The Una Maguire Educational Fund

by Karen Shorten

The first workshop from the Una Maguire Educational Fund was in June of this year: “Psychotherapy and Legal Issues”.

The workshop covered all aspects of the legal requirements for psychotherapists, contributed by the vast knowledge and expertise of Seamus Clarke (Barrister at Law). There was a great turnout on the day and the feedback was extremely favourable.

Topics included:
The Irish Legal System; The Irish Court System; Simplified Diagram of the Irish Court System; Civil Law; Family Law and the Courts; Guardian, Custody and Access, Best Interest of the Child; Witnesses and Evidence; Confidentiality of Sessions – Disclosure Notes; Disclosure of Counselling/Psychotherapy Records in Criminal Cases; Mandatory Reporting of Criminal Behaviour; Children First Act; Criminal Behaviour; (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012; Breach of Confidentiality; Data Protection; Children and Independent Right to Therapy; Supervisor/Supervisee: The Responsibility of the Supervisor; Function of Records; Accountability and Documentation; Note Taking – Guidelines; Management of Records; Access to Records.

“A lot covered in a day’s workshop.”

Seamus made this workshop friendly, comprehensible, and accessible to us as psychotherapists who have little knowledge of the law.

It is with sincere gratitude that we acknowledge Una Maguire’s partner Margaret McKenna, for enabling IAHIP to organise and fund a workshop of this calibre. Margaret says; “I made the donation to IAHIP after her death in 2012 as an appreciation of what psychotherapy had meant to her in her life and give honour to her name. Una was the love of my life and on her memory card I had printed the words of Raymond Carver:

‘And did you get what
You wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
Beloved on the earth.’

I commend the Una Maguire Educational Fund to yourselves, as her confreres.”

Ger Murphy, a colleague and friend of Una Maguire, has written a very beautiful poem that captures Una’s soulful essence:

Una meaning one in another tongue weaved the singularity of

creation with her dance from Baccalaureate to bioenergetics,
Mauritius to Monkstown
The wisdom of the witch to the service of the nun.
Her life was a litmus paper for the growth of a people, a talisman
for change in a century in transition.
From Loreto piety and the service of Yang Shiva Order to the
wildness of Yin Shakti Chaos she moved through the paths of
creation and ancient wisdom of the singular Divine.
She danced across continents, multiple roles and more.
Courage holding her soft-skinned fierce fire in alignment with
her soul’s journey.
The fruits of her wanderings in the melting pot of Irish 20th
century change had her as midwife to the birth of the
unifying discourse of psychotherapy and same sex loving
across green and orange borders in emerging times.
Her warrior spirit blesses us and her medicine of oneness
– UNA – lives on
Her bequest, a call to what unifies us in a remembering of
where we come from and where we will return a remembering
of the One.

So moving. Thank you Ger and Margaret.

I am grateful to be able to say Una was one of my trainers in the Institute for Creative Counselling and Psychotherapy back in the ‘90s. I, like so many others, have such fond memories of her. She had an amazing ability to create a space that evoked excitement, fun and wisdom in learning, bringing her true self, full of love, compassion and heart.

If you would like to donate to the Una Maguire Educational Fund, please do so by contacting the IAHIP office.