“Irish Myths were not just stories to me, they were a kind of second skin. They helped me understand who I was and what it meant to belong to a people who had survived”
NUALA Ní DHOMHNAILL
FILE | POET
About
Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin
BSocSc, MA Social Work, MA Psychotherapy, MA Irish Mythology and Folklore, Dip Supervision, Dip Jungian Psychology, Certified Coach (WCI).
I am a psychotherapist, folklorist, and educator with over 20 years of clinical experience. I work internationally and am based between the US and Ireland (Northern Nevada and Connemara on Ireland’s west coast). My approach is Jungian and depth-oriented, integrating Jungian psychology with psychodynamic and somatic therapies.
I grew up in Connemara on Ireland’s Atlantic coast—a wild landscape of mountains and boglands, once described by Oscar Wilde as “a savage beauty.” I was raised in a small rural Irish-speaking (Gaeilge) community, where Gaeilge was my first language. I did not speak English until I was five years old. From childhood, I was immersed in folklore, mythology, language, story, sean-nós song, and oral tradition—an inheritance that has deeply shaped my life and work.
My work interweaves this rich heritage, the ancestral world of my childhood, and the Gaelic Otherworld with Jungian depth psychology. Through symbol, story, language, and myth, I invite you to explore your own inner landscape. I aim to share a felt sense of this ancient culture while supporting your personal development in a way that is deeply grounded, nourishing, and transformative.
Certification
Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin (Sullivan) (BSocSc, MSW, MA Psychotherapy, MA Mythology and Folklore, Dip Supervision, Dip Jungian Psychology, Certified Coach (WCI))
Eileen is a Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist and Supervisor. Dual-located in the US and Ireland (In Northern Nevada and on the West Coast of Ireland, in Galway), Eileen has over 20 years of clinical experience working with individuals and families in Adult Mental Health Services, in both acute and continuing care settings, as a Mental Health Social Worker and Psychotherapist in Private Practice. She was a Manager of a Mental Health Social Work Department in the Health Services for six years providing clinical consultation and oversight to senior practitioners and informing service development. She works internationally now as a psychotherapist, folklorist and educator.
She holds a Degree in Social Science and a Masters in Social Work from University College Dublin. She has a Master's in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy from the University of Limerick, specializing in Psychodynamic, Existential, and Gestalt Psychotherapies. She is currently finalizing her Masters in Irish Mythology and Folklore from the University College Cork, Ireland. Eileen has a diploma in Advanced Reflexive Supervision and a Diploma in Jungian Psychology. She has completed Jungian training intensives in London and the Jungian Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. She is a certified Wellness Coach in the United States.
Eileen is a fully accredited member of the Irish Council of Psychotherapy (ICP), the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy (IAHIP), and the Irish Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP).
As an educator, Eileen lectured at the National University of Ireland, Galway for six years. She was chair of a National Special Interest Group in Ireland for the Irish Association of Social Work from 2017 to 2020. She provided specialist consultation nationally in Ireland on development of mental health services on the island of Ireland in the following areas: Specialist Peri-Natal Mental Health Services, Talk Therapies, and Self Harm presentations in Emergency Departments. She had a lead role in the development and oversight of a specialist Mental Health Homeless Service in Galway City between 2017 – 2022. Eileen has facilitated Deepening the Senses retreats and workshops, both online and in-person, since 2016.
L’ame de la Foret (‘Soul of the Forest’) 1898 – Edgard Maxence
What does Teallach mean?
Teallach is the Gaelic word for Hearth.
The hearth was of central importance in Celtic society. The cottage was built around the family hearth. Turf burned continuously there day and night. This was a symbol of family continuity, where many traditional crafts were carried out. It provided warmth and nourishment and was a gathering place for story-telling and music, it symbolised an open place for hospitality to all. When it went out, it was said that the soul went out of the people of that house therefore it was only extinguished on the first of November - the traditional day of Samhain. People would then gather together to light large fires on sacred hilltops in honour of and to make offerings to the gods. In both pagan and Christian cosmologies, fire is representative of the illumination of mind and spirit and of divinity.
“I open a book, a school book maybe, or a book of superstition, or a book of placenames, and I have only to see the names of Ballyhooly or Raheen to be plunged into that world from which I have derived such a richness and an unquenchable grief.”
EDNA O’BRIEN
IRISH WRITERLatest
Reflections
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