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Sharon O'Farrell - Counselling, Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy

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Sharon O'Farrell - Counselling, Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy

Sharon O'Farrell, M.I.A.H.I.P., M.I.A.C.P.. S.M.I.A.C.P., Reg. ICP. Accredited Psychotherapist & Supervisor.

30/12/2025

As We Close This Chapter......

As the year winds down, I've been thinking a lot about the relationships we carry with us and those we might need to release.

That first image stopped me in my tracks: "Let this be the last year you tolerate unsupportive friends and family." It feels important to name this truth as we stand on the threshold of a new year.

There's a big difference between tolerating unsupportiveness and showing patience or grace. Tolerating unsupportiveness has a bone-weary fatigue that comes from repeatedly dimming your light, apologising for your needs, or walking on eggshells around people who should be in your corner.

And here's what Dr. Dyer reminds us in that second quote: we teach people how to treat us not through what we say, but through what we accept. When we fill ourselves with self-love and radiate that outward, we create a boundary that says, "I deserve care, respect, and genuine support."

This is all about the difference between people who love us with our faults, our growing edges, our imperfect humanity... and those who make us feel we need to earn their approval with each interaction.

As we move into the new year, what if we gave ourselves permission to:

Notice how we feel after spending time with certain people.

Stop making excuses for those who consistently leave us feeling small.

Gravitate toward the ones who celebrate our growth, even when it's uncomfortable for them.

Be the kind of friend to ourselves that we wish others would be.

You ARE worthy of relationships that feel like home (not like a test where you may feel like you're perpetually failing).
May 2025 be the year we all stop tolerating what depletes us and start embracing what truly nourishes our souls.

If you're struggling with difficult relationships as the year ends, know that you don't have to navigate this alone. Therapy can be a space to explore these patterns and find your way forward.

30/12/2025

The Radical Act of Self-Love🙌❤️

Lately, I keep coming back to this quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer: "I fill myself with love, and I send that out into the world. How others treat me is their path; how I react is mine."

There's a sound freedom in these words that I think many of us are still learning to allow.

For so long, many of us were taught that how others treat us is somehow a reflection of our worth. That if we could just be better, kinder, more accommodating, more successful, or less "too much" then we'd finally receive the love and respect we deserve.

The truth is that you cannot control how others show up in your life. You can only control how you show up for yourself.
When you fill yourself with love first and when you treat yourself with the compassion, patience, and the kindness that you've been extending to everyone else, things start to move. You stop contorting yourself to earn what should be freely given. You stop internalising other people's limitations as your own failings.

Someone's inability to see your value? That's their path.

Someone's choice to be critical, dismissive, or unkind? That's their path.

Someone's discomfort with your growth or boundaries? That's their path.

Your path is how you respond. Do you shrink? Do you internalise? Do you abandon yourself to keep the peace? Or do you stay rooted in your own worth, treat yourself with love, and let that be your compass?

When we can stop giving others the power to determine our inner landscape, this then means we recognise that we are whole and worthy regardless of whether everyone around us can see it.
As we close out this year, what if you committed to making self-love your default setting? Not as a reward for achievement or good behaviour, but as your absolute birthright.

Fill yourself with love. Let that overflow into the world. And remember: their path is theirs. Yours is yours.

If you're ready to explore what it looks like to truly fill yourself with love and stop carrying the weight of others' paths, therapy can help you find your way.

28/12/2025

Don't Squander Your Life 💥💖

Leaving behind 2025 and heading into 2026 as we stand at the edge of a new year, Michael Stone's simple yet powerful words stand out with clarity: "do not squander your life."

This is a gentle reminder that our time here is limited and how we spend it matters.

Squandering often appears in the small, quiet ways we say yes when we mean no, or let days blur together without presence or intention. It shows up when we give our energy to things that drain us while neglecting what truly nourishes our soul, our spirit.

As 2026 approaches, perhaps the most loving thing we can do for ourselves is to strengthen our boundaries as compassionate containers for what matters most. To recognise that every "yes" to something that depletes us is a "no" to something that might fulfill us.

