About James and his work
“In humility, value others above yourself”
St Paul
Who is James Foley?
My name is James Foley. I am an accredited member of The Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I also have over 20 years of experience as a Psychiatric Nurse. I worked in the drug addiction area for over 11 years. I also did suicide related work for 3 and a half years with Pieta.. After training in marketing and advertising, I pursued psychiatric nursing training at the age of 25. In total, I spent over 20 years as a psych nurse.
In 2010, I started my counselling therapy training. While combining family responsibility with counselling training, I became an accredited counsellor in 2019, set up Prevail in April 2020, and started working with Pieta from June 2021 to December 2024.
I firmly believe in ongoing training. I have completed a CBT level 9 course, and I am always looking for learning opportunities to add to my skill base.
I am originally from Carlow and have been living in Clondalkin since 2002. I am now married and have two sons.
Addiction
Cocaine is the most frequent addiction that I meet in my work. Porn is also mentioned. A common approach to addiction work is to roll with the resistance that people have to change; however, I find that there comes a time to challenge a person with their addictive habits. Primarily, the client has to commit themselves to being truly addiction-free.
In addiction work, I use The Wheel of Addiction as my model. This emphasises the process of change that is necessary to move from active addiction to maintained sobriety. I encourage clients with addiction issues to seek long-term, openly accessible support apart from the one hour a week they get with me.Suicide prevention
I have worked with actively suicidal people. The approach I use is to validate the client’s reasons for being suicidal. I encourage them to identify the positive factors, such as good friendships, even work, that have given them a reason to live so far.
If an active suicidal threat is present, my work is to identify the client’s plan, reduce their ability to enact that plan, and ask them to phone for supportive company to be with them immediately after the session. If necessary and possible, I will ask the client to attend A&E immediately, possibly calling an ambulance.
Solution-focused strategies are suited to emergency suicidal ideation situations.Bereavement, particularly in the area of suicide
Bereavement counselling may take more time than other counselling. The more tragic and the deeper the relationship is that the client has with the deceased, the more complicated this process is. My approach is simply to support and walk the road with the client as they go through the stages and tasks of grief.
Bereavement can also refer to loss in a relationship, a job, children moving away, grieving pets, etc.
Person centered therapy is the primary technique used with grief.Mild psychosis, paranoia, and Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour (OCD)
Mild psychosis is when a person has disordered thoughts or perceptions. Paranoia is when the client has a false perception of other people and their behaviours toward the client. OCD is where a person has an unreasonable drive to complete specific behaviours to create a sense of control over a chaotic situation.
My approach to such disturbances is first to assess what degree of medical intervention would be required.
Grounding the person without aggressively challenging them is a key approach. For long-term symptom reduction, I help the client identify triggers to their behaviour and develop coping skills. Choice theory with CBT is a suitable approach for such perceptual upset.Anxiety/Depression
The mood disorders of anxiety and depression, I find, are the primary reasons why people enter therapy. Anxiety is more common. Firstly, a therapeutic relationship based on trust helps the client to tell his story of how bad his mood is and how it affects him.
I tend to use CBT mostly with mood disorders. I find helping the client to see the faulty beliefs they have about themselves and their situation helps them to understand why they feel as they do. Developing new thinking patterns facilitates the client to have a new perspective about their problem and to develop skills to overcome it.Anger
I always clarify with clients that anger in itself is not a problem. It is when anger is translated into aggression and rage that it becomes a concern. Anger if used appropriately, can be a motivator for positive change, especially when righting an injustice.
It is important to enable the client to separate out his anger from his self-identity; he is not his anger. For in the moment management of anger, I encourage the client to be self-aware of their anger behaviours, triggers and especially how it affects others.
For longer-term resolution, early life experiences will be explored to suggest learned behavioural responses based on negative core beliefs that will have to be changed.
Areas that I have experience and training with:
Phobia
A phobia is where our faulty perception of reality is focused on a specific thing, place, situation, etc. This negative thinking then translates into strong emotional fear and avoidant behaviour. Social phobia is the most common phobia I come across.
Acceptance of the reality of the emotional fear is balanced with gently challenging the irrationality of the belief that triggers the client’s fear and avoidance.
Gradually exposing the client to their fear through simply talking about it, photos, in-session role plays, etc, is a key CBT technique used in reducing phobias. Phobias can be dealt with quickly via solution-focused therapy if the causes are not too complicated.Self-harming behaviour
Traditionally, behaviours of physically hurting yourself are associated with young women, but can also be exhibited by men. While often associated with suicidal behaviour, Self-harming is separate as the person does not want to die from their behaviour.
There are two purposes for self-harming.
First, wanting your emotional pain to be noticed. This creates a negative cycle of needing to harm again when pain increases and the attention of others has waned.
Second, to have a sense of release from the emotional pain by substituting it with physical behaviour. This second reason for self-harming behaviour creates a short-term, momentary sense of release from the emotional pain and regaining control.My approach is to help the client understand the reasons for their behaviour. Narrative Therapy is used to encourage the client to see that their behaviour does not define them. When negative behaviour is separated out from the sense of self, the client will not be as overwhelmed by it and will be more confident to overcome it. The client identifying exceptional circumstances from their past where they have coped with stressful behaviour can effectively undermine the impulse to self-harm.
Relationship issues
I do not do couples/marriage counselling, but I frequently have clients who are seriously struggling with their partner. Occasionally, a client may already be in the process of separation or divorce when they come to see me.
Initially, I will clarify what the desire is for the relationship. Is the client aiming for reconciliation or for healing of emotional hurt?
If the aim is resolution, communication skills training and developing empathy are helpful.
If the client is trying to rebuild his life after a separation/divorce, I treat it as a relational bereavement. To them, their relationship/marriage has died. As with all grief work, I primarily use client-paced person-centred therapy.Low self-esteem
Self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and lack of personal direction are examples of how people experience low self-worth, self-esteem. A person's belief that they are not of value usually comes from a deep-seated experience of loss and hurt.
Solution-focused and CBT methods can help the person to see their false perceptions of themselves and develop strategies to change them.
For deeper personal change, going beyond the false perceptions into the core beliefs that formed the client’s false perceptions is needed. This highlights how CBT can be used for deep emotional change.Serious physical illness
In the blogs section of this website, I have documented my own struggle with serious physical illness. It is best to go to those blogs to understand my experience.
As someone who has travelled a path of illness, I am happy to talk with others in an open, supportive way with their illness journey or the journey of a loved one.
Approaches to counselling that I use
CBT focuses on the thoughts that have brought about the problems the client is experiencing. The belief is that our thoughts predetermine our emotions and behaviours. Practising alternative thoughts through supportive behaviours is a key part of CBT work.
A lot of the material I use is CBT-based.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Person Centred Therapy
PCT is the primary means of interaction used in counselling. PCT means that the client is the expert of the session. Through active listening, the therapist reflects with the client on the content and meaning of what they discuss in the session. This enables the client to resolve their issues using their resources.
PCT is the primary way I relate to clients in session work.
Choice Theory
CT emphasises that problems are the product of our choices. CT encourages developing personal accountability for our unhelpful choices and to start making positive choices. Positive choices result in positive relationships and the achievement of our basic needs.
I use choice theory when a client requires a direct style of intervention.
Solution Focused Therapy
SFT centres on the solutions to problems. The counselling discussion is not an investigation of the problem but a process of identifying solutions.
Coping strategies are identified, applied through practice outside of the session and reviewed in session afterwards.
SFT is best suited to short-term counselling. Also, in situations where the problem is not historically based, such as with crises.
