Finding counselling in Ireland can be a discouraging business. If you've been searching for a counsellor in Dublin or Cork, you will know the pattern: private fees of €70 to €90 a session, counsellors with full books, and public or low-cost services with waiting lists measured in months. Meanwhile, whatever sent you looking is still there every morning.
I offer online counselling to people across Ireland from my practice in Johannesburg. I am a counsellor in private practice, registered as a social worker with the SACSSP in South Africa, my sessions are €45, and — because South Africa sits so close to your time zone — an evening appointment in Galway is an evening appointment for me too.
Why an Irish client would see a counsellor in South Africa
It sounds unlikely until you look at the details. The work is exactly the same — 60 minutes, face to face over video, weekly or fortnightly. The time zones nearly match: Ireland runs an hour behind me in summer, two in winter, so there is no juggling and no odd-hours compromise. And the fee is €45 not because the counselling is lesser, but because €45 is a good professional rate where I live. What people often notice first, though, is none of that — it is simply having a regular hour with someone experienced, without waiting half a year for it.
What people bring to me
Very little surprises me. From Ireland, people most often come with:
- Grief and bereavement — Ireland does funerals well and long grief quietly, and many people find themselves alone with a loss everyone else considers finished
- Anxiety and worry that has stopped responding to willpower
- Old family wounds — the things that were never spoken of at home
- Relationship strain — I also work with couples through online couples counselling, including couples living in different places
My approach is person-centred and emotionally focused, with trauma-focused and body-based work where they are useful. We go at your pace.
Grief counselling for Ireland
Grief work is the heart of my practice, and it translates to a screen better than people expect. If you are looking for grief counselling in Ireland — after a parent, a partner, a child, a friend, or a loss that is harder to name — you may find that talking from your own kitchen, with your own tea, makes the hardest things slightly easier to say. There is more about how I work with loss on my grief counselling page.
The practical side
We start with a free introductory call of 15 to 20 minutes — a real conversation, not a screening form — so you can decide whether I am someone you could sit with. Sessions after that are €45 for a 60-minute individual session and €80 for a 90-minute couples session, paid by bank transfer; transfers from Irish accounts are simple. You will need nothing fancier than a laptop or phone and a room where you won't be overheard.