Holistic Approaches to Perinatal Pelvic & Sexual Pain for Perinatal Professionals

With Orlagh Reid, Clinical Sexology Psychotherapist

Wednesday February 11th - 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Irish Time - Takes Place Via Zoom and hosted by The Perinatal Mental Health Institute

Includes Certificate of Attendance, Access to Recorded Version and All Resources Mentioned in the Training - €20

How many of your clients navigating the transition to parenthood are silently struggling with pelvic or sexual pain—unable to find the words or courage to bring it into the therapy room? These conditions are far more common than most therapists realize, yet they remain wrapped in shame and silence, profoundly impacting mental health, relationships, and the transition to parenthood.

This 90-minute training will transform how you recognize, discuss, and support clients experiencing vaginal, vulvar, and pelvic pain conditions during the perinatal period. You'll gain the language, confidence, and clinical tools to open conversations that could be life-changing for your clients.

Whether you're supporting individuals or couples, this training equips you to recognize when pelvic pain is affecting your client's presentation, offer sex-positive therapeutic support, and guide them toward comprehensive, multidisciplinary care.

What You'll Learn:

·       Understanding stigma and silence surrounding pelvic and sexual pain conditions

·       Why awareness is crucial for perinatal therapists and providers

·       Meeting unique needs of women with pelvic pain conditions

·       Multidisciplinary approach to sexual wellbeing and rehabilitation

·       Common female sexual dysfunctions including vaginismus, vulvodynia, and GPPPD

·       Integrative and holistic treatment approaches and interventions

·       Empowering clients to become strong self-advocates

·       Supporting both clients and partners through these challenging experiences

·       Discussing sex and sexual dysfunction with confidence and a sex-positive approach

Orlagh Reid, Clinical Sexology Psychotherapist

Orlagh Reid is a qualified IACP Accredited Counsellor & Psychotherapist, Clinical Sexology Psychotherapist, Addiction Specialist, Fertility Counsellor and Coach located in Naas, Co. Kildare, Ireland.

She is also a health & wellbeing writer and founder of the Hey Gyno! Community for women in Ireland (and beyond) living with Vaginismus, Vulvar Conditions and Sexual Dysfunction. Orlagh is a mother of two young children and a proud Neurodivergent woman in private practice.

To learn more and register for this event: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/2602reidregistration

For more information about The Perinatal Mental Health Institute: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com

Have questions? Contact@perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com

3rd National Adolescent & Beyond Conference

For Professionals, Parents and Caregivers

Event Overview

The 3rd National Adolescent & Beyond Conference returns to Galway in 2026. This one-day event offers a meaningful and engaging exploration of adolescent mental health, bringing together an outstanding panel of recognised experts in the field. Speakers include Bronagh Starrs, Dr. Aoife Durcan, Padraig Danaher, Lorraine Madden, and Dr. Blánaid Galvin, each offering valuable insight from their professional experience.

Conference Details

• Date: 19th May 2026
• Time: 9.30am – 5.00pm
• Venue: ILAS Centre, University of Galway
• CPD Points: 6.5

Tickets & Pricing

• Early Bird: €99 + booking fee (available until 31st March 2026)
• Standard: €120 + booking fee (from 1st April 2026)
• Ticket price includes lunch

Booking Information

• Tickets are available via Eventbrite
• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1977763031467?aff=oddtdtcreator
• Further details can be found at www.adolessence.ie
• For group bookings, please email conference@adolessence.ie
• If you are interested in exhibiting or hosting a stand for your business, email conference@adolessence.ie for further information.

Further Information

• Email: conference@adolessence.ie
• Phone: 087 991 3179

Get Konnected Course
CPD for professionals who supporting Autistic children and teens

The Neuro-affirming approach to social support for professionals working with Autistic kids & teens in a clinical or educational setting

COURSE OVERVIEW

Course dates & times

There are 5 live sessions on this course, each are 2 hours long. There is also approx 25 hours of neurodiversity self-led learning.

For each part of this Autistic-led course you need to allocate approx 5-6 hours for your self-paced learning and then also ensure that you’re available for 5 sessions from dates listed below.

Anyone around the globe is welcome to attend any of the courses if the time suits you.

All sessions take place online on Zoom.

Next dates:

Wednesdays: 25th March, 15th April, 29th April, 13th May and 3rd June from 11am -1pm

GET KONNECTED is the neurodiversity-affirming answer to outdated and harmful social skills programs.

Designed and delivered by award-winning Autistic trainers, this course helps you take a holistic, child-centred, and trauma-informed approach to social support.

You’ll learn how to truly connect with Autistic children and teens — not by trying to change them, but by transforming their social environment.

