The Irish Women’s Service is a specialist mental health initiative offering free counselling and therapy for Irish women and women of Irish descent living in London. As our longest-running service, it has supported generations of Irish women — including those from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland — to heal, reconnect, and grow.
We understand that being far from home can bring up deep feelings about identity, belonging, and heritage. Our BACP therapists and counsellors offer a safe and understanding space for you to explore how your Irish culture and background shape your life experiences.
This intercultural approach helps women process transgenerational trauma — the impact of experiences passed down through families, such as migration, institutional abuse, or loss. Many of the women we support are daughters or granddaughters of immigrants who still carry emotional scars from their parents’ or grandparents’ pasts.
We also work with Traveller women, multi-heritage women, and survivors of institutional abuse, recognising how being part of a minoritised group can add extra layers of isolation and pain. Our London therapists provide sensitive, trauma-informed support to help you find strength, identity, and hope again.
Our service welcomes Irish women of every faith (or none), race, sexual orientation, and neurotype. We know that Irish identity is beautifully complex and diverse. Whether you’ve lived in London for years or recently arrived, our counselling services help you reconnect with your sense of self while healing from gender-based violence, abuse, trauma, or loss.
This has always been a service run by Irish women, for Irish women — a place where shared understanding makes space for healing and belonging.
You can access our free counselling if you:
If you think you qualify, simply tick the Irish Women’s Service box on our referral form or contact us for more information.
We are deeply thankful to the Emigrant Support Programme of the Irish Government for their continued support. Their commitment has allowed us to keep offering this vital free therapy to Irish women in London for many years.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh — thank you from all of us at The Maya Centre.
Women aged 18+ in North London boroughs. We welcome and prioritise women who have experienced domestic abuse, violence, rape, child sex abuse, trauma, discrimination, survivors of abuse or violence, women from minoritised communities, refugees, disabled women, LGBTQ+ women, and migrants. If you’ve experienced abuse, violence, trauma, or discrimination, you are very welcome here.
Children or animals (except guide dogs or certified support animals) cannot accompany you to the centre.
No. You can self-refer directly – please see our referrals page, otherwise referrals can be made by a GP, a support worker, or other organisations, but this is optional. We process referrals on a first come, first served basis.
Primarily, clients from minoritised communities with trauma from domestic violence, abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual violence and abuse, are prioritised in line with our funding criteria. We also prioritise women on low incomes with a household income of less than £30K.
Provision for those experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, low self-worth, and stress can be provided where we have funding capacity, otherwise we will refer you on to services that do or back to your referrer or GP.
Since we encourage face to face sessions, we do have lift access for those with mobility issues.
We are a charity, so we aim to keep therapy as accessible as possible.
Sessions are free and length of counselling contracts depends on funding criteria. Though sessions are free at the point of service to the client, it costs the centre £95+ per session to deliver one counselling session. Therefore, cancellations and DNAs come at a great cost to the centre in terms of time, money and resources.
Once you get in touch:
If we are full, we will be honest about waiting times and help you look at other options if needed.
Yes. All therapists are fully qualified, trauma-informed, and professionally supervised. We also have monitored and supervised trainees who are on placement.
Yes. All our therapists are qualified professionals and are trained in trauma-informed, survivor-centred therapy.
They understand how abuse, racism, poverty, migration, disability, and inequality can affect mental health. You are not expected to explain or justify your experiences.
Yes. What you share is confidential, with limited safeguarding exceptions. The only time we may need to share information is if there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else. If this ever came up, we would always try to talk with you about it first.
Yes. Demand can be high and waiting times fluctuate. We aim to not exceed six months of waiting times -this is why we ask people to consider readiness for therapy and to support the referral process. By providing up to date availability, specific counsellor matching requests (if preferred and upon availability) and to not accept an offer of assessment or sessions if you feel you are not going to be ready when contacted after referring/being referred ensures that the waiting list moves quickly. See ‘What helps speed up the process of making a client referral?’ below.
That is okay. You may feel unsure at first and this is a normal feeling. If you think that after making the referral and when we contact you to offer an assessment appointment, you are not ready for therapy please let us know by responding quickly so that the space can be offered to someone else.
If you do start sessions, you do not have to know what to say or where to start once you are in the room. Therapy can move at your pace, and you are always in control of what you share.
Please watch our video on the home page ‘ What to Expect From Therapy at The Maya Centre’ as this will help you decide on whether to access therapy now or wait until you feel certain.
