Deirdre is a psychotherapist and mindfulness trainer with many years experience in delivering services in Dublin and Down. She is a fully accredited member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland.
Her services include at this time of Covid 19 social distancing
She specialises in working with the consequences of chronic stress and/or trauma - which include nervous system dis-regulation- experienced as anxiety or as shutdown (depression), reactivity, feelings of overwhelm, relationship difficulties and chronic ill health. She is currently in the Advanced Year of Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) training.
She is qualified to run the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Programmes and loves supporting people to bring meditation practices into their lives - discovering the profound resources of states of ‘being’, ‘connection’ and ‘presence’.
As a mindfulness-based, and somatically-oriented therapist she supports people to establish a bodily sense of safety, peace and rest states. As a result her clients’ bodies and minds are supported to regulate back towards better health. Her genuinely supportive relationships with her clients are central to facilitating this move back to health and thriving. This approach is based on the best current neurobiological research - it is an approach that goes beyond the purely cognitive to support sustained change as people move out of stuck survival (stress) states back to a sense of ease in themselves.
She supports clients to become aware in the here and now with her - to recognise strengths/ resources and also where there are limitations. Together they can then explore and experiment with widening the clients’ range of choices and responses. She works especially with supporting the nervous system to recover other healthful responses where it is often caught in stress, fight flight or freeze(shutdown) patterns.
With this kind of real support, growth shows up. And consequently people learn to give themselves much more inner support and indeed meet their needs for deep connections in other relationships in their lives.
Deirdre also works with people in developing their creativity and spirituality as powerful resources - resources to live the fullest life they can live.
As a psychotherapist her work is informed by neurological research, Gestalt therapy and theory, attachment theory and object relations perspectives.
Deirdre trained in the Tivoli Institute Dublin and The Dublin Institute for Gestalt Therapy. She completed mindfulness teacher training at Centre for Mindfulness, University of Wales and the University of Massachusetts ( Medical Centre - Centre for Mindfulness).
She is an Associate of the Belfast Gestalt Centre, and a committed member of the Belfast gestalt community - helping to develop this therapeutic modality in Northern Ireland.
Originally from South Down it is extremely meaningful to her to be offering a much needed service to her home community. Her own meditation practice is an essential anchor and much loved resource for all her work.
Please contact Deirdre for further information.
info@mournemindfulness.comSee the courses pages for more info.
Whilst this is an ancient practice, it is only in recent decades that science and medicine have come to recognise and prove the capacity of mindfulness to improve the quality of people's lives; helping anyone living with the stress of illness, injury or pain, anyone working with depression, anxiety or recovering from addiction and more broadly anyone wanting to improve their relationship with the daily challenges of stress. It promotes self awareness, self regulation, self compassion and a stable, centred way of being.
This was a very well presented course with good facilitated group discussion. This will be so beneficial to daly life and I will plan to practice daily as I so enjoy the stillness and the listening to my mind and body. I have gained in acceptance and self-compassion. I have learnt to take time for myself and am more patient and less quick to judgement. I have noticed myself less reactive personally and professionally. Thank you Deirdre for a most enjoyable course. I plan to bring this practice into my daily life. what a skill to use in good times and in bad! - Explore feelings and allow mind and body to heal itself.
I would like to comment on the course's content as being very well thought out and structured. It was gently and firmly directing us in such a positive way which I believe I will find to have a very positive long term effect on my way of behaving and living my life in the future! Thank you.
I decided to do this course to seek some balance in my life and reduce reactivity to stress and anxiety. It was a very well paced course with time to engage with the principles and practices. Doing it as a group gave the opportunity to learn from each others experiences. These practices teach you how to introduce a space and time into every day problems so that there is much more opportunity to step back and examine before reacting but also allows time to deal with the pain or upset. I have gained such a sense of perspective in both every day situations and in longer term issues. I am now enjoying the present more in all its joys and difficulties. I find I am supporting myself more so that I can support others - so I see changes in relationships. I wish to spend time now on building on the longer meditation practices, to examine more where my learned experiences came from and maybe relearn better responses. This course will continue to unfold!
Mindfulness is a simple practice that connects us to our natural sense of presence, stability and balance. Mindfulness is a way of being that arises when we pay attention, on purpose, deeply and without judgment, to whatever is occurring in the present moment. It involves adopting a friendly attitude to whatever we notice.
The monthly workshops described.
Deirdre describes the practice and experience in her own words.