Orla Mc Guinness
Therapist & Supervisor
IACP

I began my journey towards working as a psychotherapist 20 years ago, through a distance learning BA in Psychology & English literature, awarded through NUIG in 2006. After graduating I began training as a volunteer with the Galway Rape Crisis Centre (GRCC), with a view towards gaining appropriate work experience for a PhD in Clinical Psychology. In 2008 I graduated with an Hon.s H.Dip in Psychology from NUIG. By this time I had observed the deep healing taking place for traumatised clients undergoing psychotherapy in the GRCC, and was keen to continue working there, so I undertook my training in Biodynamic & Integrative Psychotherapy with the Tracht Psychotherapy Foundation, graduating in 2012. Underpinning my choice of biodynamic therapy was the observation of the deep need for body oriented psychotherapy in recovery from PTSD through my work with the GRCC. Today I continue my work part time as a therapist with the GRCC, as well as private psychotherapy practice in Oranmore, Co. Galway. I work continuously to enhance my skills as a therapist - it is a lifelong learning process, the web of learning encompassing my own life experience and work with a very broad cohort of clients over the years, as well as the various courses I continue to attend each year.. I hav completed training around working with transgender clients to offer support and therapy in their life journey. I completed Levels 1 to 3 of training in EMDR, (Eye Movement Desentisation & Reprocessing) Therapy in February 2020, and am now an accredited EMDR practitioner. This form of therapy is especially effective in working with PTSD and I am very excited to bring these new skills to my practice. In .January 2023 I became accredited as an EMDR Consultant, which qualifies me to supervise other EMDR practitioners and assist them in becoming accredited.

Finding the right therapist for your needs is an important first step in your healing journey. It’s important to find a psychotherapist with whom you believe you can come to have a safe, open and trusting connection. I work using techniques of Biodynamic and Integrative psychotherapy. Integrative psychotherapy is a form of talk-therapy which aims to bring a greater sense of balance to one's life situation. Regardless of the specific issues which may initially bring you to therapy, it is based on the idea that each of us holds the key to our own healing and wellbeing, and that we each possess the innate potential to address our difficulties in order to come to live more harmoniously.

EMDR therapy facilitates the effective processing of traumatic or disturbing life experiences to positive resolution. This is achieved, by enabling clients to access positive, adaptive neural networks which link to their external resources as well as to internal capabilities and self-capacities. While accessing their positive resource networks,clients are also enabled to access and activate memory networks holding dysfunctionally stored experiences. The techniques of EMDR therapy are then used to stimulate their innate processing system whereby the unlinked networks are ‘unlocked’ and the impaired linking and binding systems are repaired. EMDR therapy hence combines techniques of integrative psychotherapy with neurobiological techniques and research to enable effective treatment of traumatic experiences. Beyond its use for PTSD and complex trauma, EMDR therapy can also be used for helping people who suffer from anxiety, panic, depression, eating disorders, addictions, personality disorders, complex grief, chronic pain and many other emotional problems.