Category: Therapists

Location:
Enniskillen/Omagh and surrounding areas

I am registered with: BACP

Code of Ethics observed: BACP

Professional qualifications include:
• Provisional Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy
• Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills
• Level 1 Award in British Sign Language
• Diploma in Baby Yoga & Toddler Yoga
• Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management
• BTEC Higher National Certificate in Early Childhood Studies
• NVQ Level 3 Early Years Care and Education

Some other short training courses I have completed are:
• AutPlay Introduction & Foundations
• Supporting Trauma-Informed Assessments MACE
• Breathe and Recover
• Sand tray therapy / trauma approach
• The Nurturing Programme
• Art as therapy
• Lego based workshop
• Jungian sand therapy
• Mini Me Yoga
• Intensive Filial Therapy
• Teaching Children Meditation
• Working with the body
• Baby Massage
• Data Protection Awareness
• Observation and Documentation
• Designing Programmes for Early Learning
• Media Initiative for Children – Respecting Difference
• Facilitative Leadership
• Caring for Children with Special Needs
• Working with Parents in Challenging Situations
• Grief Trauma and the Helping Relationship
• Transition from Conflict
• Skills for a Helping Relationship
• Mental Health First Aid
• Early Movers: Promoting physical Activity for the Early Years
• Calm Confident Soles (Reflexology for 0 – 5 years)
• Incredible Years – Parents, Teachers and Children Training Series
• DELTA Developing Early Listening and Talking Abilities
• Elklan and Hanen Speech and Language Support
• Peep for Practitioners (Supporting Parents/Carers and Children to learn together)

I work with:
Parents with babies from 3 months old doing Baby yoga or Yoga with babies. Toddlers again with parents or carers for Toddler yoga, both of these can be individual or in groups.
In Play Therapy I work with children from 3 years, individual or with parent/carer.

Special interests and experience:
I have worked with children for over 40 years. I have worked in play groups and nursery. I was a registered childminder, looking after children in my own home. I volunteered in youth club, summer schemes and I was a Sunday school teacher for 24 years.
I develop/provide classes and fun activities for parents/carers and children using the Peep Learning Together Programme. This is an early intervention which supports parents to understand more about how children learn – and to do more of the things at home which make a difference to children’s outcomes, like singing, sharing books and stories and talking about a wide range of ideas, thoughts and feelings.
I facilitate Baby and Toddler yoga classes. These classes enhance playful interaction and communication between parent/carer and child. Promotes their healthy development through touch and movement, by doing simple exercises together, they get to know each other better, increasing their ability to cope positively with new situations and social relations over the early years and beyond. Joint relaxation is beneficial for both the parent and the child as it enhances non-verbal communication between them.
I facilitate the Incredible years parent programme.
I enjoy the outdoors and provide activities for parents and children outdoor as much as possible, as it promotes physical development and well being.

Additional information:
I am very fond of animals, have lots of pets and I enjoy helping out on the family farm.

CREATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPIST & PLAY THERAPIST
Working with Children, Adolescents and Adults

Paddy McNicholl works with children, adolescents and adults in the Limavady. She loves her job as a Play Therapist and a Creative Psychotherapist and is delighted to work therapeutically with all ages and stages of life.

Qualifications:
· Masters is Creative Psychotherapy with a specialism in Play Therapy from the Children’s Therapy Centre
· Postgraduate-Diploma in Youth and Community Work
· Diploma in Person Centred Counselling.

Registered/accredited with:
· Fully Accredited with IAPTP ( Irish Association of Play Therapists and Psychotherapists)
· Member of BACP
· A holder of The European Certificate of Integrative Psychotherapy (ECIP)

With children and young people:
Paddy uses play, the natural language of children to support them through their muddles and struggles. Play allows children to communicate their thoughts, feelings and beliefs and with Paddy as their play partner, they can process difficult life experiences, making sense of their world and better able to cope with their future. Paddy works with parents and carers as partners in this process to ensure the best outcomes for their child and their family.

