Committed to Development
At the Ford Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre we are committed to developing new cutting-edge approaches to supporting positive mental health in the community.
To assist us in this we have engaged the advisory support of a number of professionals, in the mental health, medical, psychotherapy and educational sectors in Ireland and abroad.
Dr. Joseph Collins
Head of Life Long Learning I.T Carlow
Dr Joseph Collins has nearly twenty years’ experience in higher education.
Professionally, he is the Head of Faculty of Lifelong Learning at Institute of Technology Carlow. The role is wide and varied but ultimately very rewarding as it facilitates the higher education of adults and fosters a culture of lifelong learning for personal, community and professional development. He works with different statutory, voluntary, community and industry organisations to fulfil the Institute’s strategic goal of “Inspiring Individuals and Transforming Society”. He is a strong advocate of lifelong learning as a means of promoting human agency for personal and collective empowerment. He has a deep interest in policy development in adult education and lifelong learning.
Involvement with different communities and widening participation to non-traditional students are two areas of his work for which he has a passionate interest. Delivery of part-time programmes to students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to engage in higher education is one of the great privileges of his job.
Monica Dowling
MIACP, MA, BS.c. Dip Supervisory Practice
Monica has an MA in Youth and Community Studies, B. Sc. (Honours) Counselling and Psychotherapy, Higher Diploma in Supervisory Practice.
She worked from 1988-1997 as a Development Officer and Team leader with Limerick Youth Service. Providing support and training for voluntary youth leaders in both Limerick city and county. Her work also involved teaching on adult education programmes with NUI Maynooth and University College Cork. As team leader she was responsible for providing supervision for individuals and teams delivering services in youth projects in Limerick city.
1997-1999 she was appointed Placement Co-ordinator on the B. Soc. Science course (UCC).
In 1999 Monica began working with Carlow College, St. Patrick’s, holding a number of positions during the past 20 years including Acting Head of Department Social Studies, Lecturer and Placement Co-ordinator. In addition she has a private practice in psychotherapy and supervision.
Dr Christopher Findlay
BSc MB ChB MMedSc MRCP(UK) FRCPEdin MRCGP FRCPsych DRCOG
Consultant Psychiatrist, NW Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Honorary Senior Lecturer Edge Hill University
Christopher Findlay is a Consultant Psychiatrist in NHS and private practice in Cheshire from 1997. He is currently a Consultant Psychiatrist in Halton Recovery Team.
He graduated in Medicine from the University of Birmingham in 1978 following an intercalated BSc in Physiological Studies in 1975. After a Medicine Rotation in Birmingham Hospitals he trained in Psychiatry and General Practice in Edinburgh and Psychiatry in Leeds. He held Lectureships in Medical Neurology in Edinburgh and Psychiatry in Leeds.
He was a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Keele University from 1997-2011. He was Director of Medical Education with 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust from 2004-2009.
He has been integrating EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) with his work since 2003. He was certified as a Sensorimotor Psychotherapist in Dublin in 2017. He has served on the Executive of the Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists since 2000, currently as Treasurer and previously as Secretary.
Margaret Jordan
MSc, CQSW, CPsychol
Founder & Clinical Director at Psympatico
Margaret has specialised in the treatment of psychological trauma for the past thirty years having worked in the NHS, private & voluntary sector with children and adults in a variety of settings.
Initially gaining a postgraduate qualification in Social Work, Margaret went on to train as a psychotherapist in a number of approaches e.g. Integrative, Mentalisation, EMDR, TF-CBT, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Neurofeedback. She is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Clinical Social Worker. Margaret has extensive experience in both residential and out patient services both as a practitioner and manager. She previously founded and ran a trauma centre for people addicted to drugs and alcohol with co-occurring psychological trauma. Margaret has worked extensively with people affected by natural disasters & tragedies as well as critical incidents.
Experience
- NHS, Private Statutory & Voluntary Sector (30 Years)
- Clinical Director
- Chartered Psychologist (Adults, Couples, Children & Adolescents)
- Psychotherapist & Counsellor (Adults, Couples, Children & Adolescents)
- Clinical Social Worker
Qualifications
- Doctorate (current enrolment)
- Diploma Counselling Psychology (British Psychological Society)
- Postgraduate Certificate in Psychological Trauma (University of Chester)
- MSc Psychodynamics of Human Development (Jungian Analytic; BAP/University of London)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis (London College of Clinical Hypnosis London)
- Postgraduate Diploma Staff Development & Education (University of Sheffield)
- Postgraduate Certificate & CQSW in Social Work (University of Stirling)
- BSc Psychology (London Guildhall University)
Dr Mairead Kelly
General Practitioner, Enniscorthy. MB Bch BAO MRCGP
Currently working as a GP Principal in a busy practice in Enniscorthy.
Mairead is a UCD Medical graduate 1988 and completed her General practice training in 1992. She has spent most of her working career in the South East of Ireland both in local hospitals and General Practice and Community Care and has also worked in Wales and Newcastle- upon-Tyne for a number of years.
