We have been providing a low cost counselling service at our Solas Centre in Clontarf since September 2008.
Who is the service for?
Our counselling service is available for anyone who is impacted by Autism.Family members and relatives, individuals with high functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome themselves, support workers and staff working within Autism services have benefitted from our service to date.
What is counselling?
A counsellor is trained to listen carefully to your problems and to support you while you find your own solutions.Counselling provides a safe space for you to explore your feelings in a supportive environment. The relationship between a counsellor and client is confidential and is based on respect and trust. The client and the counsellor will generally work together towards an agreed set of goals.
Counselling may help you to take control of your life and to understand your feelings, which may help you handle them better in the future. You may gain new perspectives, learn different ways of behaving and new ways of coping.
Why go to a counsellor?
Most of us feel worried or depressed at some time in our lives and it helps to have someone to talk to, who’ll listen and try to understand. Friends and family can be a great support, but they may have problems of their own or you may not want to share intimate details with them. Often it is only when we talk to someone unconnected with our lives that we begin to hear what we are really saying and feeling. Counselling offers you this opportunity.Through counselling you may also find new ways to manage everyday stress and anxiety, to cope with relationship issues, to develop better personal awareness and make changes to positively impact your life and how you are feeling about yourself and others around you.
The kind of problems that people come to us for counselling to resolve include deep long standing issues as well as current problems which are affecting their lives.
At present we primarily offer individual one to one counselling and couples counseling. In the future and child and adolescent counselling may also be offered.
Who provides the Service?
The counselling service is managed by Yvonne Lucas, who holds a BA in Counselling & Psychotherapy, and has been working with us since we first piloted the service in 2008.Due to increased demand for the service Yvonne is now supported by 12 additional counsellors, who each volunteer up to four hours a week of their time to provide the service. Additional volunteers are recruited as demand arises.
All of our counsellors have trained in institutions recognised by the main counselling accrediting bodies. Some are fully qualified and are working towards their accreditation, whilst others are in the final stages of training, or undertaking further training and professional development. All are subject to the Code of Ethics of the professional body of which they are full, pre-accredited or associated members - IACP, IAHIP.
Is there a fee?
We ask a token from clients for the professional counselling service they receive. Mainstream counselling services cost between 60- 80 euro per session.We request a donation for each Counselling Session of between 10 and 40 euro, depending on individual circumstances. Clients who wish to donate more are welcome to do so.