With parents:
Paddy is also a Filial Therapy Informed Practitioner where she supports parents to learn how to conduct special play sessions with their children to unlock the therapeutic powers of play and building a stronger connection between parent and child. She is passionate about supporting and empowering parents to develop and strengthen their relationship with their children using play.

Working Therapeutically with Adults:
Paddy takes both a humanistic and integrative approach to her work. The humanistic approach means she believes in the inherent worth of a person, and her aim is to help them deal with life more successfully. Because each person is unique, with a unique set of needs and experiences, Paddy integrates different models of therapy to best support them. Building a therapeutic relationship based on safety and trust is the most important factor for her in creating therapeutic change for all her clients.

Susan O’Neill is a highly experienced Occupational Therapist and the founder of Causeway Occupational Therapy. With a specialist focus on trauma-informed practice, she supports children and young people in understanding and regulating their sensory and emotional experiences.

Susan offers a unique blend of sensory integration therapy and equine-assisted therapy, providing a dynamic and engaging approach to therapy that fosters connection, self-awareness, and resilience. Through her work, she helps individuals develop the skills they need to navigate daily life with greater ease and confidence. Learn more at www.causewayot.co.uk.

Therapy Foundations is a paediatric service providing Occupational Therapy and
Integrative Therapy. Our OT’s are Sensory Integration and Trauma Specialists
Our Integrative Therapist unifies a trauma informed therapeutic approach with somatic,
sensorimotor and talking therapy.

All our therapists are trained within neurological development, we take a bottom-up
approach to therapeutic intervention, exploring the ‘what happened’.

We support children who find education, socialising, sensory stimuli, motor and
processing tasks challenging. Using the Building Blocks Model, we help families to
recognise and understand children’s challenges, enabling them to become more
confident and successful with skills they need to:

• Build secure attachments
• Regulation
• Processing
• Motor tasks
• Sensory development – Retained Primitive Reflexes, Vestibular, Proprioceptive,
  Interoception
• Thinking and Reasoning skills
• Communication and Social skills
• Academic Achievement

We focus on individualised and personalised outcomes and the “what to do” as
determined by our assessment findings. After assessment and in subsequent sessions
parents are given intervention strategies to support regulation, communication and
neurological integration.

Qualifications:
BSc Psychology
Certificate in Counselling Skills
PG Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills
PG Diploma in Play Therapy
Certificate in Trauma Treatment in Children and Adolescents
Certificate in Sandstory Therapy
Certificate in Integrative Attachment Family Therapy

Additional information:
I am an Accredited Play and Creative Arts Therapist (registered with PTUK) and have over 13 years’ experience working with children and families through education and community settings. I love being able to offer children and young people an alternative way to express and process how they are feeling which goes beyond words. I am passionate about promoting the healing power of play and helping parents and families think therapeutically about their children through an attachment focused lens. I work alongside the family as well as the child during the therapy process.

Areas of interest/experience:
Trauma, attachment, anxiety, children with educational needs, families, eating disorders

Location:
I am currently based in Dromore Co. Down

Play Therapist

April, formerly a Nursery Nurse is a Graduate with a Dip SW from the University of Ulster and 28 years’ experience across voluntary, statutory and private sectors within Family Services. She has experience of working in Residential, Adoption, Special Needs, Family Prevention (Barnardo’s), Mental Health and Early Years.

After 11 years in Adoption Services, April became aware of the need for direct therapeutic interventions for children and young people and so gained a PG Dip in Creative Arts and Play Therapy from NUI Galway, Ireland.

She has also undertaken Ace and Safeguarding Training, an Introduction to Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Theraplay level 1 & 2 and has a particular interest in Attachment and Trauma Informed Filial Practice for children and young people .

April has completed the COOPT Best Practice Certificate course and is an Approved play therapy Supervisor.

