Buy Local & Support Local Businesses

We love Dun Laoghaire and we the people who live in our community. And there’s no a better way to show love than to encourage people who matter to us to take a good care of themselves. Only when we are healthy and content we can truly enjoy the beautiful scenery, vibrant community and all the goods that our town has to offer.

With that in mind, we are making a new round of featuring businesses who help us care for our bodies and minds. Besides well-known businesses and brands, there are also new exciting additions to our town, and we call you to show them all support while practicing self-care.

Holland and Barrett

Holland and Barrett is an international brand with a high profile branch in Dun Laoghaire. It is a well-known health and wellness retailer, with more than 9,000 products across all the ranges including vitamins and supplements, sports nutrition, natural beauty, and food and drink.

We had the pleasure of speaking to Chris, the local branch manager who shared the story about the company in more detail. Chris has always worked in the retail sector and he always liked working with people. He’s been with Holland and Barrett for three and a half years now. What attracted him was an extensive training for the products the company is selling. Chris personally had some minor underlying health issues at the time and throughout the training he found many different products from the Holland and Barrett range that he used to improve his health.

He is now eager to share his experience and help customers to feel better too!

Dealing with local people is another important perk of his job. Although the store is in the shopping centre, it has a feel of the local high-street. They have customers who come in regularly and most of them would know the local team very well. Chris travels quite a distance to get to work, but he is still motivated as, in his own words, working in Dun Laoghaire is absolutely brilliant. The town has a great atmosphere with people bustling around the streets all the time.

Holland and Barrett is all about  providing an inviting and friendly atmosphere, superb customer service, and fully qualified expert advice. All their staff, once they complete their training, are equipped to give advice on vitamins, minerals, and herbal remedies. They are trained to do health assessments and offer suitable treatment options.

Chris Turner manager at Holland and Barrett Dun Laoghaire

Holland and Barrett advice for self care

Food supplements are important, especially these days when we all lead such busy lives. Even if we have fairly balanced diet, we might be missing out on some essential vitamins and minerals.

Many of us also have various conditions that certain food supplements and herbal remedies can help to resolve or at least keep at bay. For example, Chris personally had suffered quite a lot from a sinus issue, but now with two products from the store, he barely suffers at all.

People are also looking for the right products and supplements to help them on the fitness journey. Holland and Barrett offers a good range of proteins and amino-acids, and for people who are quite active they offer a range of post-workout products.

The main thing to be aware of when it comes to supplementing is to treat those remedies as any other medication. Although they are helpful they can also have contraindications. That’s why it’s important to do a consultation with Holland and Barrett staff and determine if there are any existing conditions or medical treatments that could be in a way of using a certain product. If that’s the case Holland and Barrett staff will suggest an alternative.

How to purchase from Holland and Barrett

You can purchase their products in the store located in the Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre. You can also order online for click and collect or by phone. Holland and Barrett helpful staff can help you in the store to order the products even if they don’t have them in the local shop. Some of the products are available exclusively online.

Here’s where you can find Holland and Barrett Dun Laoghaire:

Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre, Unit 217 George’s Street Upper, Dún Laoghaire

01 284 6792

Website

Google Reviews Holland and Barrett Dun Laoghaire

Care Cure – Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

We are now traveling next to the world of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Pure bliss! We are fortunate to have a top quality Chinese medicine centre right at our doorsteps. Care Cure manager Ling helped us learn more about their business.

Care Cure is in Dun Laoghaire since 2006. Ling chose Dun Laoghaire as a location for the business because it is out of the city centre but is still a big town with lot of footfall. With the harbour and natural beauty it’s attractive for tourists as well.

Ling’s motivated to help patients feel better and become healthier. It is interesting that the majority of the team members are Asians and are all passionate about the work they do.  They want to do a good job and help our community. The quality of the customer service they provide is their highest priority. Care Cure is a registered member of the Acupuncture Council of Ireland. They follow a strict code of ethics which ensures a high standard that all their staff needs to abide to. All team members are fully insured and recognized by all major heath care providers.

