Child and play therapy for families in County Offaly

Offaly splits in two for us, and which half you are in changes the answer.

East Offaly

Portarlington is about twenty minutes away, and Edenderry around thirty-five. From that side of the county, weekly in-person therapy is straightforward — no more of a journey than many families inside Kildare make.

Tullamore is roughly forty minutes on a good run. That is a manageable weekly trip for most families, though worth thinking about in winter with a child who is tired after school.

West Offaly

Birr, Banagher and Ferbane are an hour or more. For a teenager at that distance we would usually suggest online sessions rather than a weekly round trip, and parent support can be online too.

Play therapy for younger children is in person only, so from west Offaly that means the full journey every week. It is worth deciding honestly whether that is sustainable before starting.

What we do

Play therapy for younger children, using the sand tray, figures and the room rather than asking a child to explain something they may not have words for. Psychotherapy for older children and teenagers. Ages roughly 4 to 18.

Sessions are 50 minutes, weekly, the same time each week.

We work with parents and foster carers alongside the child, either on their own or through our co-working model, where one therapist works with the child and another with the adult, in parallel.

You do not need a referral. Ring us directly.

For Tusla, carers and schools in Offaly

We take referrals from social workers, GPs, schools and Special Educational Needs Organisers, and we work with children in foster and residential care.

Where a placement is under strain, earlier referral is better than crisis referral. Work started when a placement is already wobbling is doing containment rather than therapy.

Training and consultation for carers and staff teams is available across the county, and travel matters much less for a block of training than for weekly sessions.

​Get in touch

Ring 085 711 5668 or email contact@safesteps.ie.

Abbey House, White Abbey Road, Kildare Town, Co. Kildare, R51 A589.

Where we work: Kildare · Laois · Carlow · Kilkenny · Dublin · Wicklow · Mullingar and Westmeath · Online sessions