This is about small, honest choices: protecting our peace, investing in relationships and friendships that reciprocate our care, pursuing work that feels meaningful and allowing ourselves moments of genuine rest, fun and joy.

Our lives are precious and finite and this realisation ought to waken us to the beauty of being here at all, to this particular day, this conversation, this quiet morning, this one irreplaceable life.

What if 2026 was the year we stopped squandering and started truly living?

28/12/2025

Boundaries for the takers, in 2026.
🤍
In 2026, your flexibility is no longer self-abandonment.
You meet others with openness only when there’s mutual effort.
Reciprocity becomes the standard.
New year, new boundary energy 💪✨

What are the signs of takers?

Takers often exhibit specific behaviors that can be identified in various ways. Here are some key signs:

Behavioural Patterns:

- Dominating Conversations: They talk endlessly about themselves, showing little interest in others' experiences or opinions.
- Exploiting Others' Generosity: They accept help, favours, or gifts without reciprocating or showing gratitude.
- Lack of Empathy: They struggle to put themselves in others' shoes or consider how their actions might impact those around them (this is a BIG one!).
- Manipulation: They're skilled at pushing the right buttons to get what they want, often leaving others feeling used.
- Blame-Shifting: They quickly point fingers at others for their own shortcomings.

Relationship Dynamics:

- One-Sided Relationships: They expect others to cater to their needs without reciprocating.
- No Gratitude: They rarely express thanks or acknowledge the efforts of others.
- Transactional Approach: They see relationships as opportunities for personal gain rather than mutual benefit.
- Inability to Forgive: They expect forgiveness from others but struggle to offer forgiveness to others.

Personality Traits:

- Self-Centeredness: They're excessively focused on their own needs and desires.
- Entitlement Mentality: They believe the world owes them something, whether it's attention, favors, or resources.
- Insecurity: Despite their confident exterior, they often have deep-seated insecurity and low self-esteem.
- Lack of Accountability: They avoid taking responsibility for their actions and blame others instead.

Keep in mind that recognising these signs can help you set healthier boundaries and protect yourself from emotional exhaustion.

Thank you for the reminder!

04/12/2025

This resonates so deeply with the work I do. When we've been hurt, dismissed, or punished for expressing ourselves (especially in childhood) our authentic voice can feel dangerous. We learn that speaking our truth brings pain, so we silence ourselves. But art, music, poetry, these become safe containers. They allow us to feel and express what we couldn't say directly, to let someone else's words carry what ours couldn't hold. There's no shame in finding your voice through a song lyric or a poem that perfectly captures your experience. This is a beautiful wisdom. It's your psyche finding a way to be witnessed when direct expression felt too risky. And often, as we heal and feel safer in our relationships and in ourselves, we gradually find we can begin to put our experiences into our own words too. But there's no rush. Healing happens at its own pace and sometimes the most important step is simply allowing ourselves to feel something, however that needs to happen.

04/12/2025

This is Grief Awareness Week (2nd-8th December) and I want to honour the courage it takes to navigate loss. Grief is a real testament to love, connection and all that mattered deeply to us, rather than a timeline to complete.

One of grief's most profound paradoxes is how it can make us see everything as beautiful while feeling so sad at the same time. Loss often deepens our capacity to notice wonder. The sunrise becomes more vivid, a kind gesture more moving, a moment of laughter more precious. And yet our hearts ache. This bittersweet awareness, this ability to hold both beauty and sorrow together, is part of what makes us human.

In my practice, I've witnessed how grief can leave us feeling adrift, disconnected from the solid ground we once knew. Yet within that disorientation, there's also an invitation: to be gentle with ourselves, to allow the waves to move through us and to trust that healing means learning to carry our love forward in new ways, as opposed to forgetting.

If you're grieving, please know you don't have to navigate these waters alone. Whether your loss is recent or years past, whether it's widely recognised or quietly held, your grief deserves space, compassion, and witnessing.

