Saturday 27th October, 2025
The Northern Ireland Counselling Forum celebrated a milestone ‘Coming of Age’ at the biennial conference on Saturday 27th September at the Dunsilly Hotel, Antrim.
With the theme ‘Come as You Are’, workshops and speakers represented a range of difference and diversity, with Adam Harris (CEO of As I Am) as keynote speaker sharing his lived experiences as an Autistic person and how we can create inclusive and affirming therapeutic environments and practices. His enthusiasm was infectious and his generous openness and authenticity summed up the essence of the day’s theme where sharing our vulnerabilities and openness helps to build authentic connections and stronger societies.
This theme was echoed throughout the speeches – Prof. Nichola Rooney (Chief Psychological Professions Officer, DoH), shared the need to acknowledge our strengths, challenges and vulnerabilities within psychological services and how we can work together to meet the needs of people within our society. The NICF welcomes her invitation to share our members’ wealth of knowledge and experience within counselling and psychotherapy to help shape the future of psychological service delivery within Northern Ireland.
We warmly want to thank all of our speakers including Colin McGrath MLA (Health Committee), Cathy Bell (Past Chair of CYP BACP), Steve Mulligan (4 Nations Lead BACP), Patrick Harraghy (Chairperson of Supervision, IACP), Liz McGuckin and Maria Cleary (Chairperson & CEO, Community Therapy Ireland), Lisa Morrison and Magz (PPR). Sharing both heartfelt lived experiences, we thank each of them for coming to the conference just as they are, even amidst challenging personal circumstances. Their impassioned speeches demonstrated how important the work of counselling and psychotherapy is in transforming lives and the importance of striving to ensure the highest professional standards within our profession to ensure safe, ethical practices.
As if the celebrations and speakers weren’t excitement enough we were then treated to 3 incredible workshops hosted by Mary Nugent on ‘Post-traumatic Growth’, Helen Farrell, ‘The Moving Therapist’ and Biggi Hofmann’s intriguingly entitled ‘Wounded, Wonderful and Worthy’. With only one complaint – the workshops were not long enough!! So the next conference will have be a 24-hour event!!! We will of course invite each of our hosts to present a longer version at our Saturday morning workshops in due course.
Our Patron Patricia Lewsley-Mooney joined the celebration to mark 21 years of the Northern Ireland Counselling Forum and to thank the founding Chair, Brenda Tighe for all of her illustrious work and dedication throughout her leadership of the Forum and her commitment to providing counselling, supervision and vital services across her longstanding career. Her commitment to raising the profile of counselling and parity of esteem has been a tireless cause and one which she will continue to raise in her new role as Honorary President as she steps down from the position of NICF Chair. Sharon Ramsden accepted the role of Chair thanking Brenda for her commitment and promising to continue the work of the Forum in its quest to gain recognition for the profession and more importantly to be the voice of those in our society who remain largely unheard as they seek timely access and choice to services that treat them with the respect they deserve.
