History

The Towards Healing Counselling and Support Service reflects the commitment of the Catholic Church in the thirty two counties of Ireland to meet the support needs of survivors of Religious, Institutional and Clerical Abuse and their families. The Towards Healing Counselling and Support Service was established in February 2011.

The service took over from the Faoiseamh service, which provided counselling from 1996 to 2011.

Since 1996 almost 7,000 people have been supported by both Faoiseamh and Towards Healing and over 460,000 counselling sessions have been provided.

Our primary client group are adult men and women who have experienced physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect in childhood, perpetrated by a priest, brother, religious sister, or volunteer or employee of the Catholic Church.  

Our secondary group are relatives of survivors of abuse*, specifically spouses, partners, and children.  In addition, siblings of survivors may be referred for therapy in order to come to terms with disclosure.