Committed to providing
counselling & psychotherapy
to the highest ethical and
professional standards to
all members of society.

Cork Counselling Services is a non-profit and charity that has been serving the Cork community since 1982.

OUR VALUES

Together, we believe ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference. We are a community based charity that responds to social need in an equitable and inclusive way. We promote empowerment and healing of our clients and students, placing them at the centre of our work. We work with empathy, creativity and integrity, looking to share responsibility fairly. We are humanistic in our approach and believe that direct experience is the best healer and educator.

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  1. CLIENT WORK
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    We provide individual counselling and psychotherapy to people of all ages. We assist with anxiety, anger management, bereavement, bullying management, crisis pregnancy, depression, discrimination, domestic violence, grief, loneliness, major illness, life changes, panic attacks, psychological / sexual / emotional abuse, rape, relationship problems e.g. parenting, separation/divorce, sexuality, stress and work related problems, self harm, suicidal thoughts and attempts and many more.

  2. TRAINING
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    Our aim is to educate and train students so that they attain degree level professional counselling standards reflecting best practice nationally and internationally. We aim to foster personal responsibility, ethical and social awareness and inclusive practice in our students. We look to aid students in the development of this professionalism by mutually creating an active learning environment which is inclusive, supportive and constructively challenging.

  3. SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
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    Cork Counselling Services is a social enterprise. This means that aswell as being a charity we apply commercial strategies towards advancing our social ends. To help make counselling affordable to all, we take the profitable work of providing accredited and professional training to would-be counsellors. All profits made in training go to ensuring counselling is available regardless of the clients ability to pay. Cork Counselling Services is a registered charity and non-profit organisation . Cork Counselling Services CLG is a company limited by guarantee and governed by a Company Board. The Company was registered with the Company Registration Office in 1985. CRO Number 110910. It was granted charitable status in 1989. Charity Number CHY8911. Our Charities Regulator number or RCN is 20022327. Cork Counselling Services receives regular annual funding from Tusla and the HSE to about 40% of running cost.

  4. HISTORY
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    In 1982, Cork Counselling Services pioneered counselling and psychotherapy services on an equal-access community basis in South Of Ireland led by Maria Huss, a Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and Trainer, who had moved to Ireland from Germany. The south of Ireland did not have a culture of professional counselling and psychotherapy at the time. The Counselling Centre (as it was then known) was one of the first centres in the south to provide a professional counselling service to members of the community. From its foundation our services were in high demand. We have always embraced equality and diversity in our community. Our not-for-profit person-centered services to over 400 clients a year are highly trusted and serve ever increasing demand in the city and beyond. They are part funded by Tusla / HSE, and in line with the national “Sharing The Vision” strategy we represent a successful community model which supports and enables people to live actively while tending to mental health issues”. In 1996, we started the journey of a community-based social enterprise, incorporating the profitable work of professional training and investing back into our counselling services. We were now shaping service delivery capacity aswell as service delivery in the region. We became the longest standing IACP accredited institute (Irish Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy) with 70 students on Ireland’s only fully integrated and immersive training in this area. In 2019, we were validated as an international academic partner of Coventry University in Cork’s twin city, offering a full B.Sc. Programme, conscious that national legislation will shortly require degree status to practice. Many of our experientially trained graduates serve national & local services, thereby extending our impact exponentially. By 2024, we plan to become Ireland’s first applied centre of excellence (akin to the Metanoia Institute in UK) integrating practice, training and applied research. We will build our brand, employ and train new online technologies, and demonstrate our efficacy for funding purposes. Throughout this time we will further expand our positive impact on mental health in our community.

  5. FIND US
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    We work out of Fr Mathew St and run a second building for our Training Institute in Hanover St.

Where ordinary
people can make
an extraordinary
difference.

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