phone
tel: 042 9331803
mob: 086 0381073

Sunflowers and Cocaine.

Counselling — admin @ 11:05 pm

Sunflowers and Cocaine.

Here at Counselling Connections this week we had one of those ad hoc chats standing around the kitchen just like the old days before the pandemic. The subject of our discussion this week, as always, is just about what is happening in front of us just now. Right now, there were two things in particular. We got into a discussion about the garden here at the office. Those of you familiar with it will know that we are lucky enough to have a long town garden, a regular oasis from the busyness of the street outside.

We have had one or two issues in the garden lately, the principal of which has been two infestations of aphids in quick succession. The weather has been consistently hot and mostly dry and in promoting good plant growth this also created perfect conditions for the greenfly to thrive. Greenfly love nothing more than fresh new green growth. They feed on the underside of new leaves sucking the sap and turning the leaf black and causing them to wilt. They have wreaked havoc on a crop of young Sunflowers we had grown from seed.

We took some remedial action and although we lost about half the sunflower plants, we managed to save the rest and they seem to have recovered well enough. As part of the same office chat, we spoke briefly again about another infestation which seems to be continuing undimmed around us. That is the proliferation of recreational drugs, cocaine in particular. And, as we do, we made the comparison between the two parts of our discussion, the sap eating infestation of greenfly and the sap eating characteristics of cocaine.

We have strong views on the harm that drugs can do. This is based on our experience of working with individuals, couples and families who have been struggling to cope with the consequences of the damage to physical and mental health and on relationships. We feel sometimes like we are swimming against the tide in our ‘say no to drugs’ point of view. It is very much the case at the moment that there is a strong view that there is no harm in a little cocaine use and that everyone is at it. We don’t agree.

One thing that we say about the whole area of addiction is that the book is already written. It is very difficult to imagine anything new can be added to the patterns of behaviour. If you are in the grips of recreational drug us, let alone full-blown addiction, you won’t come up with a brilliant new idea that someone else hasn’t tried already. Or a brilliant new excuse. It all been tried already. Denial is probably the first and most important part of the process. Denial about the drug use and denial about the harm it is causing. Lies go hand in hand with that. And those lies become corrosive to relationships and to good mental health.

We have seen many beautiful souls hurt, sometimes beyond repair, down the years through drug use. Psychotherapy literally means soul healing. We will continue to bring a little healing to souls in the face of the drug epidemic that continues beneath the pandemic. We live in hope.

The analogy, the metaphor, is with those Sunflowers we were able to save from the greenfly. Feeding them well, taking care of them, giving them exposure to sunlight and protecting them from the cold. Looking after them in this way will facilitate their blossoming with great yellow flowers. And those flowers contain the seeds which help to keep the circle of life going.

 

Christmas and New Year opening times 2020/21.

Counselling — admin @ 4:32 pm

Christmas and New Year opening times 2020/21.

It has been a mad year. Nobody could have predicted what happened and what we have all had to endure. Beginning in March we had to shut and stay shut for nine weeks. We found ways to keep in touch, voice and video consultations. We spoke from home to people in their homes, their kitchens, bedrooms, from their cars and who had to go for a walk to be able to talk freely.

Nobody could have predicted how well it worked for many people. It wasn’t for everyone and many were glad when we were able to open our doors again and free to meet face to face. We managed this with protocols to sanitise and disinfect and come together safely as best we could. That effort involved taking responsibility which was embraced by therapists and clients alike. We feel proud at how this has worked out and are grateful to each client who took responsibility for every other client and for all of us who pass through this special place.

What we have seen this year is resilience and adaptability. It is a tribute to the human spirit to witness how people have found ways to manage all the challenges that the year has thrown their way.

This year, more than any other we have been humbled by the work, by the trust you place in us and by the value which you have placed on your therapy and your therapist. More so than ever before we found ourselves being asked ‘How are you?’. We are glad to have come through this testing time together. It is not quite over yet but we look forward with hope to the new year and an eventual return to something like normal.

So, we’re taking a few days off to revive and reset. We wish you peace and good health and look forward to working with you again in 2021 and beyond.

 

We’ll be here until Wednesday 23rd of December at 6pm. We’ll be back after the break on January 4th 2021.

We are not an emergency service. We will keep an eye on the email and voicemail messages over the holiday and will be on touch to make appointments in the new year.

 

Thanks again,

 

Counselling Connections.

tel. 042 9331803 mob. 086 0381073

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2019/2020.

Counselling — admin @ 9:53 am

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2019/2020.

We’ll be open until Monday 23rdof December at 6pm. We’ll be back after the break on January 6th 2019.

