Obituaries

Ursula O’Farrell obituary: Pioneer of the counselling movement in Ireland

O’Farrell was a hugely influential figure in the profession and wrote many seminal texts

Ursula O’Farrell died peacefully at home on January 6th, 2022

Sat Feb 19 2022 - 00:05

Ursula O’Farrell Born: May 24th, 1934 Died: January 6th, 2022

Ursula O’Farrell, author, lecturer and pioneer of the counselling movement in Ireland has died. Limerick born, O’Farrell (nee Cussen) co-founded the Irish Association of Counselling (now the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) in 1981 at a time when counselling wasn’t recognised as a profession and people didn’t fully understand its benefits.

When O’Farrell started working as a counsellor in private practice in Sandymount, Dublin in the early 1980s, there was still a huge stigma attached to the idea of seeking psychological support for personal problems. At that time, counselling was mainly provided by voluntary addiction or family agencies or marriage guidance services linked to the Christian churches. There weren’t any nationally recognised standards or training or professional bodies to be accredited to.

I loved every busy minute of it...When I first began to speak of myself as a counsellor, several people asked if I was an elected county councillor

O’Farrell went on to be an influential figure in counselling in Ireland, setting up and running the first Irish Association of Counselling (IAC) course in counselling skills in 1984 with counsellor Celia Homan from the Hanly Centre for Addiction in Dún Laoghaire. She also worked hard to establish high standards for counselling whilst supporting fellow counsellors in their practice.

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Her first book, First Steps in Counselling (first published by Veritas in 1988 and now in its fourth edition) was sensitive to Irish people’s experiences of guilt and inhibition and became the seminal text for counselling courses in Ireland over the next 35 years. Farrell was also pivotal in the publication of the IAC’s guide to counselling and therapy (1991) which was the first comprehensive directory of counsellors and therapists in Ireland.

Her book, Considering Counselling: The Person Centred Approach (Veritas, 1998) introduced Irish audiences to the work of American humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers. Courage to Change: The Counselling Process (Veritas, 1999) sought to make counselling more accessible, and in it she wrote, “counselling demands courage of both the counsellor and the client. The client is asked to share her dreams, to explore her relationships and to embark on change – of self, attitude and response. The counsellor is challenged to sit with chaos and pain, accept uncertainty and to create safety and acceptance for this stranger”.

Ursula O’Farrell wrote Families in Focus: Finding Solutions to Difficult Problems with Sarah Mc Loughlin (right). Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Known for her tireless work with families and voluntary groups seeking resolution to their difficulties, O’Farrell co-wrote (with Sarah McLoughlin) Families in Focus: Finding Solutions to Difficult Problems (Veritas, 2007). In 2011 she was awarded the Carl Berkeley Memorial Award, an annual award which honours those who made an outstanding contribution to the development of counselling and psychotherapy in Ireland.

Throughout her long career, she was as much a trainer as a practicing counsellor. She tutored on the extra mural adult education counselling skills programme, which was first available in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and then throughout Ireland. Mary Ryan, the current director of this programme at Adult Education Maynooth, described O’Farrell as a “leader of the transformative impact of counselling and therapy in Ireland. She was generous, passionate, skilled and wise and we benefited from her clarity, humour, intellect and deep commitment to equality, social justice and spirituality”. O’Farrell also worked as a counselling tutor at the Liberties College in Dublin and as a tutor and supervisor in the Tivoli Institute in Dún Laoghaire.

Born one of seven children to Robert and Kathleen Cussen, solicitors in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, Ursula attended Laurel Hill School in Limerick and completed a degree in economic science at University College Dublin in 1956.

She met her husband to be, Myles Farrell – who later became a well-known journalist and trade unionist – when they were studying at UCD. The couple married in Rome in 1959 and lived first in Ballsbridge, later in Sandymount, where they brought up their nine children – including two sets of twins – Denis, Donal, Elizabeth Ann, Monica, Gabriel, Ursula, Inez, Joseph and Michael. In the 1960s Ursula and Myles ran a study group from their home in which they provided guidance and encouragement to ambitious young men and women seeking to move on from jobs they were unhappy in.

When Myles died in 1975, she kept her young family together, supporting and encouraging them to make their own choices in life and always welcoming their friends into the family home.

In 1979 O’Farrell moved to Booterstown and in 1980 she returned to UCD to study for a two-year diploma in psychology while beginning to work in the counselling sector. At the time, she said, “I was a fledging counsellor...It was thrilling, I loved every busy minute of it...but it was terrifying too. When I first began to speak of myself as a counsellor, several people asked if I was an elected county councillor”.

O’Farrell continued to work as a counsellor in private practice until her early eighties. In 2011 she compiled and published Looking Towards the Past: Topical Talks of the 1960s, based on a selection of 30 five-minute RTÉ radio broadcasts by her late husband, Myles O’Farrell.

She enjoyed time with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, only offering words of wisdom when asked for her opinion. A practicing Catholic throughout her long life, she was, however, frustrated by the lack of equality for women in the Catholic church. She also travelled widely visiting India, China, Russia, Armenia, Turkey, Jordan, Australia, Canada and many European countries.

O’Farrell spent the last two years of her life, living with and being cared for by her daughter Ursula and her family in Sandymount. She died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family on January 6th, Nollaig na mBan, a day which she marked every year with family and friends.

Ursula O’Farrell (nee Cussen) is survived by her children, Denis, Donal, Lizann, Monica, Gabriel, Ursula, Inez, Joseph and Michael, her siblings, Pan, Cliodhna, Bobby, John and Ruth, 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her husband, Myles Farrell pre-deceased her in 1975 and her sister, Lorna, died as a young child.

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