Ling Zhang, manager at Cure Care Dun Laoghaire

Care Cure advice for self care

Acupuncture, although quite popular and effective, is just a part of Chinese medicine. Care Cure offers a whole range of Chinese medicine treatments to look after our bodies in a holistic manner. Chinese medicine helps in not only lifting up our mood, but also digestion and gut health, and getting our body in balance and treating many other conditions because everything in our body is interconnected.

Chinese medicine is a preventive and holistic health care system. It helps create a harmony in our bodies and that way prevents further problems.

How to schedule appointment at Care Cure

To schedule an appointment at Care Cure you can give them a call at (01) 284 5555 or mobile 086 215 92 82. You can also book online on the website. 

Here’s where you can find Care Cure:

53 George’s Street Lower, Dún Laoghaire

(01) 284 5555

Website

Google Reviews Care Cure

O’Mahony & Ennis Pharmacy

Meet Annette Doyle, a manager of O’Mahony & Ennis pharmacy. We had a great chat about this long-standing business in our town.

O’Mahony & Ennis is a small independent pharmacy. Annette is with the company for more than 20 years making sure that the customer service runs smoothly at all times. The pharmacy itself is in Dun Laoghaire for more than 50 years now and the staff has extensive industry experience.

The pharmacy prides itself in a great customer service, a personal approach to the business that is hard to find in big-chain companies. Annette feels that COVID-19 has really helped the small businesses in locality to gain loyalty among the community. People in Dun Laoghaire became very supportive, the footfall on the high-street is better, and most people tend to buy locally and help small businesses struggling to survive.

Annette Doyle, manager at O’Mahony & Ennis 

O’Mahony & Ennis advice for self care

Summer holidays and sunny days require extra skin care. O’Mahony & Ennis pharmacy has a good selection of products to ensure our protection. They carry the brands like Caudalie, Dr. Hauschka, Trilogy, L’Oréal, Riemann, Bioderma, and more.

The shop has a great selection of gift kits. They carry a Green Angel brand and many combinations of its body care and beauty products. They are also fully stocked in vitamins, bath products, body products, fragrances.

How to purchase products at O’Mahony & Ennis

Besides buying your meds and healthcare products in the shop on the Upper George’s Street, the pharmacy provides an online ordering service. You can also call at (01) 280 1163 to order the products and the pharmacy is shipping them nation-wide. 

Here’s where you can find O’Mahony & Ennis:

4 George’s Street Upper, Dún Laoghaire

(01) 280 1163

Website

Google Reviews O’Mahony & Ennis

DIVA – Dun Laoghaire Institute of Visual Arts

Now something that will put creativity front and centre for your mind and soul. Please join us in welcoming a new, fantastic business in our town. DIVA which stands for Dun Laoghaire Institute of Visual Arts has been founded by two young artists Tilly Morris and Annie Laing who graduated from IADT in 2020. The idea for their business started forming around their graduation and they worked towards its launch ever since then. Their main motivation as a business is to grow into a hub which focuses on supporting Ireland’s young and emerging artists.

They officially opened the business on the 10th of June, 2022 with an Open Call exhibition, and have been running creative summer camps for young artists aged 7-18 since then.

Their approach as a gallery could be seen as quite unconventional. They run exhibitions of work on sale to the public commission-free, so that all money made from each individual sale goes straight back to the artist.

They also want to make the process of running an exhibition for a young emerging artist as easy and accessible as possible. They strive to do it by keeping rental prices low and the booking system as straightforward as possible. They are also incredibly passionate to keep teaching art to all ages.

They run summer camps and will be running after-school and weekend classes and courses starting in September.

Why Is Art Important For Self-care

Creativity is incredibly important for our own personal development and improvement. Through making and analysing visual art, it can help us to connect with ourselves and each other, and, when we are engaged in creative process, it gives us a fresh perspective in understanding our place in the world.

How to do business with DIVA

To book summer camps, classes, or studio space and exhibition space rentals with DIVA, please visit their website www.divadunlaoghaire.com. To keep up to date with new courses, classes, and exhibitions, sign up to their email newsletter on the website’s homepage. If you have any specific inquiries, email them at [email protected].

Here’s where you can find DIVA:

24 Mellifont Avenue, Dun Laoghaire

[email protected]

Website

Lumina Psychotherapy Clinic

Taking care of our mental health has never been more important. With the world in turmoil both during the pandemic and post pandemic compounded by significant geo-political events, we are all facing a period where it has become very important to talk and deal with our emotions and thoughts so we could bring back some normality and joy back to our lives.

