Elaine Kennedy Psychotherapist & Mindfulness Coach

24/06/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hYivhz34KoA9VWDU/

05/12/2023

Tuesday morning with our lovely group in Threeedrives

05/11/2023

Parents under Pressure (PUP) Program at Three Drives FRC. The program is an internationally recognized program and was specifically developed for families who are experiencing problems across multiple domains of family life - parental mental health, exposure to trauma, parental substance abuse and financial and social challenges. The program is fluid and is tailored to meet the needs of families. Group, couple and individual options available with an accredited PUP Therapist. Contact 0851247282 with any queries.

10/05/2023

30/01/2023

Often we become trained to talk endlessly about the victim and their *responsibility* while never talking about the perpetrators or the accountability that belongs to them.

19/01/2023

Love ❤️... sharing from another page, well worth following 😊

What if I asked you?
You, The Adult.

To hold down a job where you are expected to take regular testing to ensure you're up for the job. Where your anxiety and fear breeds from the very thought of going there, so much so, you're vomiting, screaming and begging. Where you actually dont know whats expected of you or how to do that job but you must still go.

What if I asked you to go, even though you spent most of your days there alone, afraid, confused, distressed, panicked. You just know its not the job for you. But everyone is intent on making you the job for it.

What if I asked you to move past your panic attack and go there every single day even when you tell me your mental health is slipping away from you.

If I asked you to just try harder to mix with your colleagues, even though they've been freezing you out for 4 years and the cold just wont thaw.

Can I ask you, that when you cry, to explain to me why you are crying. Can I ask you to repeat that because it makes no sense to me.

And can I ask you, when it still makes no sense to me, and you're getting angry because I dont get it, that you go to a room alone. And think about how you've got angry.

What if I asked you, The Adult, that despite the way your boss talks to you with a patronising, dismissive attitude, you must still respect them, listen to them and be guided by them.

What if every attempt you had made to fit into that job, didnt work out because the colleagues, the boss, the work and the hours had exhausted every corner of your spirit. And what if I told you, you didnt try enough. And then I asked you to sit in front of a psychiatrist to be diagnosed with a mental disorder because you just wont go to work.

What if your next attempt to try at that job caused you so much distress, that you became suidicial.

And Still

The psychiatrist
The boss
The others

All convinced you that its because you need to work through your resistance to go to work.

I think I'd never ask that of you, though.

01/12/2022

Beautiful post by Bronagh Starts Psychotherapist

If you bump into a person and some magic happens, you can say, “it was meant to happen”🥰…but how do you make meaning of a parent’s drinking binges, aggressive attacks, or other terrifying, intimidating contact? One of the biggest dilemmas facing adults who grew up in a dysfunctional home is not knowing how to make meaning out of something that was meaningless to happen. What do you do with that? 🤷‍♀️
As kids we make a map of the mental state of another person (this is called empathy and it’s evident on days you’re struggling and your kid just knows to snuggle in or give you a hug). Children learn about their parents’ minds even before they have a sense of their own mind…and it’s simply not possible to figure out the mind of a parent who is out of their mind. So we become hypervigilant and primed for unsafety. This disruptive kind of relationship creates rupture in relationships - it makes it difficult for us to feel safe with most people. It skews our sense of purpose - we may be prone to falling into black holes of meaninglessness at times: What’s the point of it all? Why do I even bother? We lose connection with our bodies.
The most important thing a person can do is make meaning of their life. What happened to you as a child makes no sense at all and your sense of purpose will remain disrupted until you make sense of your trauma. People who live with purpose live longer, live happier, live healthier. 🤩
Start by separating yourself out from the trauma: instead of saying ‘there’s something wrong with me’ replace that shame-filled statement with the realisation that what happened to you was not ok and as a kid you were blameless, no matter how much you try to tell yourself that’s not true. You were blameless. It wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault. And you don’t have to live the rest of your life under the imprint of parental trauma. 😍😍😍

01/12/2022

AdaptDomesticAbuseService limk shared a post on Instagram: "Here is the first of our awareness raising video's for the 2022. It's on coercive control, have a watch and please share if you can, lets take a zero tolerance approach together. Thank you! ". Follow their ac...

26/11/2022

Rathkeale Together in partnership with ADAPT Domestic Abuse Services begins a poster campaign today November 25th coinciding with the global campaign. Today is also the UN Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The theme is ‘Zero Tolerance’ of Violence against women.

23/11/2022

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is a global campaign calling for an end to violence against women and girls. It takes place every year on the 25th November, the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women and finishes on Human Rights Day, the 10th of December. We are marking the start of this campaign with a tree planting commemoration in Denis Burke Park on the 25th at 12pm.

All are welcome to attend.