Joe Heffernan honoured for his outstanding dedication
THE immense contribution that Boherbue-based Joe Heffernan has made during his long and distinguished career as a counsellor and psychotherapist has been honoured with a national award by the field’s governing body.
This after Mr Heffernan was awarded the 2018 Carl Berkeley Memorial Award by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (ICAP), joining an elite groups of less than a dozen people to have received the prestigious award since its establishment.
The award honours ICAP members who, in the words of the organisation, ‘ have made an outstanding contribution to the development of the counselling profession by creating or influencing projects or counselling development work at local and national level’.
Nominees for the award, which is named in honour of one of the most influential and respected figures to have ever graced the field of Irish psychotherapy, are judged under a strict set of criteria by an expert panel of their peers. Award recipients must have shown excellent professional and ethical standards, demonstrated creativity during their careers through their research and work practises and be recognised as leaders within their field.
Mr Heffernan will be a well known figure to many Cork people through his weekly advice slot on Patricia Messinger’s C103 FM Cork Today show which has been running for the past 20-years.
In addition to running his own successful practice in Boherbue, the Fermoy native also conducts regular outreach presentations to schools and community groups across the north Cork region addressing subjects including bereavement, self-esteem, addiction, depression and self harm.
He also runs a Critical Incident Stress Management programme at University College Cork accredited by the University of Maryland in the USA.
Speaking to The Corkman, Mr Heffernan said he felt both “privileged and honoured” to have been awarded ICAP’s highest accolade. “To be honest I was thrilled to have been nominated for the award by the ICAP southern committee in the first place. To say I was surprised when I learned I had won the award would be something of an understatement,” he admitted.
“This is a huge honour for me and would have not been possible without the support of so many people who have helped me along the way, in particular my wife, Mary, and family,” he added.