In response to current Covid-19 situation, the management of Fingal Counselling Service have delayed the reopening of our service until 18th Jan 2021. This decision is being taken for the safety of the clients, counsellors and the wider Fingal community.
We regret the inconvenience this will cause.
If you need to talk to someone please call or text the contact
The Samaritans on 116 123 for free 24/7
or visit their website
www.samaritans.org/ireland
Working towards accreditation?
Fingal Counselling Service are now offering volunteering opportunities to counsellors who have already completed their 100 training hours and are working towards accreditation. We invite applications from pre accredited IACP members to join our centre in Swords
We offer day, evening and Saturday appointments to our clients and 3-4 hour slots will be allocated to successful candidates. There will be a 6 month probationary period and successful candidates will be offered a further 12 months counselling work.
Fingal Counselling Service will be offering the following benefits;
If you are interested in applying please send;
Please post your application to
Denise McDermott
Fingal Counselling Service,
BASE Resource Centre,
Brackenstown Road,
Swords,
Co. Dublin
The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 6th November 2020
Please contact the office on 8902596 with any queries you may have.
Fingal Counselling Service has re-opened for Face to Face counselling. We are adhering to the Government and HSE guidelines regarding Covid 19. When you contact us to make an appointment you will be advised of the necessary steps to take to ensure your safety and the safety of everyone in the service
Fingal Counselling Service management are delighted to announce that a new group of counsellors will begin working with the service in January 2019. The induction training for the new counsellors took place on Nov 24th 2018. It was a very successful day and we look forward to working with our colleagues.
Below is a photo of some of the new group
From left to right
Ann Marie Kelly, Miriam Lewis, Breda Brady, Garry Plunkett, Dermot McDonald, Noel Dowling
(missing from the line-up, Tracey McGee, Aoife Doyle, Nikki Hennessy and Olive Talbot)
Your spiritual guidance for the day
Give me kind Heaven,
A private station,
A mind serene for contemplation,
Title and profit I resign;
The post of honour shall be be mine.
BASE celebrated their 30th anniversary on Friday 19th May with a party in BASE resource centre, Swords. A wonderful night was had by all. Congratulations to all those involved in the celebrations. Pictured below are Eileen McCormack, Mary Forde, Mairead Marron, 
Denise McDermott, Mary Kenneally from Fingal Counselling Service with Father Paul Thornton
Swords and District Lions Club presented Fingal Counselling Service with a cheque for €1500 towards the running costs of this invaluable service. The Lions Club has been a long-time supporter of Fingal Counselling Service providing us with funding towards training and other projects. Lion President Sean Quigley congratulated the service for their commitment, explaining that suicide prevention programmes, which are part of Fingal Counselling Service’s skill set, are a major service project for Lions Clubs all over Ireland.
Mary Forde, on behalf of the service, thanked the Lions Club for their generous donation and expressed her gratitude for its support over many years.
Photo: The photo shows Swords Lions President Sean Quigley presenting the cheque to Mary Forde FCS. Others include Swords Lions and Fingal Counselling Service members
L/R John Boylan, Maurice Kealy, Sean Quigley, Denise McDermott, Mary Forde, Conor Igoe and Mary O’Connor
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Fare took place in the offices of Fingal County Council Swords on Saturday 22nd April 2017.
Fingal Counselling Service was represented by Helen Hughes and Denise McDermott. There were a number of different services represented at the fare including Tusla, The Samaritans, Teenline, and the North Dublin Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force. The Fare ran along side with the registration for the Cycle Against Suicide and was very well supported.
Pictured with Helen and Denise is the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Darragh Butler, Darragh O Brien TD.
On Thursday 8th September, the Class of 2016, joined tutors from the Fingal Counselling Service Post Graduate Certificate course in Family Therapy, to celebrate their graduation at BASE Resource Centre, Swords.
The management, staff and volunteers of Fingal Counselling Service extend congratulations to all those who graduated on the day.
Please see some photos from the occasion.
Fingal Counselling Service is a community based voluntary counselling service providing confidential, non-directive counselling. If you would like to attend the service please contact us on 01 8902596 between 10 am and 1 pm Monday to Friday. An answering service is available outside these hours.
Michelle is a past student who graduated from the 2011 Diploma in Humanistic Counselling and Psychotherapy Course. This is her testimonial
As this is our graduation, I volunteered to say a few words today on my experience on this course and as I stand here I’m thinking I must have been mad!!!!!
I believe it’s important that one of us from the class say a few words as this is our graduation and a testament to our hard work and commitment in being here today. I hope my experience is also a reflection of others in the class.
I mentioned the word commitment and any of us graduating here today know of the commitment we have given to completing this course. Yes we were here every week but there was so much more and I believe it is important to acknowledge this.
This course is no ordinary course. I remember at times my family and close friends asking me how I was getting on……I used to think…”how can I answer this?…. and I’d say “Ah its grand”….And do you know at times it wasn’t grand, it was really difficult. I think if I had tried to explain to them at the time they would have thought I was crazy…. Lord knows I thought that too at times. Each week that I came here, I realised others felt the same way so that was reassuring.
What I loved about this course was the experiential learning piece. How can I explain this? For me it is learning by actually doing. Learning from a book stimulates my mind whereas experiential learning stimulates my thoughts, feelings and behaviour and I loved this. Part of it too was the discussions we had as a group after a learning piece. To me it was invaluable and it is the part I miss the most about our class.
There was a huge emphasis on personal development in our training and I believe, in becoming a counsellor, this is so important. In fact I believe it is essential. The image that has always come to my mind when I think about the personal development piece is that I was like a house made from Lego. Do you remember the box of Lego we had as kids with all different colours and sizes and then there was the green base on which you made your house?
During my time as a student on this course, I have taken apart my house piece by piece. I have looked at each piece closely; some of them I liked others I didn’t like. There were times when I didn’t want to take it apart. I didn’t want to look at the pieces and this was very challenging. Eventually I began the process of rebuilding my house and I realised that I didn’t want it to be the same as it was. I wanted it to be different. This was both exciting and scary and I learned so much about myself in doing this.
As I graduate today I am deeply proud of my achievement. From the time I left school many years ago being a counsellor was always in the back of my mind. I am passionate about the work I do, knowing I will always be learning, wanting to learn and feeling privileged to accompany clients on their journey through counselling; a journey that more often than not is a very painful and difficult one. Thank you to my tutors, my supervisor, the staff in Fingal Counselling Service and most of all to the group I graduate with today. You have all helped me along the way.
I would like to finish with a quote from one of the many books I have read. This is a T S Eliot quote from the book ‘To Call Myself Beloved’ by Eina McHugh (2013)
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time”
Thank you.