Ursula O'Farrell (née Cussen, 24 May 1934 – 6 January 2022) was an Irish author and lecturer on the topic of counselling who worked for over 35 years as a counsellor.

Born in Newcastle West, County Limerick, Ireland, in 1934, and daughter of local solicitors, Robert and Kathleen Cussen, Ursula O'Farrell was educated in Laurel Hill School in Limerick, and subsequently in University College Dublin where she achieved a B.A (1956) and a Dip in Psychology (1981).

She is one of the founding members of the Irish Association for Counselling in 1981, along with Odette Thompson (founder of the Hanly Centre for Addiction in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland in 1978), Ita McCraith, Joan McGowan and Kay Duffy.

‘I was a fledgling counsellor … It was thrilling, I loved every busy minute of it … but it was terrifying too.’ [2] At that time in Ireland there was a stigma attached to mental illness and to the idea of being in need of counselling.

Today it is generally realised that professional help can be invaluable, and much of this change of attitude, according to the former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, is due to the ″hard work and dedication of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy″.