We will be checking the voicemail during the days when we’re not here so if you like to leave a message we’ll ring you back to arrange an appointment. We don’t have an around the clock service for emergencies so check our links page http://www.counsellingconnections.ie/cc/links/ for contact details for Aware and Samaritans.

It has been another great year here at Counselling Connections and we remain humbled and grateful at the confidence you place in us. We’d like to wish all our clients and friends a Happy and Peaceful Christmas. We’re looking forward to working with you in the New Year.

 

Thanks again,

Counselling Connections.

tel. 042 9331803 mob. 086 0381073

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2018/19.

Counselling,Psychotherapy — admin @ 6:01 pm

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2018/19.

We’ll be open until Friday, December 21st at 6pm. We’ll be back after the break on January 3rd 2019.

We will be checking the voicemail during the days when we’re not here so if you like to leave a message we’ll ring you back to arrange an appointment. We don’t have an around the clock service for emergencies so check our links page http://www.counsellingconnections.ie/cc/links/ for contact details for Aware and Samaritans.

It has been another great year here at Counselling Connections and we remain humbled and grateful at the confidence you place in us. We’d like to wish all our clients and friends a Happy and Peaceful Christmas. We’re looking forward to working with you in the New Year.

Fergal and Maggie. Counselling Connections.

tel. 042 9331803 mob. 086 0381073

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2017.

Counselling — admin @ 10:34 am

We’ll be open until Friday, December 22nd at 6pm. We’ll be back after the break on January 4th 2018.

We will be checking the voicemail during the days when we’re not here so if you like to leave a message we’ll ring you back to arrange an appointment. We don’t have an around the clock service for emergencies so check our links page http://www.counsellingconnections.ie/cc/links/ for contact details for Aware and Samaritans.

It has been another year of extraordinary work here at Counselling Connections and we remain humbled and grateful at the confidence you place in us. We’d like to wish all our clients and friends a Happy and Peaceful Christmas. We’re looking forward to working with you in the New Year.Counselling Connections.

tel. 042 9331803 mob. 086 0381073

Mindfulness in Psychoanalytic Practice.

Counselling — admin @ 9:51 am

The Irish Forum for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Clinical Series Spring 2016.

Mindfulness in Psychoanalytic Practice Led by Michael ( Michelo ) Del Monte.

Venue: The Teachers Club (Club na Muinteoiri), 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1.

Dates: Saturday: March 5th, April 16h and May 14th 2016 Time: 10.30 am – 1.00pm.

Cost : €120 (Trainees in clinical practice €90 ) for series Spaces limited – Early booking advised 7.5 CPD awarded by ICP Further information, contact: Ann Daly, tel. 01 – 2722105 amdpsy@gmail.com

Long before CBT began to embrace mindfulness, psychoanalysts were exploring Eastern philosophy and practices from a psychodynamic perspective. Freud’s instruction to both analysts and analysands regarding free association, the third hovering eye, etc. are very relevant here. These three experiential sessions will be of interest to those who wish to explore the interface between the Western psychoanalytic approach to insight and consciousness and the much older Eastern approach to mindfulness and levels of awareness . Thus, the three sessions shall be a combination of the theory, philosophy and practice of mindfulness. The theoretical aspect will be sandwiched between experiential practice. There will be ample time for discussion of the theoretical, philosophical and mindfulness practice, and its relevance to clinical and personal practice. The use of mindfulness in deep listening to the analysand will be explored in terms of transference and counter-transference, as will its role in the construction of well-being.

Michelo DelMonte is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in private practice in Monks town, Co. Dublin, following retirement from his post as Principal Clinical Psychologist in St. Edmundsbury Hospital, Lucan, Co. Dublin (part of St. Patrick’s Hospital). Having primary degrees in both Genetics and Psychology, his M.Sc and Ph.D. research in the Psychosomatic Unit of St. James’s Hospital Dublin focused on psycho-physiological aspects of meditation and mindfulness. Michelo’s subsequent research and writing on Eastern Practices and Western Psychology and Psychotherapy span many decades, He has contributed to publications in Europe, North America, Japan, China and Australia and has published close to a hundred articles on mindfulness from psychodynamic and existentialist perspectives.

Adam Phillips in Belfast.

Counselling — admin @ 10:33 am

Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations

is delighted to welcome
the highly acclaimed psychoanalyst,
child psychotherapist and writer
Adam Phillips
‘On Unforbidden Pleasures’
Wednesday 10th June 2015, 10am until 3pm
(with registration from 9:30am)
Malone House, Belfast.

Adam Phillips Flyer

Back to the Future.

