Sharon O'Farrell - Counselling, Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy

10/09/2025

The difference matters. 🧠

While AI chatbots are designed to keep you scrolling and engaged, therapy is designed around your well-being and growth. Real healing happens in relationship with someone trained to recognise what you need, even when it's not what feels comfortable in the moment. Your mental health deserves more than an algorithm and it most certainly deserves genuine human connection and professional expertise.

Learn more about why ChatGPT shouldn't be your therapist: https://at.apa.org/a51dd1

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14HgndmfM8E/

Unlike mental health professionals, chatbots are designed to keep you engaged—not necessarily to support your well-being.

Learn more about why ChatGPT shouldn't be your therapist: https://at.apa.org/a51dd1

08/09/2025

Of course it may be an instinctual response to want to comfort someone in grief by encouraging them to look forward and to find hope in what's ahead. But what many people don't realise, is that your loved one isn't just missing from today. They're missing from tomorrow, next week, next Christmas and every other milestone yet to come.

When someone we love dies, yes, we lose them in that moment but what many people forget is that we lose them from every single moment that comes after. Over time the ripples of grief and the subsequent fallout continue into a future we do not have with them. There is nowhere this absence does not reach.

That empty chair at the dinner table will be empty at every family gathering. The phone that doesn't ring with their voice won't ring tomorrow either. The future you had planned together has disappeared completely.

This is about understanding that grief isn't just about the past. It's about recognising that loss reaches into every corner of our lives, including the life we're still living. This isn't about being negative or staying stuck. However, the reality is that we live in a largely grief-illiterate world that often just don't get it.

The piercing edges of that absence may soften with time but the love remains. That's not something to fix or get over or ‘be strong’ for. Strong for whose benefit?

If you're walking this path, it's completely normal to feel the heaviness of all those future moments without your person. Your grief makes perfect sense. Everyone grieves differently and individually. There is no right or wrong. The absence feels so big because the love was so big.

And if you're supporting someone in grief, remember that there is much more to grief than losing the person they loved (as if that's not already enough!). They're missing who they would have become together.

04/09/2025

Coming Home to Yourself 🏡

31/08/2025

Yes🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻! This 💚.
This perfectly captures what I see every day in my practice, which is the incredible resilience and capacity for growth that exists within each of us. The phrase "hurt people hurt people" has become such an oversimplified explanation that strips away the complexity of the human experience. It ignores the deeply meaningful ways that trauma, neurodivergence and individual emotional capacity shape our responses to pain.

What I witness time and again is that hurt people don't just perpetuate cycles, they may also break them, they create healing spaces for others, they transform their pain into purpose, and yes, they heal people too. Our wounds can actually become the very foundation of our wisdom, empathy and strength.

Every person who walks into therapy is proof that healing is possible and that our stories of pain can become stories of transformation. 💙

25/08/2025

Understanding Our Patterns and Why Do We Keep Meeting the Same Challenges?

One of the most common patterns I see in therapy is the tendency to unconsciously recreate familiar dynamics even when they're painful.

When we avoid dealing with our deeper wounds or unresolved issues they don't just disappear and instead, they show up repeatedly in our relationships, our work and our daily interactions with people. We might find ourselves:

• Attracting similar relationship dynamics

• Hitting the same career roadblocks

• Reacting in familiar ways to different situations

• Feeling stuck in cycles we can't quite understand

Before I go further, I want to say that this isn't about blame or shame. It's about awareness. Our psyche has a way of presenting us with opportunities to heal, often through familiar patterns and triggers. What feels like "bad luck" or "the same thing happening again" is often our unconscious mind's attempt to help us resolve what remains unfinished.

The invitation here is to sit with your 'Self'. Discover who you are.

This inner work means getting curious about our patterns, understanding our triggers and developing self-compassion. This is key to how we begin to break these cycles. When we turn toward ourselves with kindness and curiosity rather than avoidance, we create space for genuine transformation.

Therapy provides a safe container for this self-discovery which helps you understand these patterns with compassion and develop new ways of being in the world.

