73 North Street, Swords, Dublin | Phone: 087 1209820
Welcome to Time 4 U Counselling
Time 4 U Counselling offers professional counselling and psychotherapy to individuals and couples experiencing personal difficulties and relationship issues. Time 4 U Counselling strives to create a setting where every individual or couple that attends feels fully relaxed and comfortable, enabling us to work together and progress towards their chosen goal.
Many people encounter difficult and challenging occasions in their lifetime. Speaking with a counsellor and psychotherapist allows you the space to talk openly in confidence, feel heard and understood without judgement. This enables you to explore and resolve difficulties and challenges that are causing you distress and to assist you in developing coping strategies. It is an opportunity for you to invest in yourself, achieve and maintain improvement of your psychological and emotional well-being. By assisting you to explore your feelings, thoughts and behaviours enable you to deepen your understanding of yourself. Psychological problems can occur from a variety of different factors and can be evident in different ways.
Time 4 U Counselling address a range of issues which transpire from mental health matters. We provide a confidential, warm, empathic, genuine, non-judgemental and therapeutic environment. Providing this safe space allows clients to process their emotional, psychological and relationship issues. This professional support enables clients to find helpful resources and resolutions to cope with and manage their difficulties and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Time 4 U Counselling are members of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP)
Sandra is affiliated with Nurture Health and is their counsellor for the Swords area. She has many years of experience working with women’s maternal health issues, including, Post Natal Depression (PND), antepartum depression (depression during pregnancy), anxiety, infertility difficulties, traumatic birth, miscarriage and loss of a baby. Nurture Health provides affordable counselling for women and their partners and is currently affiliated with Irish life and VHI enabling client’s access of the service through their health insurance.
SANDRA O’BRIEN MIACP
Sandra is a qualified counsellor and is accredited with the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP). Sandra holds a BA (HONS) degree in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy and a Diploma in Humanistic Counselling. Both awards are recognised professional qualifications by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP). Sandra adheres to the IACP code of ethics and recommendation for professional supervision of her client work.
Sandra works collaboratively with her clients from an integrative model of psychotherapy, incorporating Humanistic, Psychodynamic and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approaches. Sandra aims to provide a warm, safe and empathic space, allowing a trusting therapeutic relationship to develop with her clients, which she views as fundamental to a successful outcome. Working from a person-centred and non-directive approach enables Sandra to empathise with her clients in a genuine, non-judgemental way while holding unconditional positive regard. This therapeutic approach is also the basis of her work when employing more directive approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and when working with couples.
Sandra works with individuals and couples who are experiencing difficulties and challenges in their lives, have worries or concerns, feel lost or believe there is more to life but are unsure how to achieve this. Sandra aims to help clients discover their own existing internal resources; improve their emotional and psychological wellbeing and overall quality of life.
Time 4 U Counselling provides a confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Services
anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most common issues that lead people to look for the help of a counsellor or psychotherapist. Anxiety is experienced by everyone at some point in their life. It is a natural response to stressful situations such as, sitting an exam, going to a job interview or giving a speech. It is a feeling of fear or apprehension about what may happen and is a very private experience, what is anxiety provoking for one individual may not be for another individual. Normal anxiety does not interfere with your daily life as it is a temporary feeling to a situation. Anxiety that is prolonged or has no identifiable cause for it can become problematic and may result in panic attacks.
Time 4 U Counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Anxiety may result in obstructive outcomes on an individual’s confidence, physical, emotional and psychological well-being. It may be the outcome of a differing set of feelings that are uncontrollable.
Talking with a professional counsellor and psychotherapist can assist you in, identifying the root cause and traits that maintain your difficulty and support you in obtaining the skills to manage your anxiety.
Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety disorder may present a more persistent feeling of fear, impacting on your daily life, preventing you from engaging in activities you enjoy. There are several disorders, such as:
Social anxiety disorder
Panic disorder: recurring panic attacks
Phobia disorder
Separation anxiety disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD)
Obsessive -compulsive disorder: (OCD)
Symptoms of anxiety include:
Rapid breathing
Heart palpitations
Sweating
Trembling
Sleep disturbance
Feeling Nauseas
Dizziness
Tense muscles
Difficulty controlling worry
Panic, uneasiness and fear
Sense of dread
Time 4 U Counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Counselling and psychotherapy can help with stress in a positive way. It can help you deal with trying events and overcome perplexing times in your life. Counselling and psychotherapy enables the client to gain deep insights into unproductive behavioural and relational patterns that might be preventing them from enjoying satisfying relationships and substantial lives.
