Diane O'Neill Counselling & Psychotherapy

10/09/2025

💛💛💛💛💛💛

23/08/2025

“The 600 plus points students got all the plaudits on the news yesterday and fair play, it took a lot of work and is well deserved 👏 However, there are some other students who won’t feature on most of our radars, but but deserve a shout out too… 👇👇👇

To the student with additional needs who maybe struggled with academic and social difficulties…well done 👏

To the student who had a physical illness and missed many classes to attend multiple appointments.. well done 👏

To the student who spent months in an in-patient unit recovering from an eating disorder, depressive/ anxiety disorder and had to catch up on lost time..well done 👏

To the student who suffered a bereavement this year and had to try study through the sadness of loss.. well done 👏

To the student who lived in a home with addiction who had to find space to study amid chaos and uncertainty.. well done 👏

To the student who had a sibling with additional needs who was called upon to help out at the cost of their own time to study… well done 👏

To the student who endured bullying, exclusion and persecution but still managed to go in day after day and try to learn… well done 👏

Students like these won’t feature on our National news stations and they won’t break any points records..but these young people have shown remarkable spirit deserve credit too…here’s hoping that the next few yrs will be a bit easier for them🤞.. well done 👏”

Dr Colman Noctor.

06/08/2025

My practice is now closed for my rest and reset after a long few months of helping my clients heal painful emotional wounds.

Self-care is vital in this work so I can be in my best space for my clients.

My practice will re-open on 17th September to support those who need it.

18/02/2025

Fast, proven recovery from a traumatic past

18/02/2025

16/02/2025

A few public training workshops for professionals coming up. DM with your email address and I’ll forward you on the full programme information if you wish. Suitable for counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, educators, guidance counsellors, social workers, family support workers, youth workers and all related professionals who are supporting teenagers and their parents. Feel free to share 😊😊😊

11/02/2025

Very interesting if you’ve small kids especially… take a read as this lady knows her stuff. 🙂

Childhood diagnosis is on the increase in relation to emotional regulation, attention issues, academic motivation and behavioural issues. Referrals for speech & language have skyrocketed and the amount of children starting school with toileting issues, a lack of capacity to play or use their imagination, and whose interpersonal skills are seriously lacking, is deeply concerning.
Screens render children passive: they disconnect from their bodies, their impulses, their imagination, their capacity to think for themselves, their curiosity, their impetus to speak, their interest in others, their capacity to make friends, to play, to listen, and to pay attention to anything that doesn’t hold their interest as vividly as a screen. Schools see this impact in increasingly concerning ways. More than a quarter of three and four year olds own their own tablets/smartphones. Many of these kids show up to school emotionally and physically dysregulated, cognitively distracted, grossly under-stimulated, socially stunted and very uncomfortable. Recommendations are that children under 2 years of age should have zero screen time in order for them to engage fully with all of their senses in the world so that their brain comes fully online and so that they have optimal developmental conditions socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically. For 2-5 year olds 30 minutes of screen time per day is recommended.
If you want your child to flourish, this is an important pathway. However, tech companies and algorithms shape our relationship to time, attention, thinking and even parenting. Parents themselves are addicted to their screens and consequently find these recommendations a struggle and even unrealistic. So the typical parental approach is ‘collapse’ - "sure everyone else is doing it and sure there’s nothing much I can do about it". The evidence is clear - overuse of screens equals developmental compromise…and I’m not even talking about adolescents here - the impacts for them are even more concerning. Wake up and put the screens away. Until that happens, we will continue to diagnose kids with the predictable side effects of childhood screen addiction and we will continue to see them struggle.

11/02/2025

**Limited spaces available for new clients** - message this page directly or WhatsApp 0876470036 - thank you

11/02/2025

Life can be overwhelming, and sometimes we need to remind ourselves: It's okay to...
💛 Ask for help
☕ Take a break
🌧️ Have bad days
🙅‍♂️ Say "no"
😴 Take days off
🌈 Be yourself
Your mental health matters. Take the time you need, set boundaries, and be kind to yourself. 💙

03/01/2025

This to me says it all … had to share. Thank you Donna Ashworth 🙏

For many, January is a hard, cold month…

When everyone is setting new goals, laying down righteous ground rules and striving to become a better version of themselves, some of us are fighting to find our feet each day...

You see, December is a month of giving, and some of us, come January, are completely and utterly spent.

A month of remembering everyone, and remembering absolutely everything.

A month of including everyone and of reaching out to each and every person we have ever known.

A month of reaching breaking point every day trying to have fun, to be the ultimate hostess, to be the perfect guest.

A month of stretching ourselves financially, emotionally and of letting our boundaries be breached by many... in the spirit of the season.

And then January hits and bam... before we can even begin the arduous task of clearing away the festivities, we are expected to jump on the ‘new year, new you’ bandwagon and transform ourselves entirely.

For some of us this is just too much.

January is the darkest and most depressing month of the year and for many sensitive souls, the barrage of ‘advice’ on how we ‘should’ be living, is just too much.

So perhaps this is a safe place to say that maybe it’s okay to take a week or two to recover and to just be kind to ourselves before demanding better.

And for those of us who really do fall low in the darkest month of the year. For those of us who have given too much and to whom the future looks bleak - perhaps this is the right place to say - you are absolutely fine the way you are. Just stay.

Take some time to breathe.

Take some time to not think about anything much at all except breathing in and breathing out.

Take some time to build back up, not tear your yourself down.

For many, this month is a mountain that looks unclimbable.

Be kind, my friends. Always.

Donna Ashworth

Art by

30/12/2024