitement, relief and unknowns. Busy places, filled with stories. Stories of peoples lives. Mums, filled with a new future, a new hope. Some exited, some fearful, all there for the same common goal, to have a scan to check how the progress of their baby is coming along. A [...]