Therapy Institute

Therapy Institute At Therapy Institute we provide one of the most progressive and effective approaches to mental healt

> We’re only a couple of short weeks away from the summer holidays. Do you remember that feeling as a teenager? Time on ...
28/05/2026

> We’re only a couple of short weeks away from the summer holidays. Do you remember that feeling as a teenager? Time on your side, swinging on the hours, and looking forward to a summer of lounging around, living by your vagaries, and doing very little. Those days were so precious: watching Wimbledon, cornflakes in the sun, and knocking into friends and running around the streets. I’d love to be able to step into one of those summers again.

> But something has dramatically changed. I have sat in my clinic, incredulously listening to teenagers as they describe how much they fear the summer coming. Summer now signifies silence and inertia. What has happened to those golden days of freedom? The answer is simple and yet very complicated... devices.

> Anxiety is one of the biggest issues I work with as a clinician. Anxiety is the fear of an unknown, nebulous future. When children stay in their room all day, don’t go out, and have very poor sleep habits, does that make the future more scary or less scary?
The antidote to that anxiety is exposure to life, and learning they can manage whatever is out there. The future is not something to be fearful of then, it is something to look forward to. A summer job arms them with that insight.
Help them find a little job this summer; believe me, you won’t regret it! They might just meet their life partner... I did!

20/05/2026

This weeks episode of ‘They Mess You Up’ is out now! This week we discuss the merits of FAFO parenting! Children need to explore and adventure!

> There are some queues you don’t want to skip. I learned that lesson, nearly nine years ago. Myself and my pregnant wif...
14/05/2026

> There are some queues you don’t want to skip. I learned that lesson, nearly nine years ago. Myself and my pregnant wife were sitting in the waiting room to see our doctor. I was bunkering down for a good couple of hours when we were called straight away. I knew there were other people ahead of us, so I realised something wasn’t right in fact, about two weeks earlier the doctor told my wife to stop working because the baby hadn’t grown in a couple of weeks. They assumed it was due to the physical demands on my wife, Erica, and she stayed home to rest. That is a common enough experience during the last couple of month of pregnancy, so we weren’t overly concerned. In fact, we had a bit of fun with it — she had a little bell to ring when she wanted something and told me the baby was hungry! Off I went to feed the baby. The baby doesn’t like Champions League, she likes Location, Location, Location. The baby was a little diva.

> But when we were called so quickly that morning, we both looked at each other with worry. As we sat there and listened to the words coming from the doctor’s mouth, I never felt so vulnerable in my life. The doctor explained my wife had tested positive for cytomegalovirus (CMV) a common infection, particularly for school teachers, but very dangerous in the last trimester of pregnancy. Words like “leading cause of disability in babies” reverberated off the cold white walls of the hospital, as well as: “It’s important to manage your expectations of the baby,” and “just be there for her”. I really didn’t know what we were being told. I was outside myself looking down.

> When Sophie was born, Erica looked back, trying to see if her baby was okay. “Is she jaundiced?” she asked without a care for herself. She wasn’t. She was 2lb 6oz. Our journey with hospitals had only begun.
Sophie stayed in the hospital for 12 weeks.

> The reason I’m writing about this is because Sophie made her communion last week. How lucky were we that we got to share that with all our family. I thought of all the other babies that didn’t survive and the families that missed out on that joy. Life is so fragile, we forget that sometimes in the busyness.

13/05/2026

We construct so much of our personality as a response to negative emotions we felt as kids. It was designed to protect ourselves. And if we thought about that, and let some of those constructs go, who would we meet! Thought for today!

12/05/2026

Always return to the sea when exhausted! It’s where I get replenished.

Celebrating our last communion. Such a special day. Thanks to my very talented cousin for the wonderful cake. And the a...
08/05/2026

Celebrating our last communion. Such a special day.

Thanks to my very talented cousin for the wonderful cake. And the amazing godparents .kelly.81

Fantastic to see this. Congratulations to all involved. Years of hard work, so families can finally get the high standar...
08/05/2026

Fantastic to see this. Congratulations to all involved. Years of hard work, so families can finally get the high standard of care they deserve.

Well done &

Quick swim in the morning before daughters communion! This is the happy place!
08/05/2026

Quick swim in the morning before daughters communion! This is the happy place!

07/05/2026

This weeks episode of ‘They Mess You Up’ is available now, wherever you get your podcasts. This week myself and discuss the important topic of reaching potential and how to pivot in your working life! It’s never too late.

- When children meet up and play, synapses in the brain are firing up, pathways are strengthened, and they feel great. T...
07/05/2026

- When children meet up and play, synapses in the brain are firing up, pathways are strengthened, and they feel great. They sleep so much more soundly after a good play time.
So, we know how important play is, psychologically, for our children and yet we have very limited pathways for them to organically connect with each other and play in this country. Most avenues of connection are centred, in some way, around being a consumer — shopping centres, and coffee shops. Anyone parenting a teenager will know the very real challenges of getting them out into the fresh air with friends and off their phones. With the arrival of ubiquitous internet and smartphones, real-life activities are more difficult to get teenagers involved in than ever before. There is a serious drop-off in girls playing GAA after 15 years of age. We need to fix this. Worryingly, I have observed the collapse of soft skills like small talk. Whenever a teenager feels awkward socially, they will jump on their phone, no small talk required.

When I was young and if I needed to find out the time of the next bus, I’d ask the person standing at the bus stop. In today’s world, that person has headphones in, listening to something, and I have a phone that can answer that question for me. No spontaneous social interaction occurs.

- Anxiety is the fear of an unknown future event, the antidote to that is to feel you can manage the future. And if I have no experience of chatting with people, playing with people, winning and losing, and being competitive, and having friends to give me feedback and coaches making me feel valued, is the future more scary or less scary? I think we all know the answer to that question.

- The Cairn Community Games helps children to connect in an organic way and play and have fun! That is so important in today’s world of technology.

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