new beginnings wellness hub

I am a qualified integrative counsellor with over 6 years experience and founder of New Beginnings Counselling. I also have a BA (hons) degree in Sociology and Social Policy. I believe we are all capable of creating a change in our lives that lead to personal growth and development and sometimes we need a helping hand in making this change. Counselling and psychotherapy can support you, in any area of your life that you may be struggling with or with feelings of anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, anger or stress. It can also help you through major life transitions such as motherhood, a change in living situations or in relationships. By guiding you to reconnect with your authentic self, your values and identity. Improving your confidence and self-worth. Psychotherapy and counselling are closely linked, however counselling will often focus on the problems and parts of ourselves that we are already aware of. Psychotherapy will go deeper, uncovering things that may be hidden to us or that we are not consciously aware of. My approach to therapy is a non-clinical and therapeutic approach. My aim is to help decrease negative stigma surrounding mental health and normalising it within our society. We all have mental health and it is our responsibility to care for it, just as we care for our physical health. I also believe in mental health education and I share information, strategies and techniques on how we can best care for our mental health and well-being, through my client work, workshops and in the articles I write. I offer my clients a safe space to talk, to be heard and understood without judgement. Therapy is different for everyone as we are all unique with our own world view. However it often focuses on helping clients to resolve problems, understand their thought patterns, gain new perspectives, learn how to catch, challenge and change cognitive distortions, improve their self-worth and sense of self and build a toolkit full of positive coping mechanisms. Therapy offers you the opportunity to resolve, process and let go of pain and worries that you have been carrying. It helps you to live authentically and with purpose. Prioritise yourself as you are the most important person to you.

3 years ago

Minding yourself through grief this Christmas

By Sarah Barr • Health

Any special occasion, like Christmas or any ‘first’ can be so difficult when you are bereaved, with each occasion such as a birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Christmas bringing …
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6 years ago

How counselling can help treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

By Sarah Barr • Health

What is OCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental illness that creates negative thoughts. These thoughts lead you to believe that if you do not carry out a certain …
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7 years ago

Are you stressed?

By Sarah Barr • Health

We all know how important self-care is for our mind and body. However it is very difficult to practice self-care if we are stressed and do not recognise that we …
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7 years ago

How to calm your anxious thoughts

By Sarah Barr • Health

We all have anxious thoughts from time to time but sometimes these thoughts can be all we think about. They are intrusive, frightening, repetitive and hard to stop.

It …
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7 years ago

Let’s start the conversation Donegal Mammies – World Maternal Mental Health Day

By Sarah Barr • Health

Today is World Maternal Mental Health Day, May is Maternal Mental Health Month.

This is a serious health matter, that needs more awareness and acceptance. We need to be …
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7 years ago

How to stop letting other people control how you feel

By Sarah Barr • Health

By personalising other people’s negative thoughts or opinions we are allowing them to control how we feel.

Q. So how can we stop this?

A. By changing the way we …
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7 years ago

Labels – For Jars or People?

By Sarah Barr • Health

We grow up with labels that are used to define us. These labels can be attached by other people and even by ourself at times. Society, family, social media, work …
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7 years ago

5 ways to deal with rejection when feeling anxious

By Sarah Barr • Health

Rejection is hard for most people. Since childhood, we have looked for acceptance from our friends in school to our parents at home. Sometimes doing whatever we can and …
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7 years ago

Be kind to yourself

By Sarah Barr • Health

“You will never speak to anyone more than you speak to yourself in your head, be kind to yourself”

When we are living with low self-esteem, it …
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7 years ago

Don’t think about the Pink Elephant

By Sarah Barr • Health

Let’s do a thought experiment:

Close your eyes.
Imagine a pink elephant
What shade of pink is it?
Is it happy/sad/indifferent?
Think about the pink elephant for 60 …
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7 years ago

Weekend Depression – it’s a thing

By Sarah Barr • Health

Weekend Depression: It can start to sneak up on you without you knowing it. During the week you’re busy with work, children, schedules and activities. Yet when Friday or Saturday …
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7 years ago

The 5 best ways to beat the January Blues

By Sarah Barr • Health

So yesterday was ‘Blue Monday’ supposedly the most depressing day of the year.

We look forward to winter, the cosy nights and the lead up to Christmas. The parties, the …
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7 years ago

Why worry?

By Sarah Barr • Health

What are worries?

Worries are just thoughts and thoughts are not fact. They have no reality. Worries begin when we ask, “What if…” then the mental …
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7 years ago

Visualise your 2018

By Sarah Barr • Health

As we all know from experience, making a New Year’s resolution is easy. Sticking with it and actually achieving your goal is not so easy.

New Year’s resolutions is …
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7 years ago

How to step into Christmas… and away from social anxiety

By Sarah Barr • Health

With Christmas getting closer, many of us will feel a mixture of excitement and worry. However, for those of you who live with social anxiety, Christmas can be a very …
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