Stress
Stress involves any change you must acclimatise to, varying from the extreme of physical danger, to the positive stress of happy events and realising long term objectives. Stress can be a result of a conflicting set of emotions that are unmanageable. What is stressful for one individual may not be for another. Intense levels of stress can be overwhelming, and impact on your ability to function and perform daily tasks. Stress can affect you both mentally and physically.
Symptoms of stress include:
Headache
Muscle tension
Fatigue
Stomach upset
Sleep problems
Reduced appetite or over eating
Irritability or anger
Sadness or depression
Restlessness
Anxiety
Time 4 U Counselling provides a professional confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Anger Management
Anger is a typical human passionate response, it is not a bad thing. We all can feel annoyed or frustrated at some time in life. The problem is not the feeling of anger but rather an inappropriate reaction or expression of anger.
Anger, though it has its place, may express itself unexpectedly, either towards others or yourself. One cannot control anger provoking circumstances, but we can manage our actions towards them. Counselling and psychotherapy will look straight to the sources of your anger to get it in context. Then assist you in putting strategies in place to manage your anger and to diminish hostility or self-harm.
Time 4 U Counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Couples Counselling
Relationships are often one of the most significant part of our lives. Though all relationships have ups and downs, at times you and your partner may struggle to find positive resolutions to the difficulties and challenges you are experiencing. You may find yourselves stuck in negative behaviour towards each other, unable talk to your partner without it turning into a shouting match. You may feel you are going around in circles or hitting a brick wall leaving you feeling frustrated. This may result in communication breakdown, intimacy issues and difficulty staying connected to each other. The ongoing conflict may cause distress to both partners, children and extended family.
Couple counselling can help you explore and understand your difficulties and the impact they have on your relationship and enable you to work towards the changes you would like. Counselling can help you address:
Communication issues
Repeated patterns of unresolved problems
Feeling unheard, dismissed
Isolation, loneliness
Blame and criticism
Sex and intimacy issues
Infidelity
Trust issues
With the support of a therapist you will both have an equal opportunity to feel heard and understood as you discuss your feelings and concerns in an empathic and safe environment. Together we will explore your inner resources and build on your strengths. Learning the skill of active listening will enable you to communicate less defensively and more effectively. Clarifying your thoughts and feelings will help reduce the conflict and enable you to connect more positively with your partner. If you are feeling things are not quite right or you are experiencing more serious difficulties, Time 4 U counselling are here to listen and to support you towards a positive outcome.
Time 4 U Counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Self Esteem & Confidence
Self-esteem and confidence are the opinions we hold of ourselves and are often used interchangeably. When we have positive self-esteem, we feel good about ourselves in general, enabling us to manage life’s challenges. When we experience low self-esteem and confidence, we may view ourselves more negatively and struggle with challenges life presents us with. We may feel more self-conscious and compare ourselves in a negative way to other individuals. Low self-esteem can be depressing, it can mean continuous uncertainty and self-deprecation, social nervousness and seclusion.
Almost all of us suffer at some stage in our lives from low self-esteem and self-confidence. Self-esteem and confidence issues can however, become overpowering at times in our lives. Some individuals are much better at managing their own lack of confidence and present themselves as a self-confident person. However, many of us feel that we are not good enough, not able to, can’t perform, or achieve the things that we wish. This is an issue which eats away at so many facets of our daily lives. An absence of personal self-esteem or internal confidence can lead to all kinds of issues from relationship issues to a lack of personal achievement.
Counselling and psychotherapy can assist you in exploring the origin of your low self-esteem and confidence. Help you to realise and progress different parts of your life, allowing you to feel more self-assured with your profession, interactions and sense of personality. Basically, help you to feel content and comfortable in your own skin.
Time 4 U Counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic space for clients to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of their life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
BEREAVEMENT COUNSELLING
After the death of a friend or family member, it is perfectly natural to enter a period of mourning.
