A professional certificate titled 'Slieve Bloom Therapy' awarded to Ruth Finane, featuring a row of colorful illustrated flowers on a yellow background.
Wooden bookshelf filled with various household items, including board games, bottles, cosmetics, and miscellaneous objects, next to a yellow plastic bag and a green cylindrical object on the floor.
Table with various arts and crafts supplies, including paint bottles, brushes, a mixing palette, a large bowl, containers with colored materials, a tissue box, and decorative masks.
A playroom with shelves filled with toys, a rocking chair, a table with a sand or play surface, and various toys scattered around. The room has bunting hanging on the wall and a small lamp in the corner.
A cluttered tabletop with household items including a pack of baby wipes, glue bottles, a roll of tape, a small container, a spray can, and various craft supplies.

Welcome to Slieve Bloom Therapy

At Slieve Bloom Therapy, I support children and teenagers through life’s challenges with warmth, creativity, and evidence-based care.

Based in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, I serve families across the west of Ireland.

For children aged 4–12, I offer Play Therapy, a gentle, effective way for young people to express themselves, process feelings, and grow in confidence through the language of play.

For pre-teens and teenagers aged 12–19, I combine creative therapies like Sand, Art, and Clay with Mindfulness, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). These approaches help young people explore emotions safely, develop coping skills, and build resilience.

Whatever your child or teen is facing at home, at school, or within themselves, Slieve Bloom Therapy offers a safe space to be heard, understood, and supported.

An artist's workspace with various paintbrushes, tubes of paint, jars of blue paint, a palette with dried paint, a mug, a smartphone, a small canvas with a blue and orange abstract painting, and rocks with a small easel on a wooden table.
Colorful assortment of toy figures, building blocks, and coloring supplies arranged on a wooden surface with the word 'FRIENDS' spelled out in Scrabble tiles in the center.
A large pile of assorted colorful LEGO bricks and pieces scattered randomly.

What is Play Therapy?    

Play therapy is an approach in which a trained Psychotherapist who has specialised in Play Therapy, uses the therapeutic powers of play and creativity to assist a child or adolescent who is experiencing persistent difficulty. Play therapy is a form of Psychotherapy. It uses psychological methods, based on regular personal interactions to help a person overcome problems in desired ways. Psychotherapy aims to increase an individual’s well being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviours, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social functioning.

Woman sitting on a blue couch in a room with a bookshelf filled with small toys and figurines, and a window with trees outside.

Hello, and thank you for visiting my website. My name is Ruth Finane, and I am a child and adolescent psychotherapist specialising in Play Therapy. I am passionate about supporting the emotional well-being, development, and resilience of children and teenagers. I know choosing the right therapist for your child is an important decision, so I’d like to share a little about myself, my journey, and how I work with young people.

My Journey into Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
My journey began when I first completed a therapeutic play skills course. I was fascinated by how play therapy can create real therapeutic change, and this curiosity inspired me to continue my studies. I went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Care, followed by a four-year Master’s in Creative Psychotherapy and Play Therapy.

Along the way, I trained and worked in schools, clinics, and community outreach programmes, where I witnessed just how powerful early intervention and compassionate support can be in a young person’s life. I am Garda Vetted and insured, attend regular supervision, and I am an accredited member of the Irish Association for Play Therapy and Psychotherapy (IAPTP).

My Approach to Therapy
Every child is unique, and every family brings its own strengths, culture, and story. My style as a therapist is warm, empathetic, and genuine, always grounded in unconditional positive regard. I draw from a range of evidence-based approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), play therapy, attachment-based techniques, and mindfulness, so that each session is tailored to your child’s individual needs.

I believe children and adolescents flourish when they feel seen, heard, and understood. My aim is to create a safe, non-judgmental space where young people can express their thoughts, feelings, and worries freely. Building trust is central to my work, as I know that a genuine and respectful relationship often provides the foundation for positive change.

  • Play therapy helps children make sense of their world and build the emotional tools they need to thrive. It supports children in:

    • Building resilience to face life’s challenges

    • Developing emotionally and reaching their full potential

    • Understanding their thoughts, feelings, and experiences

    • Growing in confidence and self-esteem

    • Recovering from developmental or emotional setbacks

    • Processing confusing emotions or upsetting events

    • Communicating at their own pace, in their own way

    • Gain confidence and a stronger sense of self

    • Reduce anxiety, fear, or emotional overwhelm

    • Learn to manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

    • Explore and reprocess difficult or traumatic life experiences

    • Discover healthier ways to cope and express themselves

    • Get tailored support for learning difficulties or additional needs

    • Build a clearer, more secure understanding of the world around them

  • Play is a child’s natural expression so in a child centred session you will see the child playing. Creative psychotherapy is used with adolescents, including sand work, clay, art, visualisations, and mindfulness are used.

    • In the playroom the rule is that the child or adolescent can play or be creative in almost any way they want if it is safe.

    • There will be a wide selection of toys and creative materials available to the client to use as they wish.

    • These allow the client to express him/herself without necessarily using verbal expression.

  • The therapist will draw on their extensive training, knowledge, and experience to:

    • Read the play or creative work and draw the client’s attention to their choices, decisions, and actions.

    • Note difficulties and stuck places and support any changes the child/adolescent makes in their play or creative work relating to these places.

    • Communicate emotional support by giving aware attention.

    • Communicate understanding of the client’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

    • Support the client in using their symbolic world to show the issue or difficulty and develop and practice changes for bringing into their outside world.

  • The following may be helpful in deciding to choose play therapy as an intervention:

    1. A difficulty is persistent.

    2. The child shows lack of self-esteem or loss of confidence.

    3. The child or adolescent is observed to be struggling with something for a long time or failing to recover from an issue or event including big or small traumas.

    4. The child or adolescent appears ‘stuck’ in some way – perhaps cycles of behaviour problems.

    5. Relationships are in difficulty.

    6. The child or adolescent has become withdrawn / unusually quiet / is acting out aggressively / unable to regulate / or is displaying unusual or persistent changes of behaviour which appear unhelpful / problematic.

    7. Reports from school or from other groups indicate problems.

    8. A child or adolescent has been assessed as having a difficulty and play therapy/psychotherapy is recommended.

    9. A parent wishes to promote their child’s holistic development.

  • When there are difficulties which bring about new life situations, or which are going to become on-going life situations:

    • After a traumatic experience

    • During or after Separation / Divorce

    • Loss – Death – Suicide – Loss of mobility or loss of mobility of a parent

    • When being bullied or when bullying

    • Illness – Post illness involving the child, a parent or close relative.

    • Coping with a special need or organic difficulty

    • Needing support for dealing with a developmental delay

    • Dealing with emotional or behavioural issues

  • A wooden shelf displaying various superhero and toy figures, including characters from The Incredibles, Spider-Man, Superman, and other action figures, with some animals and miscellaneous toys.

  • Collection of toy figures and objects on a wooden shelf, including dragons, animals, skull, pink bear, and various other toys.

  • A collection of small decorative figurines and miniatures on a wooden shelf, including rocks, mini houses, animal figurines, and lighthouse models.

  • Toy figurines arranged on a wooden shelf, including Peppa Pig, children figures in various colors, a Superman figure, horses, and dinosaur toys.

  • A collection of toy dinosaur figurines displayed on a wooden shelf, including various types and colors.

  • A large wooden dollhouse with a green exterior, brown roof, and white and brown window and door frames, positioned under a wooden table with toys on top, including a wooden truck and lamp.

  • A playroom with toys, a blue exercise ball, a wooden shelf with baskets and toys, a small table with a lamp, and a pink chair. The wall has a string of burlap bunting.

  • A cozy room with a dark gray sofa, a wooden chair, and a shelf filled with toys and decorations. There are large windows with a view outside, a potted plant, and bunting hanging on the wall.

  • A box of Aftermaters! emotion cards and a cloth bag labeled "Adolescent Emotion Cards" on a wooden surface.

  • Room with a sandbox table, bookshelf, desk with chair, couch, fan, and large window.

  • Colorful stress balls with face expressions and colored yarn hair on a wooden surface, alongside a basket of multicolor clothespins, a woven bag, a microphone, and a basket of miscellaneous toys and items.

  • Collection of various animal and fantasy figurines on a wooden table, including a dragon, a white horse, a bunny, and a black dog, with small houses and decorative items.

  • Five children's books with colorful covers on a wooden table, featuring drawings of animals and children. One book titled "The Day the Sea Went Out and Never Came Back" shows a whale. Another titled "A Wibble Called Bippy (and a few Hons!)" has cartoon characters and a large red ball. There are also books titled "Teenie Weenie in a Too Big World" and "A Niffler Called Nevermind."

  • Colorful illustrated book cover with animals having a picnic outdoors, string lights above, and the phrase 'Eat, play, love' written at the top.

  • A cozy room decorated with bunting banners, containing shelves filled with toys and books, a rocking chair, a glass display case, a blue exercise ball, a desk with supplies, and various chairs.

“Enter into children’s play and you will find the place where their minds, hearts and souls meet.”
— Virginia Axline
“There are many experiences in childhood in which children feel they have little or no control. Play is children’s way of working out balance and control in their lives.”
— Garry Landreth
“
Play Therapy is based upon the fact that play is the child’s natural medium of self-expression. It is an opportunity which is given to the child to ‘play out’ his feelings and problems just as, in certain types of adult therapy, an individual can ‘talk out’ his difficulties.
”
— Virginia Axline

Contact me.

Send me an email or enquire at 0852858752.