We are very fortunate to have a great psychotherapy practice in our community and one of the co-founders, Liz Monahan, was very kind to share more details about it as well as to talk about the broader topic of mental health in the Dun Laoghaire community.

Liz is a trained psychotherapist with extensive 25+ years of experience in this area. She was working as a part of multidisciplinary team of doctors and recognised a need for psychotherapy as a healthcare modality which led her to start the Lumina Psychotherapy Clinic five years ago. She founded the clinic with her colleague Brian O’Connor and it runs as a co-op. The space was renovated and soundproofed – confidentiality is very important so that people feel relaxed and comfortable. A high level of professionalism is always the top priority.

Liz helps people to better manage their lives for themselves. However, it is important to remember that psychotherapy is not magic, there’s not a pill that can remove all your problems. Liz does not tell people what to do, but rather works with them to work out what’s stopping them living their lives to the full and then letting them find their own way through it.

Everybody in their clinic is a trained psychotherapist. The majority of the team is trained in psychoanalysis. If people have anxiety, depression, or panic tacks, the practice is not about curing the symptoms. It is important to know that whatever is worrying them is just a symptom and they actually need to find out what’s the underlying cause to be able to more forward. For example, in case of panic attacks a therapist can teach you how to breathe to ease the symptoms, but in order for them to go away people need to find the root cause of the problem. And it can take a while to figure out what is the cause of the symptoms. That’s why psychotherapy is a process and the way to do it is through talking.

Liz Monahan, owner at Lumina Psychotherapy

Lumina Psychotherapy advice for self care

Mental health is just as important if not more important than physical health. We put a lot of time to workout, train our bodies, getting tanned, or supplementing and putting creams on our bodies. But in the periods when the world is topsy-turvy we need to work on being able to stay content through that. Due to the changes in the way we live nowadays, we don’t have big family structures and community structures we might have had in the past, And to function as healthy beings, we do need supportive people and when we can’t tap into the community support it can get difficult. We all need confidence, support, and understanding. These are crucial components of our lives and we can get them by talking to someone.

Previous generations maybe didn’t think about mental health as much, or didn’t expect as much, or they used a church and priests as a way of grounding themselves. It could also be that people always have had mental health problems but they were more stoical about it. Whatever the case is, Liz’s experience is that people are more conscious about the conditions like depression, panic attacks, and eating disorders now. She, together with her colleagues, are helping their clients deal with these problems and the most important thing is – psychotherapy works.

Psychotherapy is about trying to give people space to figure out what they need and what they want in the situations they face. Tablets, although helpful in easing symptoms, can’t understand the underlying problem and its real cause. And the only way to understand whatever is happening is by talking and then you have your own choices. Will you change jobs, retrain, move to the country, join a club, depends on understanding what you truly need.

How to schedule appointment at Lumina Psychotherapy

You can schedule an appointment at Lumina Psychotherapy by visiting their website and then reaching out to one of the practitioners via their phones or emails. Each therapist has their credentials, qualifications and bio listed on the website so that people can choose a therapist best suited for their needs. Some therapists specialise in working with adolescents, some with families, many specialise in working with couples, anxiety, or eating disorders, so a recommendation is to check out the listed therapists and then reach out for help.

Confidentiality is at the core of the work of the practice. They work really hard to make people comfortable with them. The rooms are all specifically designed for comfort and they are soundproofed.

Here’s where you can find Lumina Psychotherapy:

97 George’s Street Lower, Dún Laoghaire

087 099 8350

Website

Google Reviews Lumina Psychotherapy

Ready to give yourself care you deserve?

Once again we showed that Dun Laoghaire has so much to offer and cater to all our needs, including caring for our health. From healthy eating, relaxation, mental health, and art, our town offers so many options to replenish our bodies, minds, and souls.

Thank you for supporting our Dun Laoghaire business community!

For a list of all the retail outlets in our town please see our Dún Laoghaire Town business directory.

Would you like us to include your business in future Love Dún Laoghaire features?

We would be delighted to, please send an email to [email protected] with details of your location in Dún Laoghaire and we will be in touch. 

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