Counselling — admin @ 12:54 pm

Here at Counselling Connections this week we’ve been at the movies. As regular readers will know, our weekly meetings here can take a turn and we can end up talking about all kinds of things. We allow ourselves this luxury as we find we can get in touch with all kinds of interesting things. In psychoanalysis it is called Free Association, allowing yourself to flow freely from one idea to the next without censoring what you say. Anyway, this week’s digressions lead us to talking about the movies. This year’s Oscar nominations are due to be announced this afternoon and we got to talking about what movies would rank in an awards ceremony for films which were judged to have relevance to therapy. And a clear front runner is the movie that became a series: Back to the Future.

The plot of Back to the Future involves the hero, Marty McFly being transported back in time to when his parents were not yet dating. The ability to return to the past means that significant events that happen will shape the future and involve a ‘new’ future which differs from the one from which Marty has just returned. If you follow. This concept is represented well in the movie plot and poses all kinds of dilemmas for the hero as he takes steps to ensure that his parents do begin to date and fall in love. In this way he ensures his own future existence. An additional point of interest for those of us in the field of psychotherapy involves Marty’s father standing up to a bully. In asserting himself with this bullying figure the father changes the future and when Marty returns to 1985 where the film begins there is a new relationship between his father and his former tormentor. In the amended version of history the father is confident and assertive.

All of these themes are played out in the drama of the film’s story line. In real life we cannot return to the past and change things so as to return to the present and enjoy a different reality. The film, it could be said, represents our wish to be able to achieve this impossible feat. In reality we often struggle in the present with the leftover effects of past events. These can be in the form of significant, traumatic events or more mundane frustrations at the path our lives have taken. Sometimes, it is said of therapy, that although we cannot change past events we can change how we view them. This is certainly true and it can take up a good deal of our therapeutic work.

Sometimes a therapy involves a kind of Back to the Future of sorts in that we look at our life’s narrative to date and consider the effects of decisions we made and options we took or didn’t take. The best we can do in terms of aiming to achieve the wish expressed in the film is to make now the time to make some sort of stand or take some sort of action to bring about a changed future. And this doesn’t have to involve punching a bully and knocking him unconscious. It more usually involves a sort of taking stock; making a decision and finding the determination to begin working on some sort of project. This project can be a college course, a change in diet or exercise or something more abstract involving a clearer vision of a future version of our own self that we would like to aim for.

Sometimes a therapy can involve reviewing the timeline and the narrative of our life to date. Often this means that our patterns become clearer, facilitating an awareness of what we have been trying to achieve in life. This applies as much to our love lives as it does to work; lieben und arbeiten as Freud put it, to love and to work. The punch that Marty’s father threw in the film represents a single dramatic event that changed his future self. Real life it is not quite as simple as that and it is not possible to achieve lasting change in one single act. It will take time and awareness and conscious work. This is what therapy involves and we are pleased to be able to facilitate our clients in this process as they review their own pasts and dream up and try to put onto action a future of their own choosing.

Counselling Connections, Dundalk.

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2014.

Counselling — admin @ 5:24 pm

Christmas and New Year Holiday arrangements 2014.

We’ll be open until Tuesday, December 23rd at 4pm. We’ll be closed from the 24th until January 2nd 2015. We will be checking the voicemail during the days when we’re not here so if you like to leave a message we’ll ring you back to arrange an appointment. We don’t have an around the clock service for emergencies so check our links page http://www.counsellingconnections.ie/cc/links/ for contact details for Aware and Samaritans.

We’d like to wish all our clients and friends a Happy and Peaceful Christmas. We’re looking forward to working with you in the New Year.

Fergal and Maggie. Counselling Connections.

tel. 042 9331803 mob. 086 0381073

Eastern Mindfulness: A Western Psychodynamic Perspective

Counselling — admin @ 10:29 am

The Irish Psycho-Analytical Association Presents
Dr. Michael DelMonte
Eastern Mindfulness:
A Western Psychodynamic Perspective
Dr. Michael DelMonte (Michelo to his friends) will conduct a lecture/workshop
into Mindfulness. The English word, Mindfulness is derived from the Hindu concept
and practice sati, widely defined as “the intentional, accepting and non-judgemental
focus of one’s attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the
present moment”.
Michael was born in The Hague in The Netherlands. He completed his formal
education in Dublin with a BSc in Genetics and Psychology, as well as an MSc and a
PhD – all from Trinity College Dublin. He also has an MSc in Psychotherapy from
University College Dublin. He is now in private practice as a Psychotherapist, whilst
lecturing in Psychology and Psychotherapy at Trinity. Mindfulness has been a subject
of great interest to him for many years.
Date: Saturday, 18 October
Time: 11.00 am
Venue: The Royal Marine Hotel, Dunloaghaire
Entry: €20 (€15 for the unwaged)
For More Info Telephone: 01 4967288 087 6307233 or 087 2378302

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