World Mental Health Day 2025
World Mental Health Day: 10th October, 2025
Loneliness in Ireland and the Power of Community
by Harriet Healy
How Counselling Can Help Us Reconnect
This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day is ‘Community’, a timely focus as Ireland faces rising levels of loneliness and social disconnection. Loneliness is not always visible, but it is widespread.
A 2024 European survey showed that 20% of Irish adults feel lonely most or all of the time, the highest in Europe. From young adults to retirees, people across the country are struggling to find connection, even in our most connected age.
At Knock Counselling Centre, we believe that community and connection are at the core of mental well-being. Loneliness is not just about being alone, it is about feeling unseen, unheard, or unvalued. And this Mental Health Week, we want to open the door to healing that begins with both self-awareness and shared belonging.
What Does Loneliness Look Like?
Loneliness can take different forms:
Emotional loneliness: missing deep personal bonds.
Social loneliness: feeling excluded from wider networks or groups.
It can show up in a crowded office, a busy family home, or while scrolling endlessly through social media. The experience is often tied to shame, making it difficult to talk about. But the more we open up, the more we realise: we are not alone in feeling lonely.
Why Is It Getting Worse?
Even with strong employment and education levels, Ireland is facing a hidden epidemic of disconnection. Key factors include:
o Post-pandemic social withdrawal
o Youth loneliness, especially among digital natives
o Lack of accessible community spaces
o Poor urban design and public transport
o Social stigma that keeps people from seeking help.
All of these issues point to one solution: we need stronger, more inclusive communities.
What Are the Mental Health Effects?
Loneliness has serious implications for mental and physical health. It is associated with:
o Depression and anxiety
o Chronic stress and poor sleep
o Heart disease and lowered immunity
o Reduced confidence and increased self-blame
At its core, loneliness undermines our sense of belonging, something essential for psychological well-being. That is where therapy and community-based interventions can work together.
Counselling: A Place to Reconnect
Counselling offers more than just coping tools. It is a place where people can:
Talk openly about loneliness without shame.
Understand whether they need deeper connection, broader community, or both.
Explore how life events, environment, and culture have shaped their sense of isolation.
Build the skills to reconnect with others and with themselves.
For many clients, the counselling relationship itself is the first step back into connection.
Rebuilding Community Through Therapy
As Mental Health Week approaches, we invite you to see therapy not just as individual support, but as part of a wider community response to loneliness. Our work connects people to:
Social prescribing: linking clients with community groups, walking clubs, or Men’s Sheds
Local support services for youth, older adults, and those facing transitions
· A growing awareness that mental health is not just personal, it is relational and collective.
We also help clients understand that loneliness is not a personal failing. Sometimes it is the result of social systems, rural infrastructures and cultural pressures. By seeing these patterns, clients feel less shame and more empowered.
Let’s Build a Culture of Connection
This Mental Health Week, let's take real steps toward a more connected Ireland. Here’s how we can all contribute:
Start the conversation - Talk about loneliness without judgment
Create space - Check in with someone who might be feeling isolated
Join or build community – From choirs to GAA to coffee meetups, every little counts
· Reach out for support – Sometimes, community starts in the therapy room.
At Knock Counselling Centre, we believe that healing begins in connection, with a therapist, with community, and most importantly, with yourself.
If loneliness is affecting your well-being, or someone you love is struggling in silence, we are here to help. We can be contacted by calling 094 9375032 or emailing: counsellingoffice@knockshrine.ie
Let’s use this Mental Health Week to do more than raise awareness. Let’s build communities of care, courage, and connection.