Course format:

Approx. 25 hours of self-led learning (5 x 5-hour modules)
5 x 2-hour live group sessions with Evaleen
Built around Evaleen’s powerful 6 S Model for neuro-affirming communication

How it works:

Once you sign up, you’ll complete your first 5 hours of self-led content via our platform. Then, you’ll join your live group session — repeat the cycle five times for the full experience.

Spots are strictly limited, so early booking is highly recommended.

Find out more: https://ausometraining.com/get-konnected-neurodiversity-training/

Working with Co-Occurring Mental Health Problems

A 5-day course on Zoom. IACP recognised 30 CPD points
Presented by Eoin Stephens & Grace Harrison
For helping professionals working with Autistic adult clients.

In order to benefit from this workshop, attendees will need to have a foundational understanding of topics such as the neurodiversity paradigm, the nature of autistic neurodivergence, masking & unmasking, the double empathy problem, etc.

Mental health problems/disorders occur at a frighteningly high rate in the autistic community.

This course explores how these issues present in autistic adults, and some of the ways in which we may need to adjust our approaches to helping these clients.

When: 10am to 5pm on the following dates:

Day 1 – Saturday 7th February 2026 – Eoin & Grace
Addictive Behaviours – Alcohol & Other Substances, Gambling, Pornography, Work, etc

Day 2 – Saturday 21st February 2026 – Grace & Eoin
Eating Disorders – Anorexia, ARFID, Bulimia, etc

Day 3 – Saturday 21st March 2026 – Eoin
Anxiety Disorders Part 1 – Minority Stress/Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Generalised Anxiety

Day 4 – Saturday 11th April 2026 – Eoin
Anxiety Disorders Part 2 – Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, PTSD, OCD, Health Anxiety

Day 5 – Saturday 25th April 2026 – Eoin
Depression etc – Burnout, Low Self-Esteem, Suicidality, Self-Harm

Eoin Stephens
BA Psychology, Dip Counselling, MA Cognitive-Behavioural Counselling, MIACP, MACI.

Eoin is a Counsellor/Psychotherapist and Trainer who has worked in the areas of disability, addiction treatment, lecturing/training, and counselling/psychotherapy private practice for over 30 years.

He has a particular interest in working with mental health problems such as addictive disorders and anxiety disorders, using elements of Person-Centred Therapy, CBT, & Motivational Interviewing.

His work is currently focused on understanding the problems faced by autistic adults and their specific therapeutic needs. He is autistic himself, having made the discovery in 2012.

Grace Harrison
BA Psychology & Sociology, MSc Integrative Psychotherapy, Dip Adolescent Psychotherapy, MIACP.

Grace is a Student Counsellor/Integrative Psychotherapist and Trainer in the University of Galway and in her own private practice in Co. Clare. She has a particular interest in youth mental health, eating disorders and neurodivergence hence she co-designed and delivers specialist group counselling programmes for students in each of these areas. Grace provides training on understanding and supporting neurodivergent people (particularly neurodivergent students), both within the university context, and as part of AUsome Training’s ‘Dawn Practitioner Programme’. She is late-diagnosed autistic, since 2023, and has since, been focused on understanding how neurodivergent people can navigate all forms of relationship in a way that is self-affirming and fulfilling.

For further information, please click here>>>

Postgraduate Diploma in Relationship Psychotherapy 2026/2027

Anonymous global survey on Generative AI in mental health (5–7 minutes)

Dear colleague,

Hope you are well.

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools become increasingly visible in mental healthcare, it is vital to understand how they are actually being used — and viewed — by clinicians.

We invite mental health professionals worldwide (psychotherapists, psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists) to complete a short, fully anonymous online survey (5–7 minutes) on experiences and opinions regarding generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, as well as ambient voice technologies (e.g. Nuance Dax) in clinical practice.

This study is led by an international research team based at Uppsala University (Sweden), the University of Basel (Switzerland), and Missouri State University (USA), with collaborators across Europe and North America (Sweden, Germany, the USA, Canada, the UK, and Ireland).

The survey is entirely anonymous and collects no identifying information.
It is distributed via professional and academic networks only and is not shared on social media platforms.

Your insights — whether you actively use these tools, are cautiously exploring them, or have reservations — will help inform ethical guidance and professional discussions on the responsible use of generative AI in mental healthcare.

Key details

• ⏱ 5–7 minutes
  Global survey
  English or German
  Completely anonymous
  Closes end of February

https://survey-1.psychologie.unibas.ch/kppt/AIpsychsurvey_EN

We would be grateful if you could also share this invitation with eligible colleagues.

