Deirdre Ward - Unlock

05/12/2025

Very powerful and true 💫❤️

23/12/2020

Thank You Everyone ✨🙏🏻

Love & Light ~ Deirdre Nicole

30/11/2020

❌I N N E R C R I T I C❌

This is such an insightful and important activity to do especially with adolescents to help their consciousness grow to the voice of their inner critic vs their true, authentic voice of reason and love.

We have approx 60,000-70,000 thoughts on a daily basis and quite often the majority of these can be negative, critical and that inner voice that loves to berate.

Catch your thoughts, silence your critical voice and allow the loving words and gentle comments to emerge. Practice and Patience 🙏🌟

24/11/2020

✨A D O L E S C E N T S ✨

Working with teenagers is such a rewarding part of my work, this age group can be so insightful and each one always always teaches me so much within our journey together.

It’s important that I as their therapist, research their interests, become more familiar with how it feels like and what it looks like being a teenager in today’s world. It has been some years since I was at that stage and this world moves so very fast that it is vital to stay connected and aware of what challenges adolescents face today. There is a lot of pressure on them so having a space to ‘offload’, to vent, to be more present to oneself and ones environment is comforting and healing.

Very often we begin with talk therapy, as many teenagers operate from their mind, however slowly we do become much more connected with the body, with emotions and thus incorporating creative methods that add fun, spontaneity and laughter.

19/11/2020

Deirdre Nicole 🙋🏻‍♀️💙


Seeing as the website and social media pages are getting a little refreshing/update, I’d like to take the opportunity to say hi and tell you a little bit more about myself.

I’m 32years of age from the hills of Donegal. I am a child and adolescent Psychotherapist specialising in Play Therapy. I attained my MA this year and I have a private practice in Donegal Town where I see clients from 3years of age right up to 18years of age. Prior to this I was a Primary School Teacher both in Ireland and internationally in Abu Dhabi for over 8years.

I am extremely passionate about my work as I have been on a pathway of healing and inner reflection for the last number of years. As an adoptee I realised that many wounds from that childhood trauma impacted me at a very early age and making sense and meaning of these was immensely difficult as there were no words or language associated with it at the time. I now realise why I thought, behaved and felt the way I did and as an adult it is the most rewarding feeling to have meaning, control and the awareness over these areas that were deeply imprinted in my makeup.

The work I do helps children, adolescents and adults gain this awareness, this compassion for self and others so that they too can feel lighter, more free and have inner peace. The work instills self confidence, coping skills, emotional intelligence and life skills that are invaluable.

I love the diversity of my work in how I provide training for companies, organisations and professionals, workshops and webinars for parents, sessions in the clinic for clients and also share my own truth and story with inner child healing work. I am currently developing a programme alongside Túsla that I believe will help adoptees, birth parents and adopted parents in resolving any residual wounds from the past so that they too can feel ‘unlocked’ and free in life to reach their full potential.

Watch this space, I hope to have the new website up and running very soon with lost of resources 🌟

19/11/2020

Check out this Online Inclusive Dance for Wellbeing Class by Louise O' Connor who is a yoga and dance instructor. This will be running for the next 4 weeks (ending with a Christmas themed special on December 14th). She has been running this class successfully for a number of services and it has been lots of fun with participants being able to dance at home with their carers or families. The classes are open for a range of ages and abilities to join, including wheelchair users and visually impaired participants.

Louise has developed this class through eight years working in Special Needs Services, and more recently exclusively with autistic adults. It is designed for stress release, fun and relaxation. Its a mini-disco of sorts,

The classes are on Monday evenings, 7pm and Tuesday mornings 11am. Contact Louise for more information at [email protected]

17/11/2020

A wee sneak preview of some of the BEAUTIFUL photos from the enjoyable photoshoot we had here at UNLOCK over a week ago. Thank you to the wonderfully talented Michael Gillespie for the photos 🤩😊 Website being Updated!!!! 🙏🏻✨❤️

16/11/2020

💚 Self Care Kits 💚

This morning I was organising a little self care kit for a 15year old I’m working with at the minute that is self harming.

Self harming is a coping approach that needs to be understood and to be normalised as not ‘wrong’. Yes of course it’s not ideal and not the most healthy technique to use however it is the person finding a way of releasing and purging feelings that are overwhelming, such as shame, guilt, anger, rage. It can also be a ritual that is linked with self loathing and from having very little self esteem or confidence.

It is essential to counteract this behaviour with nurturance, tending ‘to’, providing touch, love and gentleness to the body. Every behaviour and action is an attempt to soothe and release inner conflicts, tension and urges.

Be Curious. Be Loving. Be a Listening Ear. Be Present 🌟🙏

13/11/2020

This is so beautiful ❤️

Be Open,
Be Vulnerable,
Be Honest,
Be Curious,
Be You with your Children

'Act normal, don’t be silly, don’t bully lots of people' We brought together two people with a very large gap of 57 years between them and got them to ask ea...

12/11/2020

So excited to share my story, my work and my mission/passion as a guest speaker on the ‘Beyond the Physical’ podcast with Dan Glynn. I hope you enjoy listening to all things UNLOCK, Psychotherapy, Play Therapy, Deirdre Nicole, Teaching and Adoption ✨💛

Celebrating this today 🙋🏻‍♀️🎉✨

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ZVLhhw93fPwI9LAmb011v?si=T1nxd38eRNiKrg7R9VHESg

You can make anything happen if you believe in yourself, your vision and your mission as to why you’re on this Earth 💛 thank you

07/11/2020

Some behind the scenes from a fantastic photo shoot this afternoon for the new UNLOCK website that is currently in process! I had such wonderful models to help make the shots so playful and fun. Thanks to everyone who helped today. I’m definitely not changing career to become a model that’s for sure, a tough task ha ha and my cheeks are somewhat numb 🤣

Exciting times ahead, stay tuned!! ✨👍🙏🏻🍂💚🍁