Testimonials

“After talking to you I feel good. I feel I have got rid of all of that stuff that has been building up inside me. I have been going over and over it and I just couldn't release it but I have today. I feel I will be able to get my strength back again… I will not always be in this trapped world of tiredness and unhappiness. I will be able to get back to my now functioning level and this is ok for me. My 'new normal'.”

“Coming together in a group here at the Foundation really helps with the bereavement end. You hear other people and realise we are all sort of the same. Sometimes you wonder if you are going mad, but then you realise other people feel these things as well. Coming to the Foundation has helped me with my emotions and how to help my children with theirs after their mother dying. I have found strength in talking to other families who have lost a loved one to suicide. I know I'm not on my own and we will get through this and recover.”

“As soon as I knew there was somewhere like the Foundation to go where I didn't have to talk to my friends or family, like even when you told me to just come in and make myself a cup of coffee, I wouldn't have cared if there wasn't anybody sitting at that kitchen table. The Foundation was just somewhere to come that I had never had before, that wasn't a family member or a friend. It was somewhere that I wasn't loading my stuff onto their lives to make them worry about me. The dropping in and out suits me. I feel I'm coping much better now when I am with other families bereaved by suicide and I can talk openly with someone without feeling judged.”

“Coming to the Niamh Louise Foundation was a life saver. I had been thinking of suicide and self-harm and I thought I would say a prayer and ask for help and within 5 or 10 minutes I had phoned the doctor and told them about my thoughts and they saw me straight away in the surgery. I have no idea with my legs how I got into the surgery but the doctor told me about the Foundation and I rang and you saw me the next day. The crisis response team called me and suggested the Foundation as well. These last 4-5 weeks, since telling my story, I have been feeling much better and more content. I know it's a rocky journey but I'm trying and saying my prayers daily and that keeps me going.”

“It was just the talking in here that helped me. Just talking and listening and knowing you were here and cared. There is such a difference between what you all do here in the Foundation and counselling. The Foundation has a softer approach and it's non-judgmental.”

“I was at the worst I'd ever been. The darkness and the pain. The fear and the loneliness. Those were the worst aspects. I was in a big dark black hole that I didn't think I could live through. An accumulation of years of hurt, crumbling into a crisis. That was until I found The Niamh Louise Foundation. Here I found my safe space, and my hope to continue. A place where my fears weren't deemed irrational but instead realistic to me. A place where I not only found coping mechanisms for my anxiety but a support system and friends for life.”