We offer families who access the service the time and space in which to work through or resolve the issues that contribute to their distress with the support of a Counselling team. Family and Teen Counselling is an ‘adolescent friendly’ service and as such, our aim is to enable young people and their parents or careers deal with difficulties, within the context of the family.

Teen Self-Esteem

How do you feel about yourself? Do you like you? Your self-impression informs your behavior. How we feel about ourselves directly influences the way we approach decision making in our day-to-day actions, and good self-regard is necessary to truly engage fully with everything life can offer us. Believing in our own dignity is central to leading a dignified existence, and not believing in it, is a root of just the opposite. If you struggle with self-esteem that is perfectly normal, most teens do. Your teenage years can be some of the toughest of your life, but you should also like the person you are. If you happen to be struggling with self-esteem contact one of our counsellors today and begin believing in yourself.

Bullying

By listening to the voices that tell us we are capable, we cultivate good self-esteem. This enables youth to act independently and readily assume responsibility for life. It helps us know how to handle positive and negative emotions. Listening to the voices that tell us we are not capable, we cultivate low self-esteem. This leads us to avoid trying new things, and feel unworthy of love. Low esteem leads us to put down our own talents and abilities and become easily influenced by others, especially bullies. Don’t let low self-esteem get in the way of your life and the opportunities it has to offer.

If you find yourself wondering what your teen was thinking, the answer may be “not much.” Teens often make snap judgments based on impulse, especially when situations come up quickly, leaving teens with little time to sort through the pros and cons.

Some of those hasty decisions may involve cheating in school; skipping class; using alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs; going somewhere or being with someone that you do not approve of. And the consequences can include losing your trust; letting down friends; getting into trouble; hurting education and job prospects; causing illness or injury; or leading to other reckless behaviour. The truth be known, the teen brain is not fully developed until years later. They need to be able to learn skills for decision making in ways they can process. Our Therapists help teens learn the skills to navigate peer pressure in order to make healthy decisions even when they are struggling with raging emotions and scattered thoughts.

Anger & Stress Management

Anger Management

Anger, though it has its place, may express itself inappropriately, either towards others or yourself. We cannot control anger provoking situations, but we can manage our attitudes to them. Anger management counselling will look straight to the sources of your anger to get it in context. We then put strategies in place to manage it and to minimize anger confrontation or self harm.

About Anger:

• It is natural
• It is rarely a useful emotion
• It is a reaction to feeling threatened in some way
• It can be treated by learning new responses to the events it.

Symptoms:

• Hostility
• Explosive outbursts
• Tense muscles
• Aggressive behaviour
• Social withdrawal
• Verbal abuse
• Bad tempered irritable
• Sleep difficulties

Stress Management

Stress can become a vicious cycle without the stress management techniques needed to manage it. The words “But I can’t relax..” can become commonplace in a person’s life.  In small amounts, stress can be tolerated. However, prolonged or intense stress levels can impact on our relationships, work performance, and lead to panic attacks and/or depression. Common symptoms can include irritability, lack of concentration, sleeping problems, negative thinking, changes in appetite, lack of motivation, loss of libido, social withdrawal and mood swings. Stress can contribute to physical symptoms such as skin disorders, headaches, muscular tension, high blood pressure and other bodily aches.

Issues for Stress Counselling

• Work Pressures
• Family Stresses
• Relationship Worries
• Difficulty Coping
• Panic Attacks
• Irritability
• Physical Ailments

Engaging with Counselling can allow you to unburden yourself and gain a fresh mindset so that you can open up to learning new coping strategies. You discover and implement stress management approaches like:

• Time management
• Anger management
• Improving coping strategies
• Developing a more positive mindset
• Dealing with burnout
• Anxiety reduction
• Using guided imagery to reduce stress
• Managing work stress
• Relaxation techniques
• Work-life balance

When stress reactions decrease our quality of life, psychotherapy can help us to make serious changes in order to live in a happier and more effective way. When we frequently respond to stress with anxiety, fear, anger or depression, time is spent exploring these initial reactions as part of the process. Stress management psychotherapy emphasizes the importance of understanding and thereby gaining control of personal sources of anxiety which amplify the individual’s particular response to stress. Blind spots, inner conflicts and unresolved trauma provide life’s stressors with opportunities to slowly take hold and grow beyond the person’s ability to cope with them.

What are the Benefits of Stress Management Counselling?

• Learn what causes your stress, anxiety or panic and how to regain control
• Discover how to identify stress and anxiety or panic attack triggers and minimize their effect
• Learn how to change automatic thought, behaviour/physical symptoms which feed anxiety cycles
• Discover proven, effective panic prevention and removal strategies
• Learn stress reduction techniques to reduce the physical side effects of anxiety or panic
• Develop tailor-made coping strategies to manage stressful situations effectively
• Build techniques and tools that will enable you to effectively prevent or manage any future

Employee Assistance Programmes are designed as a short-term goal-focused therapeutic approach which helps employees and clients change by constructing solutions rather than dwelling on problems. Elements of the desired solution often are already present in the client’s life, and become the basis for ongoing change. The ability to articulate what the changes will be like is often more important than understanding what led to the problem.

Working from a solution-focused model of brief therapy, the client contracts for a fixed number of sessions. Because of it’s brief nature, with a defined number of sessions, it is of specific interest to Companies committed to supporting employees through life’s various crises.

This solution-focused brief therapy facilitates rapid results and change, the approach values a respectful partnership, emphasizing the client’s own strengths and resources, while encouraging focus on the emerging solutions.

The benefits of this model are quickly seen by both Employee (client) and Employer alike.

At Dublin City Counselling Service we can arrange this through an ongoing contract with companies and organizations or on a case by case basis.

What is CBT ?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – commonly known as CBT – is a type of therapy that works by helping you to understand that your thoughts and actions can affect the way you feel.

It teaches you to observe the way your behavior and thoughts can affect your mood, then work to build new habits that help you to feel better.

How does CBT work?
CBT is a talking therapy based on scientific methods. After medication it is the most effective treatment for reducing the symptoms of almost all mental health problems, but especially anxiety and depression. When used to treat anxiety disorders it has also been found to improve overall quality of life.

CBT can help you to stop negative cycles of thoughts, behavior and emotions by helping you to notice what is making you feel anxious, unhappy or frightened and helping you to manage these factors. By helping you to work out what to change to improve your mood, CBT can allow you to take control of your mental health.

What conditions are treated with CB?
It can tackle a range of problems including depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress and schizophrenia. The therapy usually takes place in a series of clearly structured sessions, either with a therapist or as part of a self-help programme. Unlike most traditional talking therapies, CBT sessions focus on current problems and practical solutions rather than problems from your past.

Treatment is usually short-term and for a set length of time (between six and 24 one-hour sessions). CBT is offered, especially for treating common problems such as depression and anxiety, and is beneficial for people who want a therapy that works towards solutions, with clear goals and using practical techniques.

Many relationships can reach a stage where one or both partners are finding it difficult to see a way forward. The relationship may no longer seem to be providing what the person is looking for and they may now be wondering if it is possible to bring in changes that can help improve the situation or whether the couple can remain together.

Sometimes the communication within the relationship has become difficult or negative or the behavior of one or both parties seems unreasonable to the other, such as putting very little time into a relationship, excessive working or socializing, drinking, gambling or affairs. The parties may be experiencing a lot of rows, conflict, resentment, boredom, or feeling misunderstood and may feel like they are living quite separate lives. Sexual difficulties may have arisen in the relationship and the couple may have infrequent or no sex. Many relationships can reach a stage where one or both partners find it difficult to maintain communication and difficulties arise such as arguments or ignoring each other. The relationship may no longer be providing what they are looking for and one or both partners may now wonder what can help improve the situation.

The additional help and support of an experienced counsellor can be very beneficial in facilitating the couple to clarify the issues of difficulty and see if these may be improved together. Counselling can help to give a good understanding of each other’s family background and personal history This can be a very important part of this process in order to help understand the dynamic that may now exist in the relationship.

The counsellor will generally work with the couple together but may also do some separate individual sessions with one or both partners, if this is identified and agreed as an important part of the process. In circumstances where one of the partners does not wish to enter into couple therapy, the other may be encouraged to proceed into individual therapy.

Counselling & Psychotherapy

Our qualified professional Team of Counsellors, Psychotherapists, Psychologists are trained to work closely with you to enable you to explore thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behavior’s that affect your life negatively. Through Counselling and Psychotherapy you are given the support and safety to explore and understand these thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviors in the strictest confidence.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

(CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a collaborative, practical and problem oriented approach to emotional problems whereby the client and therapist work together toward understanding difficulties in terms of the relationship between thoughts, feelings, body responses and behavior.

Couple/ Relationship Counselling

Many relationships can reach a stage where one or both partners are finding it difficult to see a way forward. The relationship may no longer seem to be providing what the person is looking for and they may now be wondering if it is possible to bring in changes that can help improve the situation or whether the couple can remain together.

Child & Adolescent

Psychotherapy

Is widely recognized as a core discipline in the treatment of children and young people who are experiencing psychological or behavioral difficulties. Child counselling provides a way for even quite young children to express and overcome their concerns. Teen counselling provides the young person with a context in which they can express their worries and anxieties and discover ways to address and overcome these concerns.

Our approach is based on detailed observation, engagement with and understanding of the child or teenager’s conscious and unconscious communication. The counsellor or psychotherapist helps the young person towards an understanding of themselves and their relationships. The young person or child can begin to see how their own patterns of behavior can sometimes contribute to their unhappiness. Also, in this work the child or young person can learn the skills and be given the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings in an effective manner.

Some of the issues that we can help to address with children and young people are such things as:

• Anger issues
• Anxiety & Panic Attacks
• Behavioral Difficulties
• Bullying
• Self-harm
• Obsessions and Compulsions
• Relationship Difficulties
• Depression
• Bereavement & Loss

In our practice our psychotherapists provide a safe place where young people can explore and address their problems with a trained professional, the child or young person can begin to address the difficulties that they may be facing and develop effective ways of coping that can sustain them into adulthood.

By providing a safe place where they can explore and address their problems with a trained professional, the child or young person can develop effective ways of coping that can sustain them into adulthood.