The passing of a loved one can invoke strong, visceral feelings of anger, shock and disbelief. Over time, these feelings may evolve into experiences of guilt, anxiety, depression and despair. You may feel an intense longing for the deceased and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
These feelings can manifest themselves physically, wherein a person may experience acute fatigue, a loss of interest in life, insomnia, forgetfulness, lack of appetite or even an inability to express their emotions or a tendency to burst into tears at inopportune moments.
Bereavement counselling provides a safe space to talk about your feelings.
With compassion, sensitivity and consideration, we help you put in place strategies to manage the grieving process.
There is no right way to grieve, everyone experiences a loss differently; therefore we are available to support you in your grief for as long as necessary.
Time 4 U counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic environment for you to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of your life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage your difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life.
Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie.
Depression
Depression can happen to anyone irrespective of gender, age, or background. In Ireland depression affects 1 in 10 people. Everyone will experience feeling low or sad at some point in their life, due to circumstances. Depression is different and can range from mild to severe, causing more intense and prolonged feelings such as worthlessness, helplessness and low self- esteem.
Symptoms of depression include, not limited to:
Feeling sad or tearful
Feeling tired or fatigued
Feeling anxious, worried or guilt
Irritable mood
Poor concentration
Avoiding contact with family, friends
Disturbed sleeping patterns
Difficulty making decisions
Loss of appetite or overeating
Loss of interest in things
Lack of motivation
Loss of libido
Thoughts of suicide or self-harm
Depression is treatable with medication, talk therapy or a combination of both. If you have five or more of the symptoms for more than two weeks, talk with your doctor. Depression can be a lonely time, you may feel things will not improve and that no-one understands how you feel. Counselling and psychotherapy provide a safe and empathic environment where you can feel heard and supported, explore underlying issues and assist you in developing coping strategies to help alleviate your symptoms of and overcome depression.
Time 4 U counselling provides a professional, confidential, safe, non-judgemental, genuine and empathic environment for you to explore the difficulties and challenges that are impacting negatively on the quality of your life. This professional support enables you to find helpful strategies to resolve and manage your difficulties and challenges and enjoy a more fulfilling life. . Call Sandra on 087 1209820 or Contact info@time4ucounselling.ie
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Pregnancy is often considered as an exciting time. However, for many women and their partners, it can be an anxious and challenging time as pregnancy issues may present and be mild or serious, such as:
Infertility issues: difficulty conceiving for various reasons
Preterm: babies born before 37 weeks
Traumatic birth
Sadly, couples may experience grief at the loss of their baby during pregnancy, officially referred to as pregnancy loss when pregnancy ends before birth, due to various conditions including:
Miscarriage: loss baby up to 23 weeks of pregnancy
Ectopic pregnancy: embryo implants outside the uterus
Stillbirth: death of baby after 24 weeks of pregnancy
The loss of a baby can be heart-breaking for everyone involved and can be an emotionally painful and distressing time for a couple. You may experience feelings of shock, disbelief, guilt, isolation, sadness and anger. It is important to talk about your loss, your feelings and how your loss is affecting you. Talking to family and friends can be helpful. You may also find it helpful to talk with someone who is not directly involved. Talking with a counsellor and psychotherapist provides you with a safe, empathic, space, enabling you to express your feelings and concerns, feel heard with compassion and sensitivity in a confidential setting.
Neonatal death: from birth up to 28 days
The death of a baby is a traumatic experience and will have a profound emotional impact on the mother, her partner, family and friends. Nothing can prepare you to find out your child has died. Parents do not expect to bury their child especially before their little life has begun. The emotional impact of finding out your baby has died can be felt instantly or in some cases it can take several weeks to emerge. You may have various feelings including, shock, numbness, disbelief, helplessness, anger, worry, guilt, and isolation. You may experience a loss of appetite, sleeping difficulties, fatigue and difficulty concentrating. Some people find it comforting to talk to family and friends about their feelings while others may find it too painful to discuss. Everybody grieves differently, there is no right or wrong way to grieve. You may find people do not know how to support you or unintentionally say something that is unhelpful or adds to your distress. You may also find it helpful to talk with someone who is not directly involved. It is important you get the right help for you.
Talking with a counsellor and psychotherapist provides a safe, empathic, space, allowing you to express your feelings and concerns, feel heard with compassion and sensitivity in a confidential setting.