She has a strong interest in Mental Health delivery and provides care for a large number of patients in her surgery who have mental health disorders and problems with substance misuse. This care is delivered with the support of other professional colleagues working in local hospitals, HSE clinics, Counselling Services such as The Ford Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre (Formerly Family Life Service) and other professional bodies providing mental health support.
She has found the support given by Family Life Service to her patients over the years to be a very valuable service and of a high standard.
The absence of fees is also a very laudable achievement in a patient group who are often quite vulnerable.
Anne Kirwan
Owner/manager of Ashe House, Centre for MindBody Integration
With a concrete background and passionate interest in neuroscience, neurobiology and psychology, it was a natural progression to training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy- a body centred psychotherapy grounded in somatic psychology and neuroscientific research. Anne is a certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist with the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, Boulder, Colorado.
She trained as a General Nurse, specialising in the area of neuromedical/neurosurgical nursing, and then as a Midwife over 30 years ago. She trained as a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, as a MBSR Teacher with the Institute for Mindfulness Approaches, Germany, as a teacher in Mindful Self Compassion with UC San Diego CFM Mindfulness-Based Professional Institute and with the Centre for the Mindfulness Research and Practice ( CMRP) Bangor University, Wales. She is a trained teacher endorsed to teach Positive Neuroplasticity( PNT) , developed by Dr Rick Hanson.
Anne is currently a part-time lecturer in Stress Response in Dublin Business School.
Maureen McCabe
MIAHIP,B,A, Hip Dip Counselling and Psychotherapy, Dip Gestalt, Post-grad Cert in Integrative body work, M.A supervision, Dip Gestalt Supervision.
Maureen qualified as a Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapist in 2005 (Turning Point, DCU). As a post graduate she undertook further training and specialised in Gestalt psychotherapy.
Maureen has experience of working with people with a range of psychological and emotional issues. Maureen uses creative methods, integrating a humanistic and existential approach that centres on the client’s personal responsibility for their growth and that the therapeutic relationship services as a vehicle to foster the client’s psychological growth. The practice of a therapeutic relational approach is central to her work.
Maureen has a vast expereince4 of working in the specialised area of both acute and community based mental health services and is now working privately at the Dublin Gestalt Centre.
Maureen has an interest in supervising people training to be psychotherapists who are seeking to experience the Gestalt relational model of supervision and offering supervision to people working within the healthcare system/clinical management. Maureen is currently on the Complaint’s Committee with the IAHIP.
Dr Anna Moore Asgharian
BSc (Hons). D. Clin Psych
Senior Clinical Psychologist Disability Services HSE
Consultant Creative Psychologist.
Psychology Egg.
www.psychologyegg.com
Anna is passionate about paradigm change in the field of mental health and disability. She is a pioneer of ‘Creative Psychology’ which is a specialist form of Positive Psychology involving the nurture & expansion of simple ideas which elevate mental well-being & release limited thinking patterns & behaviour. Anna’s primary expertise lie in the arena of disability and autism as well as working with parents and children within the care system. Anna’s main focus is centred upon exploring mental well-being with a reductionist methodology, this has led to what is now the underlying ethos of Psychology Egg which values simple positive approaches that maximise human potential.
Anna trained as a Clinical Psychologist and has worked within the National Health Service, London, U.K, the Health Service Executive, Wexford, Ireland and in privately funded services in the U.S. and India. She has had opportunity to work with clients and colleagues in many types of systems including Child & Adolescent Mental Health, Adult Mental Health, Head Injury Services, Disability Services, Forensic Services and the Family Court Systems. Over time Anna has been developing her skills in Consultation and Therapy, taking inspiration from approaches such as Systemic Therapy, Mindfulness based CBT and ‘Trauma Informed’ relationship centred therapies.
Dr Marko Punkanen
Director of the Nyanssi Therapy Centre, Lahti FInland
Dr Marko Punkanen is a music therapist, dance/movement therapist, psychotherapist, psychotherapy trainer, certified sensorimotor psychotherapist® and trainer. He currently works as a music/dance-movement/psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice and as a trauma psychotherapy trainer in University of Oulu, and as a trainer in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.
Marko has been working with severely traumatised clients since 1999. He is actively involved with trauma psychotherapy, music therapy and dance/movement therapy training in Finland.
He is the founder and director of the Nyanssi Therapy Centre, which offers music therapy, dance-movement therapy, psychotherapy, vibroaocustic therapy (VAT) and supervision services in Lahti Finland.
2007-2011 Marko worked as a researcher in Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research in University of Jyväskylä. He was part of the research team which investigated the perception and preferences of emotions in music by depressed patients and the efficacy of improvisational, individual music therapy for depression.
His specialist area is in the treatment of complex and attachment trauma, the bodily symptoms of trauma (somatoform dissociation) and the use of the body in trauma treatment.
He has developed the Pocket Therapist application, which supports the therapeutic relationship and the psychotherapeutic work associated with autonomic nervous system arousal and emotion regulation.
