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Faoiseamh is an organisation which provides telephone counselling and a counselling and psychotherapy referral service
for people who have been sexually, physically or emotionally abused by priests or religious. We are an independent separate
legal company, limited by guarantee and not having a share capital with a registered office at Avila, Bloomfield Avenue,
Morehampton Road, Dublin 4. Faoiseamh is registered in Ireland with the company number 258842. Our aim
is to ensure that the people who contact us receive the best possible help and support in dealing with
the events of the past.
Funding
Faoiseamh is funded by CORI (the Conference of Religious in Ireland) and by a number of Catholic
dioceses. Neither CORI nor the dioceses have any involvement in the day-to-day running of
Faoiseamh, nor do they have access to any information held by Faoiseamh about clients.
Staff
Faoiseamh is staffed by lay professionals and referrals are only made to lay psychotherapists and counsellors.
Services
Free access to a helpline staffed by experienced Telephone Counsellors. This operates on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11.00 am - 8.00 pm, and on Fridays from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm. The number is Freephone 1800 331234 (Rep. of Ireland) and Freephone 0800 973272 (Northern Ireland and UK).
Contact with accredited psychotherapists in your area for face to face psychotherapy, with the fees arising being paid directly to your psychotherapist by Faoiseamh.
Provision of access to psychotherapists of immediate family members who may also be eligible for funding by Faoiseamh.
Unfortunately, Faoiseamh cannot pay for the following:
Home visits
Psychotherapy or counselling with an un-credited psychotherapist.
Medical expenses.
Psychiatric consultations.
Psychological reports for civil or criminal courts or tribunals.
Complimentary therapies such as massage or acupuncture.
Registering with Faoiseamh
To register with Faoiseamh for funding for counselling and psychotherapy, you need to telephone the
Helpline. The Telephone Counsellors are fully trained lay people, and they understand how difficult
it can be to speak about painful experiences. They will try to make the call as easy as possible for
you. To establish that you are eligible for funding, the Telephone Counsellor will need a number of
details about your experience, such as the location where the abuse took place and the congregation
or diocese involved.
If you find it too hard to make that first call, you can ask your counsellor or another trusted person
contact us on your behalf.
Reporting Abuse
In order to protect other children from abuse, we encourage everybody who contacts us to report their
experiences to the health services. If you decide to make a complaint, we can support you in this process.
If you give information which identifies an alleged abuser, we may be obliged to pass this information on
to the health services.
If psychotherapy is not working for you
Sometimes psychotherapy does not work out. There can be many reasons for this. For example, you may feel you
are not ready to deal with your experiences, or you may feel that you cannot work with a particular
psychotherapist. If your arrangements with your psychotherapist break down for any reason, you are welcome
to contact the Helpline and we will help you to re-engage with your present psychotherapist or to make contact
with a new psychotherapist.
Feedback
We are always delighted to get feedback from you on your experience of psychotherapy. This will help us to
ensure that our service is really meeting the needs of Faoiseamh's clients. We welcome your comments either by
telephone or in writing. If you wish, your feedback can be done anonymously.
Please feel free to contact us (please see 'Contact Us' page for details) at any time if you feel we can be of assistance to you or if you have any
questions or suggestions about Faoiseamh services.
Our aim is to ensure that the people who contact us receive the best possible help and support in dealing with the events of the past.
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