Baby blues
While the birth of baby is a time of celebration, new mums may experience the ‘baby blues’ 2-3 days after the birth of their baby which may last up to 2 weeks. Symptoms include:
Sleep difficulties
Mood swings
Crying
Anxiety
Post-Natal Depression
If symptoms last longer, get worse or start later, you could be experiencing Post Natal Depression (PND). PND is common, affecting approximately 12,000 women per year in Ireland and can start anytime during the first year after the birth. Many women don’t realise they are experiencing PND as it can develop slowly. You may experience feeling sad, alone, inadequate, anxiety, irritability, anger, panic and guilt.
Other symptoms include not limited to:
Tearfulness, persistent feeling of low mood
Sleeping difficulties, inability to sleep or sleeping excessively
Fatigue and feeling tired all the time
Overwhelmed, unable to cope
Lack of enjoyment and loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed
Withdrawing contact with family and friends
Poor concentration and decision making
Loss or increase in appetite
Worry excessively about your baby
A disconnect from baby
Self - blame
Loss of self-esteem or confidence
Loss of libido
Possible thoughts of self-harm
Did you know?
Though it is widely known women can experience antenatal depression, (depression during pregnancy) and post-natal depression (PND) (depression after the birth) also referred to as perinatal depression. It is now recognised through evidenced based research that men can also experience perinatal depression. Antenatal depression and PND have the same symptoms it is the timing that is different.
Family and friends may recognise your perinatal depression before you, if they do, don’t dismiss them. Speak with your doctor or your public health nurse. PND is one of the many complications of pregnancy, it is not an individual flaw or weakness and it is not something to feel ashamed of. It does not mean you are a bad parent, it is not your fault. PND is an illness and it is treatable. You may require medication to help provide you with relief from some of the symptoms of postnatal depression. Talk to your partner, family and friends, the earlier you seek help the better.
Counselling and psychotherapy provide a safe empathic space for you to talk through your experience and can help you to look at underlying reasons that have contributed to how you feel. Speaking with a counsellor and psychotherapist enables you to feel heard and understood with compassion and sensitivity about how you are feeling in a non-judgmental and supportive way. Enabling you to find helpful strategies to work through your difficulties that are causing you distress.
Our Services are Available in:
Artane
Ashbourne
Balbriggan
Bayside
Blanchardstown
Castleknock
Clontarf
Coolock
Donbate
Drogheda
Fairview
Finglas
Glasenevin
Harmonstown
Howth
Killester
Lusk
Marino
Malahide
Navan
Portmarknock
Raheny
Rush
Santry
Skerries
Stamullen
Sutton
Swords
Resources
Useful links:
Disclaimer
Time 4 U counselling makes no representations or warranties whether expressed or implied as to the accuracy or suitability of the information or materials contained in this website. The information contained within this site is of a summarised nature only and may be changed from time to time. It should NOT be relied upon, as a substitute for professional mental or medical health advice, or for use as a diagnostic tool. If you have concerns around your mental or medical health seek the advice of a health care professional. Access to and use of the information herein is entirely at the risk of the user. Time 4U counselling shall not directly or indirectly be liable to the user or any other third party for any damage resulting from the use of or inability to use the information contained or implied on this website. Time 4U Counselling nor any partners, affiliates or other representatives thereof do not accept legal or other liability for any mistake, inaccuracy, mis-statement or any other error of whatsoever nature contained herein.
Time 4U counselling has prvoided links to websites owned by third parties. These websites are provided solely to supply the user with further information, if you visit the linked websites from this site, you do so at your own risk. Time 4 U counselling makes no representation, whatsoever regarding the content of the linked websites nor accepts responsibility for the content or information provided by the linked websites. Please read Time 4U Counselling Privacy Policy for more information.
If you would like to learn more about the full variety of our professional counselling services available from Time 4 U Counselling, please do not hesitate to get in contact and we will be more than happy to assist you with any queries you may have regarding our services.
Just give us a call on 087 1209820 or alternatively you can send us an email at info@time4ucounselling.ie. We’d love to talk to you.
Contact Us
Time 4 U Counselling
73 North Street, Swords, Dublin, Ireland
087 1209820
info@time4ucounselling.ie
Opening Hours
Mon 9am – 7pm
Tue 9am - 7pm
Wed 9am - 7pm
Thu 9am - 7pm
Fri 9am - 7pm