COPING with stress is an essential part of your diabetes care. When you are under pressure, the body reacts by releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisone.

These hormones cause sugar to be released from the liver. Even though stress usually causes your blood sugar to rise, you may feel as though your blood sugar is low.

That is because adrenaline can cause many of the symptoms of low blood sugar. If you are not sure whether your blood glucose is rising or falling, test it to find out. Only then can you take the correct action.

How are you coping with Stress?

Are you:

• Struggling with yours or a family member’s, diabetes diagnosis
• Feeling Worried or Anxious
• Feeling Depressed
• Finding it Difficult to Cope with Daily Life

If you answer yes, you are likely to need a little help. We found many people in our community needed help therefore we added counselling, at an affordable price, to the list of services provided by our Care Centres.

Is Therapy for you?  How it can help?

Pauline Lynch is a private Counsellor.

“Through my work and extensive contact with people with diabetes, gained working for Diabetes Ireland for many years, I developed a strong interest in the emotional and behavioural aspects of the condition. I commenced training as a psychotherapist in 2014 and graduated in 2019.

I now work privately as a pre-accredited Psychotherapist/Counsellor with the Irish Association of Psychotherapists and Counsellors (IACP) and I have completed specific training in working with people with Type1 and Type 2 Diabetes, CBT for weight management, how to approach habit change for maximum success, anxiety, stress, grief work and much more”.

“Over time, I observed the struggle that people experience when attempting to live their lives with Diabetes. I am particularly interested in the lived experience and challenges of living with Type 1 diabetes. I have been facilitating a support group for teens with Type 1 diabetes for 16 years and have gained considerable insight from this work.

I also see that people can and will experience a range of emotions when either they or their loved ones get an initial diagnosis of diabetes. I offer to work with parents and families of children with a Type 1 diagnosis.

Our health system offers people prescriptive information and advice on how to approach the condition. However, for most people, taking all of this on board can be a very challenging ask. This is an area where counselling can help.

I have a collaborative and empathetic approach to help clients develop a greater sense of their own abilities and strengths. This then creates change and growth in their lives leading to better management of their health.

In addition to the above, I offer a general counselling service. I am particularly interested and trained in dealing with anxiety, stress, depression and in strengthening coping abilities. This is so critically important these days as we live in Covid times.

I am available for one to one support for people with Diabetes and the general public either in the counselling room in Cork Care Centre or nationally on Zoom at an affordable price”

If you have any further queries, please call 01 8426273 / 021 4274229 or complete the booking form below: