My name is Joe Cleary and I'm a Psychotherapist working in Dundalk. I work one-to-one with adults, and you don't need a referral from your doctor to make contact.
Experience: I have over ten years clinical experience working in hospitals, mental health charities and private practice. While I have a lot of experience working in psychiatric settings I work with anyone who is dealing with something difficult in their lives - whatever that is. The only thing necessary for beginning is wanting to.
Approach: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a treatment for mental health issues similar to counselling but much more in-depth, and psychotherapists engage in more extensive academic and clinical training than counsellors.
A psychoanalytic approach views symptoms as meaningful responses to something happening in our current lives, or something from our past that remains unresolved. We protect ourselves from the pain of these issues by burying them so completely that we no longer see the link between them and our feelings of depression or anxiety.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists engage in their own personal treatment for a minimum of 8 years, twice weekly, - hundreds of times that of any other mental health professionals - and are in weekly clinical supervision for a minimum of 40 weeks in the year. I'm also a Registered Practitioner Member of the Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland (A.P.P.I.), member of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (I.C.P.), and I have two Masters degrees in psychoanalytic theory and practice.