She now works as a nature based, integrative and holistic creative arts and play therapist in the Ards Pennisula, County Down, Northern Ireland. Her specialties include attachment related interventions and working within the 5 elements of fire, water, earth, air and ether. She also runs Wild at Art summer camps and Nature based holistic retreats, yoga, sound healing, meditation, and coApril is a member of NIFSA and IFSA.

Her special interests include yoga, art & community gardening!

TESSA Therapist

I am a social worker qualifying 28 years ago. I have always worked in Family and Childcare, starting my career in residential care, moving to a LAC Looked After Child team, then progressing to therapeutic recovery work with children and young people. I have worked for Family Routes for a few years now and I am passionate about all areas of adoption. I enjoy assessing and supporting adoptive carers.

I am a mum of one teenager and together we enjoy spending time in nature, dancing, and music. We love the cinema and spending quality time with our extended family.

TESSA Therapist

Location:
Northern Ireland, Ireland

Registered/accredited with:
Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC)
British Association Social Workers (BASW)- registered as Independent Social Worker.

Code of ethics observed:
NISCC and BASW

Qualifications and Training:

2023 Techniques for processing emotions – (The Centre for Healing)
2023 Somatic experiencing Masterclass: (The Centre for Healing)
2023 Build Bridges (Psychological Pathways- Narrative Model)
2022 Theraplay LEVEL 2 with Trauma Component
2021 Theraplay level 2 (Theraplay Institute)
2021 Group Work
2021 Diploma in Trauma Informed Psychotherapy
2021 Trauma and the Sensory (System Arizona Trauma Institute via Zoom)
2021 Introduction to Somatic Experiencing (SOSI Internationale)
2021 Complex Traumatic Childhood Losses, Mourning, acceptance, endings & Beginnings.
2021 Compassion focused Therapy
2020 Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (T.C.I)
2020 Developing Trauma Sensitive approaches to Practice
2017 Non Violence Resistance Training
2015 DDP Masterclass
2015 Dr K. Golding, Foundations for Attachments Trainer Programme
2014 Theraplay Level 1 and MIM’s Assessment Model
2014 Anger Management – (British Association of Anger Management)
2013 Narrative Training
2013 Applied Suicide Intervention Strategies Training (Antrim New Horizons)
2013 Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) Level 2
2013 Using Filial Therapy Skills to Support Permanence
2013 Helping children with unmet needs to recover – attachment
2012 Life Story Work Family Futures
2012 Trauma Triggered behaviour (BAAF)
2012 Life Story Books, Life Story Work with Children
2012 Dyadic Developmental Psycho-therapy (DDP) Level 1
2014 NIPQ Specialist Social Work Award 1-3
2009/2010 Children and Residential Experiences (CARE MODEL)
2005 Dip. SW

Special interest /experience in:
My particular areas of interest includes providing therapeutic support to children, and their care-giving networks -foster cares, parents who have adopted, and professionals working with children who have experienced developmental trauma. I have a keen interest in enhancing others knowledge in relation to therapeutic parenting; understanding and responding with curiosity and empathy, to the child’s hidden and miscued need for connection and safety.

I am also interested and experienced in supporting adults in the child’s network to have meaningful conversations with children about tough, challenging issues, and topics. I practice in a therapeutic team who has developed a Narrative Model for communicating with children about tough issues; and co-authored 2 peer reviewed articles on the Model.

Additional information:
I have been supporting children and families in NI for approximately 34 years. I commenced my journey into Social work as a Care experienced adult, and began as a volunteer in a residential unit for adolescents in 1989. I then secured a part time post as an unqualified Residential SW, and completed my Diploma in SW in 2005. Having worked as a Residential SW for 16 years I successfully secured a Senior Practitioner in Social work post, and have been supporting children who have experienced relational trauma, and their care giving networks for the last 16 years. Within the post I offer consultancy, training and direct therapeutic interventions.

My theoretical approach:
I utilise a range of trauma informed modalities including:

Attachment,
Trauma,
Neurobiology of trauma,
Child Development
Principles, and skills of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP),
Directed Play/Non Directed Play

I see: Parents, Carers, Children & professionals