Where this started
A native of Dublin, I've had the chance to live abroad briefly on several occasions, and each one added something to how I see things.
Along the way I've had my share of challenges and of good fortune, and both taught me how delicate happiness can be — and how much it needs tending to.
Many years ago a difficult situation in my own family led me to study counselling and psychotherapy. That was the beginning of it: learning, growing, and passing on what genuinely helps.
Training
Where I trained
Graduate of PCI College, Dublin, and holder of a degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Middlesex University.
Outreach
Outside the room
For many years I've been involved in a homeless outreach programme, providing hot meals and dry clothing. It meets an immediate need, but it also brings me into contact with people whose lives I would not otherwise encounter — and that has changed how I listen.
Approach
How I work
My approach is generally non-directive — I don't arrive with a plan for your life. Where it's useful, I draw on William Glasser's Choice Theory. Mostly, though, I'm led by what you need, and that's what decides the approach.
I'm trained to work with you on the thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviours that are weighing on your life, and to hold the process steady enough that they can be understood and, often, changed.
In my experience the growth that comes out of that can free a person from old patterns and let healthier ones take their place — which tends to show up as a more realistic, more workable way of living.
Particular areas of experience
Most of what I work with is common ground for any counsellor. Two subjects are not, and they are the reason some people travel to see me.
Adoption
Questions of identity, origin and belonging that come with being adopted, searching, reunion, or placing a child for adoption. These conversations don't fit a standard template, and I don't treat them as though they do.
After bariatric or gastric surgery
Significant weight loss changes far more than a body. Relationships shift, so does how people treat you, and the feelings underneath rarely disappear along with the weight. This is specific work and I approach it as such.
Common questions
About my approach
What is William Glasser's Choice Theory?
It's a psychological framework built on personal responsibility and the power of choice. It holds that our behaviour is driven by five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun.
In practice it helps people focus on what they can actually control rather than on external circumstances. That tends to reduce blame and conflict, and to give back a sense of being able to act — which is often exactly what has gone missing.
Do you only work in a particular way?
No. My approach is generally non-directive, and Choice Theory is one thing I draw on when it fits. What decides the approach is you — what you bring and what you need from the work.