A Psychologist on a Mission
I’m Bryn O’Reilly, a clinical psychologist with ten years of experience. I offer therapy in English for adults, couples, families and teenagers (13+) at my practice in Quarteira, a short drive from Vilamoura, Loulé, Almancil, Albufeira and Faro. I also work online with clients across Portugal and with South Africans living abroad.
Therapy for Individuals, Couples, Families and Teenagers
Individual Counselling
Whether or not you’re living with a mental illness, adult life on its own can be taxing. I can help with challenges related to life transitions, anger management and self-esteem issues, as well as more severe concerns like anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder (see “Areas of clinical interest and expertise“).
Couples Counselling
Relationships can be incredibly rewarding, but they take constant work to stay that way. Difficulties with communication, sex, intimacy, work and money are common, even among “healthy” couples. I can help you and your partner understand what is happening between you and find a better way of being together.
Family Counselling
Family bonds are among the most enduring and significant relationships of our lives. That said, sometimes things go horribly wrong between the people we love most. I can help you and your family find stability again by providing a safe space to come together, where each person can speak freely, listen and feel heard, so that underlying issues can be resolved.
Teenagers (13+)
Adolescence is confusing at best, and it’s often when mental health first starts to take strain. Self-esteem, identity, shifting friendships, first relationships and bullying can all arrive at once, alongside a growing need for independence from parents and caregivers. That’s a lot! I offer teenagers a confidential space to make sense of it all, because sometimes talking to an adult, rather than just a friend, can help.
Why Work With Me?
I trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and have ten years of experience, including work in hospital psychiatric units.
My work is backed by eight years of professional supervision, in which I review my practice with a senior colleague. I also keep studying: I read widely in psychology and follow new treatments and developments in neuropsychology.
I shape the therapy around you and what you want to change, and we work on it together.
I have been in psychotherapy myself for ten years, as long as I have practised it, so I know what it is like to sit in the other chair.
I welcome people of every background, culture and identity.
I value your privacy and operate under strict confidentiality with strong privacy protocols.
A Case for Psychotherapy in a Chaotic World
People often seek psychotherapy when they are experiencing emotional pain that they are finding difficult to manage or resolve on their own. Being human can be hard in an unpredictable, fast-paced world, where things do not always go as planned.
Trusting another person with your distress is an act of great vulnerability. As the relationship between you and your therapist takes shape, the steady attention given to your experience can help you listen to your emotional life and make sense of it. Over time, that understanding can help you respond differently and begin to work through the problems that brought you to therapy. This is one way psychotherapy can ease emotional suffering.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
I have come to believe that most people want to change something about the feelings, thoughts and behaviours that trouble them most. What holds them back is rarely a lack of will. More often it is not knowing how to change, or where to begin.
As a psychologist, I am trained to notice the natural ‘fault lines’ in a person’s thinking and behaviour. By bringing these blind spots to your attention, sensitively and at the right moment, I help you regain a sense of agency over your emotional life.
Therapy is guided by how the two of us relate to each other over time, so that the therapy itself becomes a microcosm for meaningful change out in the world. Together we bring curiosity and attention to your emotional world, and from there you begin to change how you relate to yourself, to the people close to you, and to the circumstances of your life.
New Beginnings…
From here, you begin to apply your renewed self-awareness to the parts of your life that need attention, and to try new ways of acting that are more satisfying, mature and useful than the old ones. This marks an important shift in therapy, from listening and learning to actively changing.
This phase is not without anxiety, because it asks you to do something differently in the world: saying “No” for the first time, perhaps, or asking for a need to be met. Soon enough, though, it tends to bring real relief from the circumstances that have been holding you back.
Towards the end, we make any final adjustments, so that you can consolidate the ways of feeling you prefer and, importantly, learn how to sustain them, before we bring the therapy to a close together.
