Cherry Blossom Therapy

17/11/2025

🌸 Exciting news for 2026! 🌸

We are delighted to share that Dr Paul White, who joined us this year for our Diploma in Integrative Adolescent Psychotherapy, will now be offering completely online Polyvagal training for practitioners beginning at the end of February 2026

This online programme will take place over a number of weeks, giving practitioners time to absorb, reflect, and integrate the learning. More info to come.

🌿 Why Polyvagal?

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr Stephen Porges, helps us understand how the nervous system influences safety, connection, emotional regulation, and a client’s ability to engage in therapy.

In this online Polyvagal training, you will explore

How the autonomic nervous system shapes behaviour and survival responses

How to help clients move from shutdown or activation into regulation

Practical skills for creating safety, co-regulation, and connection

How Polyvagal-informed practice supports work

How the hierarchy of the nervous system can transform therapeutic outcomes

This work is deeply supportive for clients who experience anxiety, overwhelm, trauma responses, or difficulties with regulation.

💻Starts late February 2026
To register your interest, email
courses@cherryblossomtherapy.ie
More details coming soon. 🌸

16/11/2025

Emerging Business Person of the Year!!

I am still taking this in. Being nominated was an honour, but winning the award is something I didn’t expect.

Thank you to Mullingar Chamber for an excellent night and for the huge work that goes into recognising businesses in our community. The Park Hotel put on a fantastic evening, and Broken Strings were brilliant. Thank you to Cool Beans for sponsoring the Emerging Business of the Year award. I appreciate the recognition and the acknowledgement of the work we are doing at Cherry Blossom Therapy.

Cherry Blossom Therapy began with a clear vision of the type of service I wanted to build. A professional, trauma-informed space grounded in safety, trust and support, with one core purpose: empowering people to step into their true authentic self.

My reason for doing this work is personal. I experienced trauma growing up, and when I first went to therapy as a teenager, it was daunting. I didn’t get the support I needed, and that experience stayed with me. I knew then that one day I wanted to help people in a way that felt different.

I eventually left a full-time pensionable job to follow that vision. People told me not to do it, but it felt right, so I took the leap. I started in a small cabin with one client. Today, Cherry Blossom Therapy has grown into a large multidisciplinary practice with 32 therapists, 4 admin staff, an occupational therapist and a reflexologist.

We provide therapy for children, teenagers, adults, couples and families, along with clinical supervision, assessments and support for professionals. This year, I also set up our training school, now offering CPD workshops, diplomas and professional development programmes. We also run courses for people who want to support their own mental health.

The practice continues to grow and we are preparing to open a second location in Mullingar. New courses are in development, more trainings are on the way and the Therapy Talk with Cherry Blossom podcast is coming soon. My doctorate continues to shape the standard of work we uphold.

This is our second recognition this year, after winning Caring Service of the Year with Midlands 103 during the summer. It means a lot to see both the care and the growth of the practice being acknowledged.
A genuine thank you to my entire team for their work and for believing in the vision of Cherry Blossom Therapy. And to everyone who has come to our service: you matter, your voice matters, and I know what it is like to struggle. That is why I do what I do.
Maura x 🌸 @ IACP Mullingar Chamber Mullingar Park Hotel Cool Beans Coffee Mullingar

15/11/2025

I am looking forward to attending the awards ceremony Mullingar Chamber in Mullingar Park Hotel this evening. We are delighted to be nominated for two awards, Health and Wellness category and also Emerging Business Person of the year. Best of luck to everyone this evening.

✨ Tonight’s the night — Mullingar Chamber Awards 2025! ✨

We’re kicking things off at 6.30pm with a fabulous drinks reception and live music from Paul Lynch. We can’t wait to welcome everyone this evening!

A quick reminder: no physical tickets are required — we’ll be working from the table plan on arrival.

Best of luck to all our nominees!

15/11/2025

Today I am delivering Systemic thinking to our students on the Diploma in Integrative Adolescent Psychotherapy. I wish I could bottle the energy that our group creates, it is wonderful to be a part of a group that welcomes curiosity, engages deeply and reflects willingly!

14/11/2025

We are delighted to have Una Scully on board this evening for our Diploma in Integrative Adolescent Psychotherapy. Una is supporting our students in ethical practice, safeguarding, navigating boundaries, disclosures and grey areas in our work.

13/11/2025

No two people are ever having the same experience, even when they’re standing side by side. We don’t see situations as they are, we see them through our perspective.

Our perspective in any moment is shaped long before that moment happens.

Attachment theory (Bowlby,Ainsworth) shows us how early relationships become the template for how we understand connection. A person who grew up with consistency may experience conflict as an opportunity to talk. Someone who has lived with uncertainty may experience that same moment as abandonment. Someone who learned to cope by distancing might feel overwhelmed and automatically pull away.

Trauma theory deepens this further,the nervous system remembers what felt unsafe. A particular tone of voice, a pause, or even silence can activate old survival responses. To the outside world it may seem like an overreaction; to the nervous system it feels like protection.

Family systems theory (Bowen) adds another layer. We don’t grow up in isolation we grow up in emotional fields that shape how we see ourselves and others. Families pass down patterns,who keeps the peace, who takes responsibility, who stays quiet, who carries the worry. These roles often follow us into adulthood without us realising.

A child who grew up mediating conflict may still feel responsible for keeping everyone calm.

A child raised in chaos may continue scanning for danger in every interaction.

A child who learned to stay close may interpret independence as rejection.

A child who felt unnoticed may read neutrality as criticism.

So when perspectives clash, it is rarely about who is right or wrong. It is usually about where each person is standing and what shaped them to stand there.
When we understand this, We move from What’s wrong with them to What shaped them to see it that way?

And that question opens the door to compassion, curiosity, and connection.

Multiple perspectives can all make sense.
And understanding begins when we pause long enough to look beyond our own angle.

Cherry Blossom Therapy
Empowering people to step into their true authentic self.

12/11/2025

This was my cabin, I loved it, this is were I started.

This is where I see clients, where I go for peace and quiet, and where I do my reading!! I’m feeling very grateful!

12/11/2025

I don’t usually do personal pictures on my business page, but today I think it feels right, Today marks 4 years since my mam passed, and it’s hard to believe she’s gone. I miss her voice, her smell and her quirky ways of going on!

I’d love to tell her how life has been, to ask if she’s proud of me. I wish I could tell her about my family, how much they are grown, what they are doing, I wish I could have just one more chat, one more smile, one more disagreement or stupid row, these are all just memories now.

What I know is that grief doesn’t go away, it just changes. It shows up in small moments… a song, a smell, or something I wish I could tell her about.

I am grateful for the memories and the photos, but it still hurts to know there won’t be any new ones.

As the years go by, it’s the little things I miss the most, the chats, the laughter, the everyday moments I once took for granted.

But the love stays. It is always there, but now in a different way.

Thinking of my mam today.

11/11/2025

Another throw back to when I was teaching on the Diploma in Supervision Course. Time goes so fast! A lot has happened in the last 3 years. I’ve been teaching therapists how to be clinical supervisors for years, I really enjoy seeing the students progress on their careers. We surely never know where our path might lead to!!!

Little did I know all of those years ago, when I had my first private client in my little cabin, that I would do all
of the things that I have done in my professional career. I am always so very grateful to everyone who has trusted in me, my clients, parents of clients, businesses, students, supervisees, therapists, colleagues, thank you for reaching out. I will forever be thankful for this.

Today I am lecturing on the Diploma in Integrative Supervision IICP College, we are exploring the supervisory relationship, burnout, giving and receiving feedback and appraising supervision.

09/11/2025

Diploma in Integrative Adolescent Psychotherapy

Guest Lecturer – Una Scully

We are delighted to welcome Una Scully as a guest lecturer on the Diploma in Integrative Adolescent Psychotherapy at Cherry Blossom Therapy.
Una is a highly experienced Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with over a decade of clinical experience supporting the emotional wellbeing of young people. She has also undertaken specialised training in working with vulnerable populations, including individuals experiencing homelessness and substance misuse. In addition to her therapeutic work, Una provides organisational supervision to staff teams, fostering reflective practice, resilience, and a supportive work environment that benefits both practitioners and the people they serve.

In this reflective and practical session, Una will guide participants through the complexities of adolescent practice, exploring professional boundaries, safeguarding, risk management, ethics, and the grey areas that often emerge when working with young people.

We are honoured to have Una share her insight, warmth, and clinical wisdom with our learners.