Have you ever thought about therapy?

A therapist is offering Union St members and followers a free trial session. Here’s what you need to know.

Union St now has a resident therapist. That’s not, may we point out, a reflection on working

conditions. Ciaran – an experienced psychotherapist – sees a private client downstairs once a week (in the ground floor meeting room) and is offering his service to Union St members and followers.

What’s the offer?

You can try a free 30-minute taster therapy session with no onward commitment. But don’t expect immediate questions about your childhood. Your relationship with your therapist is key, so the taster is just a chance to meet, chat about what you’re looking for, and see if Ciaran is the right fit.

Therapist Ciaran Hurley in the Union St cafe

Do I really need therapy?

“If you think you might, you probably do”, says Ciaran. “There’s probably a reason that thought is coming to you. And if it is, what’s the worst that can happen if you give it a go? At the very least, you’ll gain some insight into the issue that you’re grappling with”.

“People often come to me for help with one particular thing. It’s usually a hurdle that they need a bit of help with. It’s not always a big, traumatic thing – just something they haven’t found a way to resolve by themselves.”

Ciaran stresses that therapy can help with a whole range of things, including just some self-development. With some clients, he has more of a counselling relationship: meeting on a regular basis monthly, fortnightly or even weekly. He compares this to “mental flossing – a chance to check-in, tidy up, offload some stuff that is difficult to say to somebody else”.

Can you ‘complete’ therapy?

“It’s absolutely not about a cure. As a general rule, the therapeutic relationship is no longer needed when the benefit you were getting from it, you can now get from other things in life.

It’s about building that skill set and resilience.”

“A coaching relationship is often solution focused. There’s a thing – or a process – you needed help with. Once that’s achieved, we can go our separate ways!”.

So how do you get the ball rolling?

If you’re interested in trying therapy with Ciaran, you can book your free taster here. It can take place either at Union St or in his Site Gallery office, just down the road.

After your taster, therapy is £55 per 50-minute session – there’s no commitment, and no need to book more than one session at a time.