Relationship & Marriage Counselling, Individual Counselling, Parenting
Building Bridges, Healing Hearts:
Navigating Relationships Together
Welcome to The Relationship Centre
The most important factor in determining how happy our relationships are is the nature of your relationship with yourself and the nature of the other person’s relationship with him/herself.
The nature of your relationship with yourself is influenced by your experience of relationships in childhood.
Empowering Connections
Our Range of Supportive Services
Whether you’re seeking to strengthen your relationship with a partner, family member, friend, or yourself, our diverse range of offerings is here to accompany you on your transformative journey towards empowered connections.
Our commitment is to provide you with the tools, guidance, and insights you need to navigate challenges, improve communication, and build stronger, more fulfilling bonds.
Counselling & Psychotherapy
One of the most important things you can do to become happier is to realise what is going on within yourself . Counselling and Psychotherapy are about facilitating this consciousness about realising what the nature of your relationship with yourself is like.
Mentoring for Parents
Early language and literacy development begins in the first three years of life and is closely linked with a child’s earliest experiences of books and stories.
Relationship Counselling
Relationship Counselling involves looking at issues arising between two people (husband and wife, partners, friends or work colleagues). Relationships offer the most powerful opportunities for personal and interpersonal growth.
Counselling for Individuals
Individual counselling offers a confidential space for personal growth, support, and empowerment. Through collaboration with a counsellor, individuals address challenges, manage emotions, and develop coping strategies.
Cathy O’Connell
Post Gradute Cert. Education, Higher Dip. Relationship Mentoring; Dip. Parent Mentoring, Dip. NLP, Cert. Counselling & Psychotherapy.
Masters Degree, Nursing & Midwifery, Dip. Adv. Study Health Care
Cathy has a private practice in Psychotherapy and Parent & Relationship Mentoring in Belfast.
She began her career in Nursing and after working for a period in The Middle East became a Sister in Cardiac Surgery in the RVH Belfast. She then moved to work in Practice Deveopment and Research, focusing on Person Centred Care; her Master’s research focussed on facilitating change in Leaders. After completing her MSc. Cathy took up a post as lecturer in Nursing at Queen’s University Belfast.
She began her Counselling and Psychotherapy training in Manchester in 2000, opening a practice in Belfast in 2003. In 2010 she studied for four years in the Co-creative approach with University College Cork completing diplomas in Parent and Relationship Mentoring. Her practice is validated by The Irish Association of Relationship Mentors.
Journey to Self-Discovery
& Stronger Relationships
Challenges in Relationships
Relationships often face challenges that can evoke stress and trigger memories of childhood hurt. Understanding these challenges is essential for healthier dynamics.
Identifying Common Challenges
Life events such as the birth of a child, illness, loss of a parent, work-related issues, or moving house can strain relationships. These challenges can lead to unfamiliar emotions and behaviors.
Exploring the Impact
Challenges can revive past emotions from childhood, influencing our reactions. Relationship counseling offers a space to discuss both external challenges and internal responses.
Unveiling Underlying Issues
The goal is to unearth the root causes beneath surface-level problems, like poor communication, arguing, lack of intimacy, or substance use. Understanding these issues can lead to resolution.
Childhood Connections
Our responses to challenges are often shaped by childhood experiences. Childhood influences impact how we interpret and react to others’ behaviors.
The Wisdom of Behavior
Behavior reflects our perception of safety or threat. Understanding this can help decode seemingly irrational reactions.
Disconnection as Survival
Childhood distress can lead to disconnection from painful emotions as a survival mechanism. As adults, we may project feelings onto others to seek understanding.
Rediscovering Authenticity
Becoming conscious of oneself fosters authenticity. It brings forth hidden qualities like passion, assertiveness, courage, and motivation.
Deepening Relationships
Self-awareness enriches relationships, enabling us to bring our true selves to interactions. This deepens connections and eliminates projections.
Understanding Coping Strategies
Rather than damage or disorders, humans develop coping mechanisms to deal with hurt. These strategies, though defensive, are intelligent responses to threats.
Embracing Inner Wisdom
The creativity that shapes defenses can also guide us to reconnect with our true selves. Self-discovery allows intelligence to provide answers.
Guidance, Not Advice
Our role is to offer psychological support, not advice. Creating a safe space enables your innate intelligence to guide you towards self-discovery.
Sharing Insights
We share personal experiences and psychological knowledge, but our focus remains on providing a holding space for your journey.