Hello there, and thank you for taking the time to visit my website.
My name is Emma and I am a qualified psychotherapist based in Tullamore Co. Offaly. Firstly I want to extend a warm welcome to you to my practice Slieve Sona Therapy. Slieve Sona Therapy is my private practice where I offer online and in-person talk therapy sessions. I am passionate about therapy and incorporating the mind, body and soul when trying to navigate life’s ups and downs.
I have experience with a wide range of issues, a list of which is given below. My specialised area of clinical research is gender-based violence in Ireland and I have taken part in considerable training outside of my degree to support my work in this area.
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Autism
- Behavioural Issues
- Bereavement
- Body Positivity
- Career Guidance
- Coping Skills
- Depression
- Divorce
- Family Conflict
- Bereavement
- Relationship Issues
- Self Esteem
- Sexual Abuse
- Sex-Positive
- Spirituality
- Stress
- Suicidal Ideation
- Trauma
and many more.
I am here to meet you where you are on your journey and support you without judgement. It can be challenging knowing where to begin when you struggling. Therapy can help clarify the initial steps you need to take in order to create the change you want for yourself. I will be here to support you, one step at a time.
Slieve Sona
Slieve is an anglicisation of the Irish sliabh (mountain) in the names of various hills and mountains or ranges in the island of Ireland. For me I have spent many hours exploring the Slieve Bloom with my Labrador Bear and I find it’s a place where I feel most free and safe. In terms of naming my practice I was conscious that mountains also represent a journey and a challenge that needs to be faced.
“Through it all, the mountain just sits, experiencing change in each moment, constantly changing, yet always just being itself. It remains still as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes moment by moment and day by day, calmness abiding all change” –Jon Kabat-Zinn.
The latter ‘Sona’ is taken from Old Irish which describes something that is happy, prosperous, precious or golden. Both combined signify for me the journey that is therapy. While there may be what can seem like a mountain to be faced, the authentic self that emerges throughout that journey is something that is indeed precious. I am also reminded of the ‘mountain meditation’ that uses the analogy of the mountain to represent each individual.
After qualifying in Early Years Education and Care I worked in this field for several years getting to explore and be ever ready to follow the curious trail of six year olds down the path of endless creativity. I am lucky enough to have learned a lot from my time working with children and I bring a lot of this experience into my ‘inner child therapy’ which I find has immense benefits for our adult selves. One of the children’s favourite books from this time was ‘Bear Hunt’ by Michael Wayne Rosen. A line from this book is a great analogy for why many clients reach out to me. ‘We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, we have to go through it’. Sometimes obstacles (elements from our past or present) need to be faced and despite our resistance to ‘go through it’ they demand our attention. I am grateful to say I love this work and I will be glad to be with you on your journey of ‘going through it’, whatever that may look like for you.
What-ever has brought you here, we can work through together one step at a time. Often people say to me I never thought I would be someone who needed to come to therapy. My belief is that as humans our strengths lie in being able to look at the difficult parts, the niggling darkness that keeps popping its’ head up or that gut feeling that is telling you something isn’t right. Our greatest strength lies in facing these challenges and becoming our authentic self in the process.
“When I accept myself just as I am, then I can change” – Carl Rogers.
My Approach
I use body-work, psychosynthesis, art exploration, psychodynamic, mindfulness, breathwork, cognitive behavioural therapy, among other approaches to psychotherapy but what is key to the work is that all of my work is from a trauma-informed framework and research based. It is a privilege to get to know each one of my clients and I hold this very close to my heart and therefore I want to provide the most beneficial therapeutic space possible for each individual.
My role is to provide a space where you can be your authentic self and feel safe to navigate your lived experience. My practice is neuro-affirmative as I value and embrace neurodiversity and aim to provide an inclusive space. Movement breaks, no pressure to make eye-contact and freedom to bring objects or materials into the space is encouraged during sessions.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like a free 15 minute consultation. This no-obligation chat is done over zoom or phone-call and I find it is a nice way of finding out if I would be the right fit for you while giving us a sense of how we might work together.
Slieve Sona Therapy 