What patterns are you ready to explore? 🌱

23/08/2025

Let's be real. The world often feels more chaotic and judgmental and we all deserve a place where we can simply *be* without hiding parts of ourselves, without masks, without pretense, without fear of being misunderstood or criticised.

As a humanistic and integrative psychotherapist of over 20 years, creating this sacred safe space is at the very heart of my practice. It's where healing begins, where authentic connection is nurtured and where transformation becomes possible.

When you step into my therapy room you're entering a space carefully held with unconditional positive regard, deep empathy and genuine acceptance. Here, your story matters. Your feelings are valid. Your pace is respected. There's no rush to "fix" anything, no judgment about where you are in your journey and no pressure to be anyone other than exactly who you are in this moment.

This safe space isn't just about the physical environment (though comfort matters). It's about the emotional container we create together: a relationship built on trust, confidentiality and mutual respect. It's knowing that whatever you bring, whether it's your struggles, your triumphs, your confusion or your clarity, these will all be met with compassion and understanding.

In this space, vulnerability becomes strength. Authenticity becomes healing. And you become free to explore, to grow and to rediscover the wholeness that was always within you.

The most radical act of self-care is allowing yourself to be truly seen and heard. And that's exactly what this space is for. 💙

16/08/2025

Self-Respect Saturday 💥💚

Real growth isn't about proving everyone wrong about you. It's about being secure enough to let people think what they want to think.

The truth is, most of what people assume about us says more about their own lens than our reality. When we're constantly explaining ourselves or correcting misconceptions, we're giving away our power and energy to stories that don't even belong to us.

Maturity is knowing that your worth doesn't depend on everyone's understanding. Some people will see you clearly, others won't and that's perfectly okay. Focus your energy on the relationships and opportunities that matter, not on managing everyone else's story about who you are.

The right people will see you for who you truly are without needing a dissertation to explain it. 💫

16/08/2025

This landed for me this morning 🌄

Sometimes we get so caught up in all the things we think we should be doing for our mental health that we forget the simple stuff actually works.

Your nervous system isn't asking you to be perfect. It's asking you to be present.

Have a lovely Saturday 💞

14/08/2025

Give yourself time. Everyone's process is different.

09/08/2025

When you are a young child, you offer forgiveness like a sacrament. This is for self-protection, survival and love. You learn to read emotional weather patterns and become exquisitely attuned to others while losing touch with yourself.

As children we develop what might be called "borrowed empathy", managing others' emotions while our own go underground. We wear masks to stay safe: the perpetual forgiver, the one who understands, who never makes waves.

Healing begins when we recognise these survival strategies with deep compassion. What once protected us may now be limiting our adult selves. Recovery means learning that forgiveness can be a conscious choice rather than automatic self-preservation.

This is the beautiful work of reclaiming autonomy and seeing relationships clearly without the lens of childhood powerlessness. When we no longer need constant approval to feel worthy, we can love from a place of genuine freedom.

This isn't about becoming harsh or bitter. It's about honouring your truth while keeping your heart open. In this space, you don't find bitterness, but the joy of finally being fully present to your own precious life.

Have a good Saturday 💫🌞🩷

07/08/2025

I love how this captures a core truth about trauma: it’s not about weakness. It’s about overload. Just as enough force can break any bone, enough stress or pain can overwhelm any human. Trauma responses are not personal failings; they are natural human reactions to unbearable pressure.

Let’s shift the narrative from blame to compassion.

01/08/2025

''May you realise that the shape of your Soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here, that behind the complete facade of your life, something beautiful, planned, and eternal is unfolding and happening.'' ~ John O'Donohue
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John O'Donohue had such a gift for seeing the sacred in the ordinary, didn't he? This quote always stops me in my tracks. We can get so caught up in thinking we're behind in life, or that we've made too many wrong turns. But what if there's actually something beautiful unfolding in your story? Even in the imperfect bits. Maybe especially in the imperfect bits? Your soul has its own shape, its own timing. Trust that. 💚