With thanks,
Amanda

On behalf of the Survey Research Team
Uppsala University, Sweden
Contact lead researcher: charlotte.blease@uu.se

ISJA and IAPA are pleased to announce that Heba Zaphiriou-Zarifi , Jungian analytical psychologist, will be our guest speaker on Thursday, 19th February (19:30 to 21:00 Irish time), with her presentation -

"In Place of Words, Incantations."

An event focusing on how the “paltriest and the mightiest” (Jung, 2009) of words and their silencing have shaped both our personal and collective experience of the genocide in Gaza and its associated impact of “un-childing” (Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2020) asking, what does it mean to assault futurity, one of the “essential features of the child motif” (Jung, 1969)?

You'll find further details in the attached flyer, and booking is now open on Eventbrite through the following link;

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/in-place-of-words-incantations-tickets-1980184183197?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Please note, ticket sales end on Wednesday, 18th of February at 18:00 GMT.

If you are unable to attend on the night, the recording is included with registration, and the link will be available for two weeks from the date it is released.

For further information, click here>>>

 ‘Owning the Shadow’ 
A Seven-Day Residential Experiential Workshop with
The Fool’s Dance Gestalt Company – Paul Rebillot Group in Ireland.
Slí an Chroí, Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow 

14^th February– 20^th February 2026

We’re delighted to offer our first residential workshop of 2026 on the theme of The Shadow.

Of this work, Paul Rebillot wrote:

“I have come to recognise in my work that one of the most important and frequently unrecognized or avoided themes in people’s lives and in their work is the ability to own the part of themselves that they don’t like, the part Jung called ‘the Shadow’.

The more we limit ourselves by not experiencing, not owning, whatever we determine to be negative features, the more these energies are suppressed, repressed, and finally go out of consciousness. We become projectors of our own disowned energy

… It seems to me that most of the destruction, racism, and terrorism in the world is the work of the disowned shadow.”

How can we reclaim that part of ourselves we have been busy projecting out onto other people whom we call 'different, 'not one of us', 'evil' or 'enemy'? How can we rediscover the fullness of ourselves and bring into our awareness that denied shadow aspect, that troubling shadow energy, so that it can be dealt with where it belongs - in ourselves and in the here and now?

In this workshop we will work with respect and humour to get to know, and to own our shadow self in a variety of creative ways using drama, movement, music, mask-making, Gestalt process, and ritual.

This workshop, then, has a double purpose.  The first is to help us to own our own Shadow, the negative, dark, and often violent energies within our being.

The second is to learn to talk to those onto whom we have projected these negative aspects of ourselves, to discover how to communicate with them - not as enemies, but as human beings like ourselves - a significant move towards healing the divisions in ourselves and also in society at large.

“We have met the enemy and they is us.” (Walt Kelly, Pogo, 1971)

What participants said the last time we ran this workshop:

“A beautiful week, extremely safe container for doing a deep dive as so well held by the facilitators.  Truly transformative.”

“Expertly run. The workshop was challenging and brought me to a place of real clarity and honouring of myself and a new outlook towards others and the future”

“The work really helped me to connect with my shadow and what I hold there - including my gold - and freed up a lot of blocked energy.”

“What I most felt was the wonderful balance between a lightness of touch and a deep caring which allowed very deep and full experience in a very held and safe way.”

We invite you to meet yourself in a new way and to experience the joy of connection in the beautiful surrounds of Slí an Chroí.

To find out more visit

http://foolsdancegestaltcompany.ie/workshops/owning-the-shadow/

To apply for a place, visit

http://foolsdancegestaltcompany.ie/next-workshop/

Places are limited – book early to avoid disappointment.

Therapy room to share, in Kilkenny; private, quiet and accessible, with plentiful free parking.

For further information, contact therapyroomkilkenny@gmail.com

Do you struggle to help numb, disconnected clients who can’t feel emotion or explore inner experience? Do your clients get ‘stuck’ in over- whelming emotions and self-destructive behaviours rather than resolving their trauma?

Do you believe that the body holds the living legacy of trauma? but that you lack the skills to address the somatic effects of painful past experience?

Our Level 1 trauma training helps therapists make sense of the symptoms and issues experienced by thier clients and teaches them how to work effectively with trauma.

This training will teach you the knowlegde and techniques you need to hep your clients change the engrained physical and psychologial patterns that wreaks havoc on thier lives and find healing.

Dublin , Ireland
Course Start Date 01 May 2026 Tuition €3,300
78 CPD Credits

Apply online today!

Financial Aid, Discounts,& Interest-Free Payment Plans Available 

Contact: info@sensorimotor.org         
Local Organiser: Ruthsteenvoorden@gmail.com