If you have ever suffered rape and/or sexual abuse, then this may be affecting your life and your personal relationships.
The sometimes overwhelming feelings that this sort of violence can have upon a person can lead to problems in all areas of your life.
You may find intimacy hard and shy away from forming a close relationship with another.
You may have turned to drink or drugs to escape the painful feelings associated with your experience.
You may be haunted by nightmares or memories that keep returning however hard you try and push them aside.
You may find keeping a job difficult, wanting to be by yourself with your own thoughts.
Here at the Philip Lynott Centre we provide one to one counselling and group support for people who have suffered the trauma of sexual abuse or rape. We appreciate the difficult nature of your feelings associated with this event.
You can talk in a supportive environment and perhaps for the first time have your experience heard and believed by someone who cares and has time to listen. Our counselling sessions are free and confidential.
Coming to the Centre may seem daunting at first but by making contact with us you have taken the first step at putting your ghosts behind you.
The therapeutic relationship will help you look at your experiences in a caring and supportive way. We won't ask you to look at anything which you don't feel ready to do. Just by talking to another person will help give you some perspective on your life events and help you take back the control of your life.
Our Centre also offers group support for women. We believe that sharing experiences helps to lesson the isolation that these events have on an individuals feelings and life. Group support can be very empowering as ideas are exchanged and experiences shared. Another person's perspective can help you see things differently and more positively. There is no obligation to talk you can just sit and listen over a coffee.
Our groups are run by two counsellors and our Centre requests that everything that is shared within the group is kept confidential.
I'm a-looking an' listening
to you to see if I can
see this thing through...
I'm a-reaching out
sometimes I shout, 'cos
some people
don't hear me at all...
I've been a-banging my head
against this here wall
and now I shall crumble this wall
'cos I'm taller an' stronger
than you all...