The beautiful poem below is by Mark Nepo - Adrift

27/11/2025

I see you 🫶🏼❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

13/11/2025

“NO” - THE MOST POWERFUL HEALING WORD

No. I won’t abandon myself anymore.
No. I won’t carry what isn’t mine.
No. I won’t pretend I’m fine so you can stay comfortable and avoid yourself.
No. I won’t shrink to keep the peace.
No. I won’t swallow my truth to avoid being too much.
No. I won’t betray my nervous system anymore.
Saying NO is not selfish. It is sacred.
It is the soul remembering its own worth.
NO is how you stop the trauma cycle mid-sentence.
NO is how you end the ancestral pattern of self-abandonment.
NO is how you finally come home to yourself.
And here is the deeper secret:
This kind of NO is actually a YES.
A YES to life. A YES to raw truth. A YES to alignment.
A YES to the part of you that refuses to disappear anymore.
Your softest NO is louder than years of people-pleasing.
Your trembling, nausea-inducing NO is braver than any spiritual concept.
So say it. Type it. Whisper it. Shout it.
Shake through it if you have to.
Your life will rearrange itself around your sacred NO.
The moment you say YES to yourself.
- Jeff Foster

16/10/2025

You will be too much for some people. Too loud. Too big. Too fierce. Too quiet. Too deep. Those are not your people. Don't shrink yourself to make others feel comfortable. Be your unique, beautiful, imperfect self

15/10/2025

Sometimes we can't see our own light and that's okay. We all have moments when we doubt ourselves, when we feel small, or when we've forgotten our own worth.

That's why the people we surround ourselves with matter so much. The ones who hold space for us when we're struggling. The ones who believe in us even when we've lost faith in ourselves. The ones who gently remind us of our strength when we can't remember it.
If you're going through one of those times right now, I hope you have at least one person in your corner who sees you. I mean truly sees you. And if you're struggling to find that person, please know that therapy can be that space too.

You are more than your doubts. You are more than this difficult moment.

And you deserve to be surrounded by people who help you remember that 💚✨

14/10/2025

This Nate Postlethwait quote really captures something very important about trauma healing that I think we don't talk about enough.

Trauma doesn't work on anyone else's timeline. It doesn't care that years have passed, or that someone thinks you "should" be grand by now.

When you've lived with something in your body for years (maybe even decades) without the words for it, without support, without being believed... that's not something you just "get over" because time passed.

And when you finally found the courage to speak about it, only to be met with blame or dismissal? That adds another layer entirely.

Healing happens at its own pace. It needs safety, patience, and compassion. It doesn't operate on timelines or expectations.

If this resonates with you today, please know: wherever you are in your healing journey is exactly where you need to be. You're not too slow, too sensitive, or too much. You're healing in your own time, and that's more than okay. This is how it works.

You're doing better than you think. 💚

10/10/2025

Today is World Mental Health Day 2025!

Mental health work means showing up on the days when you don't want to but it also means being gentle and compassionate with yourself too. It's sitting with uncomfortable feelings instead of numbing them. It's recognising patterns that have protected you for years and slowly, painfully learning new ones.

In therapy, we often talk about "doing the work" but what does that actually mean? It means getting curious about why you react the way you do. It means noticing the critical voice in your head and asking whose voice it really is. It means learning that the coping mechanisms that helped you survive difficult circumstances might now be keeping you stuck.

Here's what I want you to know: healing means you'll develop a different relationship with your struggles. It doesn't mean you won't struggle again, but you'll learn to respond rather than react. You'll build capacity to tolerate distress without being consumed by it. You'll recognise you can hold multiple truths at once, that you're doing your best also that there's room to grow.

If you're in therapy, keep going, especially when it feels pointless. Growth often happens in those murky middle months when nothing seems to be changing. If you're considering therapy, the fact that you're thinking about it matters, because ambivalence is often the first step toward change.

And if professional support isn't accessible to you right now, know that healing happens in many ways: through connection, through creativity, through movement, through small daily practices of self-compassion. There's no single "right" path.

Mental health isn't something we achieve and check off a list. It's something we tend to, continuously, with patience and imperfect effort.

Today and every day, you're allowed to be a work in progress.

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Navan

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 6pm
Tuesday	8am - 8pm
Wednesday	8am - 8pm
Thursday	8am - 6pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Telephone

+353894624437

Website

http://www.sharonofarrell.com/

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