Our Vision
The Beacon of Light Counselling Centre has established and, will maintain and develop its presence in the Dublin community, through providing continuing support services for people experiencing personal, emotional and psychological difficulties in their lives.
Mission Statement
Beacon of Light Counselling Centre (BLCC) will provide services through the effective clinical co-ordination of competent psychotherapists, who will always respect the privacy and dignity of each individual, and seek to empower, enhance, and to enable the wellbeing of those seeking support.
BLCC will ensure that services will be subject to appropriate governance which is both accountable and ethical.
BLCC will ensure accessibility and continuity of service, primarily founded on sustained and strategic voluntary effort accompanied by stable funding sources.
Our Background
Beacon of Light Counselling Centre (BLCC) is a community based project which has been providing counselling services to individuals and families in the Clondalkin area since 2000. In this time BLCC has assisted and supported hundreds of adults and children who have been going through critical and/or life-changing periods in theirs lives – some as a result of bereavement, some who are experiencing anxiety and depression, some who are directly or indirectly suffering from the impact of addiction, some who are at risk of suicide and some who need support in working through difficulties taking place within families. The services provided by BLCC are both accessible and affordable and BLCC prides itself on the fact that it can arrange to see clients immediately or at very short notice (when counselling services are most urgently required).
Since its establishment in 2000, BLCC has become an important part of the community infrastructure in the greater Clondalkin area. It receives referrals from many statutory agencies, voluntary organisations, GPS, schools and community development groups in Clondalkin. These organisations and groups clearly recognise the benefits of BLCC and the ways in which BLCC can help to alleviate the stress and anxiety and at times, the sense of hopelessness being experienced by a significant number of people living within the Clondalkin area. From a community perspective it is a tremendous advantage and asset to have a high quality and affordable counselling service with the greater Clondalkin area.
What counselling is:
The Irish Association for Counseling & Therapy describes counseling as ‘a process of
discovery of the reasons why the individual is experiencing a period of depression or
unhappiness in their life in an environment where the person is facilitated in reaching a
resolution’ (cited in HSE Working Group on Mental Health in Primary Care 2006, p2).
In their guidelines for the management of depression in primary and secondary care the
National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2004) defined counseling as
a ‘discrete, usually time limited, psychological intervention where the intervention may
have a facilitative approach often with a strong focus on the therapeutic relationship but
may also be structured and at times directive’ (cited in HSE Working Group on Mental
Health in Primary Care 2006, p 2).
Types of Counselling Adults
There are various approaches to the counselling process, which can be summarised as follows:
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy
- Systemic & Family Therapy
- Addiction Counselling
Psychodynamic therapy focuses on difficulties arising from early childhood that remain unresolved.
The Counsellor helps the client to resolve the conflict by creating the environment where the person feels safe enough to talk about their early life and to express feelings and thoughts that have not been released before, and which have resulted in dysfunctional behavioural patterns and relationships.
This form of therapeutic intervention typically takes some time in the region of 1-2 years of weekly sessions of one-hour duration.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses specifically on behavioural patterns that have a negative impact on mood. This is achieved by focusing on the thoughts behind behaviours and the development of a treatment plan to enable the client to change the thoughts and consequential behaviours. The changes are usually targeted in the client’s environment where triggers are identified and managed effectively.
This form of intervention is typically short-term with a treatment plan identified when a clinical assessment has been carried out.
Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy is based on the philosophy that the client has the ability to integrate their life experiences when facilitated in a safe, confidential environment. The counsellor provides a non-judgemental, unconditional approach and environment which enables clients to grow in their acceptance of themselves and a belief in their innate ability to achieve balance in their life.
This form of psychotherapy is usually long-term (20+ sessions)
Systemic & Family Therapy considers the distress of the individual client in the context of relationships within the family unit and society. This form of therapy focuses on the interaction of the individual with others and seeks to discover meaning and understanding of self and wider system.
Typically this form of therapy is also longer term.
Addiction Counselling The role of the Addiction Counsellor is to provide a professional counselling/therapy service to communities, families and individuals in the area of addiction and HIV. This work requires the ability to work in a variety of settings i.e. clinical treatment services, communities, residential and rehabilitation
These benefits of multidisciplinary teams for service users are increasingly recognised. In the consultation exercise undertaken by the Mental Health Commission (2005a) on what constitutes a quality mental health service, one of the key themes to emerge from all stakeholders was the importance of multidisciplinary teams.
Children Therapy
Growing up can be fun but tricky. Sometimes people need to talk to a grown up to help figure out a problem. It’s good to talk about worrying things so we can better understand our feelings and how we act.
Adolescents
Everyone has ups and downs in life but if you feel that you have a lot more down days than up days this can cause you to feel sad or anxious. When we are depressed or anxious our thinking can change, we can perceive things in a negative light which can make it difficult to find solutions to our problems on our own. Our family and friends might seem different and distant to us. Young people can sometimes find it hard to talk about their feelings but if you are feeling negative or sad a lot of the time it might help to talk to someone. We at the Beacon of Light we are professionally trained to listen and help you. So, if you are worried you might be depressed or overly anxious talk to a friend, adult, teacher or your G.P