Frequently
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This is a list of questions which are frequently asked
We work mainly with the Irish community and anyone who is entitled to Irish citizenship. This includes people who were born in Ireland and now live in Britain. It also includes people of Irish heritage who live in Britain.

Therapy for the Irish community is subsidised by financial support from the Irish government. Other people are welcome to use our service but will be expected to pay for their therapy at the current market rate.

Financial support from the Irish Government and the Irish community helps us to provide affordable therapy for Irish people and people of Irish heritage. The contribution that you make towards the cost of your therapy will depend on your income. For example, if you are on benefits you might contribute £3-5 per session.

If you are working, we will ask you to make a contribution in line with your annual income.

We use a guideline of £1 for every thousand pound of annual income per session. For example; if your annual income is £20,000 per year, we would ask you to contribute £20 per session.

Once we receive your application, we will contact you by telephone to talk about your individual needs. If therapy here may be helpful for you, we will ask you to attend an initial consultation.

This is the first step to receiving therapy. It is a free, one off meeting between you and one of our therapists. It is an opportunity for you to think about whether the services we offer feels right for you.

Our therapist will ask you to talk about what you are experiencing now and what has brought you to therapy. They will also gather information from you about your history and the history of your difficulties. You will be asked about any support you currently have. If you and the therapist agree that therapy at icap may help we will contact you to offer you therapy and to make the necessary arrangements with you.

There are no obligations to commit to therapy after the initial consultation. If the therapy on offer at icap doesn’t seem right for you, we may be able to signpost you to a service that might better suit your needs. You can also contact icap in the future.

This varies according to the assessed needs of each person.

For some people, a short- piece of work is helpful, focusing on a single issue. The number of sessions will be discussed with you and may range from six weeks to six months.

For some people a longer piece of work, up to 2 years, might be more helpful. This may focus on several issues and patterns of behaving which might be causing you difficulty and distress.

Therapy sessions at icap are weekly, for 50 minutes at the same time each week, with the same therapist.

Everyone’s experience of therapy will be different.

Therapy can help us to understand our feelings and experience the full range of our emotions, whether joy and happiness or grief and anger.

Therapy can be challenging at times but can help you make changes to your life. Therapy can also help you come to terms with those things which cannot be changed.

Therapy requires commitment and a desire to take responsibility for our own lives. Sessions generally focus on talking and listening. Some therapists may use creative approaches in their work such as mindfulness and breathing exercises, or drawing and visualisation if that feels right for the client.

At icap the main model we use is psychodynamic. This means that we work with problems which are happening in the present, and also with how current difficulties might be related to our past experiences.

The therapist will not tell you what to do but will help you know and understand yourself better.

We recognise that many factors shape our life experiences such as where we were born, our sexual orientation, class, disabilities and so on. We take account of this in our work with you.