Liam Cannon honoured for services to counselling profession

Liam Cannon, the Director of Counselling at the Pastoral Centre in Letterkenny, has been honoured with the Carl Berkeley Memorial Award by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP).

The importance of such services have been highlighted in the wake of the Creeslough explosion, which claimed ten lives. Mr Cannon was on site in Creeslough in the days after the blast and says his work with the community there will continue ‘for many months and years’.

At the seventh annual IACP conference in Galway, Mr Cannon also won the Northern Ireland Regional Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Counselling/Psychotherapy Field.

The national Carl Berkeley Memorial Award honours a member of the IACP who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of the counselling profession by creating or influencing counselling projects or counselling development work at local and national level. 

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“The heart of my work lies in the community,” Mr Cannon said.

“In recent days we have all witnessed the power of community following a very tragic event at a service station in Creeslough just 15 minutes from my home, where 10 people sadly lost their lives.  Our work with this community will go on for many months and years.

“I bring home two awards, the Carl Berkeley award and a Regional award, and for that I would like to thank the Northern Ireland Regional Committee for nominating me for this special award.”

Mr Cannon says that their services have grown so much in the last decade and they are now in the process of separating their services from the Church.

He said: “In May, I launched Tír Chonill Counselling and Psychotherapy Services. A huge thank you to the Board of Directors whose hard work helped to make this transition so smooth for our clients.”

He concluded his acceptance speech with a powerful poem written by a member of his counselling team, Sylvia Lennon ,who is also an IACP accredited therapist, entitled ‘The Essence of Community’ which opens with the line: ‘Community is the essence of every rural and Irish town, when your back is up against it, communities never let you down’.

Mr Cannon has been an IACP Accredited Member since 2007 and Accredited Supervisor since 2013.

His contribution include the facilitation of almost 7,000 counselling sessions delivered to children and adolescents since 2015.   

IACP Chief Executive Officer Lisa Molloy said: “Liam has made outstanding contributions to the counselling and psychotherapy profession and he is a very worthy recipient of the prestigious Carl Berkely Memorial Award. Liam has greatly enhanced the counselling and psychotherapy community in his region and well deserves the fullest recognition for winning this year’s Northern Ireland Regional Award.”