Therapy centre to Blossom in new central location

Síofra Grant

“I’m standing out here on April 10, 2026 about to open our new premises on the main street of Mullingar,” said Maura Carey, owner of Cherry Blossom Therapy.

Maura decided to move her clinic when she realised patients were finding the trek to her original location too far. The launch in the town was busy with supporters, Maura’s co-workers, and her daughters Malaika and Nia.

The door was adorned with balloons in green white and pink, with little branches sticking out. The decorations were very on theme. Walking into the practice is the complete opposite of the stereotypic psychotherapy clinic.

Each room is fitted with soft furniture, walls painted in deep jewel tones and the smell of incense and candles wafted through the building.

Upstairs, there are rooms for children, with a sandbox and a wall with toys, and a waiting room that feels more like a sitting room; on the table sat a beautiful cake with little cherry blossoms painted on the sides in icing.

Following a few moments for guests to mill about and view the facilities, it was time to cut the ribbon.

“I started up in 2013 in a cabin in Killucan and from there I moved to a building out in Killucan. Mental health is always a side street business where you’re keeping it under wraps and don’t let people know that you come to therapy.

“But here we are in the centre of Mullingar cutting the ribbon for mental health and breaking the stigma around mental health.”

Maura’s effort to break the stigma has worked well in the few weeks since the new premises opened for business. “We’d been seeing about 130 people a week in Killucan. We were taking on an average of 40 new people per week since we opened our doors.”

The move to the larger town did not happen overnight. “I’ve been looking for about two years for a good building in Mullingar.

“I had to try a couple of business parks but I really want to be more central.

“And honestly there’s so much stigma around mental health and I wanted to have a practice where people can see it and maybe somehow break the stigma of seeking support.”

Maura aims to make services aimed at adolescent patients more affordable for parents. “It’s a bit of a difference considering the price of child and adolescent psychotherapy because it’s such a niche field. I’d love to be able to find a way to lower costs for people accessing child and adolescent psychotherapy, but it’s difficult to even get child and adolescent psychotherapists.” Maura has a plan to tackle that hosting training programmes at Cherry Blossom.

She is also offering employers in Mullingar free training courses. “We’ve got in contact with a lot of business and we’ve asked them to fill in some research on mental health in the workplace – we got more than 100 responses back.

“We’re gathering information and we’re giving free training to two members of each business in Mullingar to support staff mental health. I’m delighted to be able to offer this and I’m hoping to be able to offer it to more businesses and perhaps different kinds of organisations as well.

“So, it’s free training, it’s at the end of April for whatever business wants to show up.”

Maura is writing a book on her experience with mental health. “It’s my life story and I guess one of the reasons I set up Cherry Blossom is when I was a teenager I really struggled quite badly with my mental health.

“At the time, the support wasn’t great and I went into a really clinical setting. It was a white room with a big table with two people sitting behind it and they said, ‘Well what’s wrong with you?’.

“When they said that to me I completely shut down, and even though I really needed help I never spoke up, I never told them what was wrong. I remember saying to myself years later, ‘when I grow up I’m going to help’.

“Cherry Blossom is born from someone that had struggled with their mental health and family dynamics and family history. That’s given me the guts to step up and support others.”

Cherry Blossom (on Pearse Street, Mullingar) has 38 therapists available to patients; see cherryblossomtherapy.ie.