Dave (not his real name)"Eight years ago I had a physical and mental breakdown and I was left with paranoid schizophrenia and homicidal and suicidal tendencies, noises in my head and a severe pain that could only be described as being like a pressure cooker.
"I had to go into a dark room for a few hours in the evening to get some relief. I was put in and out of a couple of institutions, St Loman's and St Brendan's. I didn't know what way I was going to look into the future because I was under severe stress. I was thinking of wanting to drive my car off a pier or into a tree with my kids and family in the car.
My wife saw Maureen on The Late Late Show and there was a chap on the show with her who had similar problems to me. I tracked Maureen down and came down and she took me on. I was lucky enough that from the first treatment Maureen gave me, when I went home a few hours later, I couldn't believe that the pressure cooker had been released and I was feeling calm and relaxed. It was unbelievable. The tendencies for suicide and homicide had subsided and they haven't come back."
Kate (25), from Kilkenny
"Maureen basically saved my life. I've been suicidal for 10 years. I was 15 when I took my first overdose. I started starving myself for two years - I was five stone. I was always trying to get rid of myself and to die. I started to drink fairly heavily and five years ago they put me into the label of being an alcoholic. I didn't want to live. I couldn't cope with my head, I just hated myself. My head was racing but it was a pressure cooker as well."
Kate made numerous visits to detox centres and spent 10 weeks at one addiction centre.
"I came out, got into my car, got a bottle of vodka, got another bottle of vodka, and wrote off my car and assaulted a guard. I ended up in the psychiatric for two months. The self-harm was getting worse - I had started to cut my body, my legs, my face, my arms, trying to get some relief and just all this hatred inside me and torment.
"I had tried everything. I was just going to end it. I was probably going to drink myself to death or end my life.
"Three months ago Mammy brought me down here and I met Maureen and it was just unbelievable. She didn't label me into an alcoholic. She listened to my voice and she saw the bigger picture. Something inside my head said 'it's going to be okay'.
"When I get out at the weekends I don't feel I need two bottles of vodka. I'm not a label down here, I'm a person and I'm kind of starting to think I'm an okay person, which I never have."