AREAS OF FOCUS

It is difficult to allow ourselves to begin the process of opening up to our lived experience. While each client brings his/her unique experiences and challenges to therapy, it may be reassuring to know that other people have faced similar difficulties in their own lives.

Here are some of the key areas which I work with in my practice.

AREAS OF FOCUS: About Me

ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

From the beginning, working with anxiety has been an area of particular focus within my practice. The anxious mind is always threatening to run away with itself, and its 'always on' nature leads to mental fatigue, sleep disruption, and in more severe manifestations, a state of chronic overwhelm and paralysing fear.

Unfortunately, because anxiety can use up so much of our mental, emotional and physical energy, when an anxious person 'crashes and burns out' he/she often finds themselves in a depressed state with a sense of 'no way out.' Although depression sometimes is a result of a major life loss (such as the death of a loved one or chronic unemployment), for many people the repeated cycle of anxiety-depression-anxiety can have devastating and exhausting consequences.

However, in personal as well as professional experience, anxiety is a habitual and conditioned state of mind; and as a state of mind there is much we can do to help ourselves. Although anxiety may be deeply engrained and feel insurmountable, in fact the workings of the anxious mind are not inevitable. There are many ways of engaging with anxiety that may lead to significant reductions in its severity, frequency and duration.

AREAS OF FOCUS: Text

MINDFUL LIVING & DREAMWORK

Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and run into an impasse.--Carl Jung, "The Earth Has a Soul"

Carl Jung famously remarked that a client never successfully completed a course of psychotherapy without experiencing a 'spiritual rebirth.' By this he did not mean a return to orthodox religion. Rather, Jung was describing a new-found freedom to engage with the creative, inspirational, intuitive and sexually-positive aspects of a fully lived human experience. I would add that an active re-engagement with the natural world is also greatly supportive to rediscovering our innate potential.

Working with our dreams is one of the most powerful ways to direct our energy towards this process of inner transformation. Freud called dreams 'the royal road to the unconscious,' and learning to work with your dreams is one of the fastest and most effective ways to advance your insight into 'what's really going on' beneath the surface of your conscious mind.

AREAS OF FOCUS: Text

LGBTQI IDENTITY & SEXUALITY ISSUES

Although the historic marriage referendum of 2015 marked a sea change in cultural attitudes towards sexual equality here in Ireland, in reality finding support around LGBTQI issues is still extremely hard to come by. From the beginning of my training, the exploration, acceptance, and multiplicity of sexual identities and practices, both hetero-normative and LGBTQI, has been a cornerstone of my practice and remains a central focus of ongoing professional development.

Within a population still burdened with more than a century of religious oppression--as well as the incalculable damage wrought by clerical and institutional abuse--the ability to develop healthy, sexually mature & shame/guilt free relationships has proven extremely challenging. In my experience, frank and meaningful discussions around sexuality and the expression of sexual desire remains one of the most hard-and-fast areas of taboo even within the context of psychotherapy.

This collective inability to discuss sexual intimacy and alternatives, sometimes even within committed partnerships, inevitably leads to serious relationship issues and also increases the likelihood of destructive behaviours such as pornography / sexual / online addictions.

AREAS OF FOCUS: Text