Meeting the Gaelic Otherworld | A Journey of Individuation & Ancestral Healing
Bridge to an Unseen Shore
Bean Feasa | Wise Woman and Mediator of the Gaelic Otherworld
Trauma and Meaning-Making
LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP & ONLINE COURSE
Sunday February 1st, 2026
9:00 am - 1:00 pm PST (Pacific Standard Time)
10:00 am - 2:00 pm MST (Mountain Standard Time)
11:00 am - 3:00 pm CST (Central Standard Time)
12:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST (Eastern Standard Time)
5:00 pm - 9:00 pm IST (Irish Standard Time)
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm CEST (Irish Standard Time)
You are invited to join me for a 4-hour LIVE online workshop experience - Deepening the Senses – Meeting the Gaelic Otherworld - Bridge to an Unseen Shore on Brigid’s Feast Day - Sunday 1st February 2026 at 9 am (PST) and 5 pm (Irish Standard Time).
This workshop is open to Ireland, USA, and Internationally. If you are unable to make it live, you will have complete access to all the seminars and workshop material.
The Bean Feasa—the “woman of knowledge”—stands as one of the most enigmatic and enduring figures in Irish folklore. Celebrated for her ability to heal both physical and spiritual wounds, she was seen as an intermediary between the human world and the Otherworld, tending to ailments born from imbalances with the Aos Sí, the faeries. Gifted with second sight and a profound attunement to the unseen, her wisdom was believed to originate from the Otherworld itself, bestowed upon her during her own encounters with the Otherworld and the Aos Sí.
In this course, we explore the bean feasa as more than a traditional folk healer, she becomes a bridge to our own symbolic unseen shores—a guide moving fluidly between conscious and unconscious realms, the rational and the imaginal. From a Jungian psychological perspective, the bean feasa reflects the Wise Woman archetype, the inner mediator who leads us from fragmentation toward integration. This archetype draws on a universal reservoir of intuition, compassion, and renewal. She appears in moments of transition or wounding, urging us to listen for the quiet inner voice that knows how to restore balance and wholeness.
We will hear tales about the most renowned nineteenth-century bean feasa of them all: Biddy Early. Born in 1798 near Feakle, County Clare, she became a legendary healer and seer, her enigmatic magic bottle, a gift from the Otherworld, was said to reveal truths hidden from ordinary sight. Though charged under the Witchcraft Act, she was shielded by the very people who relied on her gifts. Living by her own authority—independent, defiant, and unmoved by clerical or sceptical pressure—Biddy embodied an older current of wisdom, rooted in nature, spirit, and ancestral knowledge. Through her story, we glimpse the symbolic psyche of our forebears and consider how that symbolic world continues to resonate within our own inner landscapes.
This is a journey of personal development and discovery that invites a deepening into our symbolic inner life - weaving Irish folklore, stories of faerie encounters, the Otherworld, the Irish language, as well as insights from depth psychology in a visceral, imaginal meditation rooted in Ireland’s indigenous wisdom traditions. With sweeping footage of the Irish landscape and its wild, storied places, this course/workshop is designed to evoke and stir the senses and imagination. We will enter into the world of the bean feasa—guiding us to explore our deeper selves, to honour not only ourselves but also the ancestors who walked these paths before us, listening for what has been carried through the ancestral line, to see how the past still shapes the present, and to become curious how old unconscious patterns can loosen so we may step more fully into our authentic life.
Each course may be taken individually or as part of the full series.
Join Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin on this symbolic bridge to an unseen shore. Together, through the work of Psychotherapy, Depth Psychology, Irish Mythology, and Folklore, we will journey into the liminal terrain the bean feasa inhabits, learning how her wisdom helps us bridge the landscapes of our own inner world and soul self.
Agenda
If you are joining us LIVE on February 1st, 2026, Brigid’s Feast Day at Imbolg, we will follow this format below, leaving space between sections for group discussion, reflection and to see what is emerging from the collective. After the LIVE workshop, you will gain access to all of the video modules, the Companion E-Workbook (and a CPD Certificate for Irish Professionals).
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We will begin by Crossing the Threshold—the Opening Ritual that guides all of my Deepening the Senses Programs, Courses, and Workshops. In this space, we create a container for our work together and set our individual and collective intentions.
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In this section, we will deepen into story and mythology with a visual meditation of sweeping footage of the Irish landscape. You will hear stories from mythology or Irish folklore to deepen into myth, ancient customs and practices of the ancient Gaelic world, drawing on somatic practices throughout to support you in your body, to enhance this visual experience. For our ancestors, the world of storytelling, poetry, songs, and folktales shared around the hearth at night provided a space of respite from the challenges of surviving and what was at times, a harsh existence. This respite brought them into the unseen world of imagination, psyche, and spirit. We will become curious about what images are stirring our own imagination from these ancient stories and images, and deepen our relationship to our soul selves.
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We begin by introducing the themes of the course in a 25-minute immersive video presentation to explore ideas, images, and reflections from the world of Depth psychology, philosophy, literature, Irish folklore, and poetry. We will explore the emotions that are stirring within the theme and how this learning can be a rich source of knowledge to support us in developing a relationship with our inner world and soul self.
After the seminar, there will be a time for reflection, a space for you to note your experience through awareness, journal invitations, and personal reflection.
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This second seminar deepens into the theme and is a visual meditation incorporating poetry music, art, literature, with sweeping images of the visceral beauty of the Irish landscape. This seminar continues the exploration through the lens of Depth Psychology, support you on the path of discovery and self-development.
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This is the final video module, where we capture the essence of the course's learning, sharing rich reflections, images, and lessons from the collective experience. We explore how you will apply this learning to your daily life.
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We will cross back over the threshold again, returning to our initial starting place of ritual, the container of our work together, where we will close this work again in ritual. From here, we return to our everyday lives, inspired and curious about what new perspectives, new understandings, and awareness we can bring with us, from the Deepening the Senses experience.
ALSO INCLUDES:
30+ Page Companion Workbook
CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Certificate for Irish Professionals
The Irish word for Foxglove is Lus Mór (big herb) or Méaracán na mBan Sí, meaning “Herb or Thimble of the Banshee/Fairy Women”. It was believed to belong to the fairies, who used the flowers as gloves or bells.
This course is for you if…
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…you are curious to explore how healing is more than recovery— how it can also be a search for meaning through story, symbol, and imagination.
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…you’re drawn to the wild places where myth becomes mirror and the unseen, the unconscious, speaks through dream, symbol, metaphor and ancestral memory.
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…you feel called to learn more about the wisdom in Irish lore and the bean feasa herself, exploring how this can deepen relationship with your own inner landscape and knowing.
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…you’re curious about your own personal development and wish to explore how these old tales, motifs and symbols, can illuminate and support your own inner reflections and discoveries.
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…you long to reconnect with Ireland’s living folklore, landscape, and the beauty of the Irish language, as well as the indigenous wisdom of its ancient traditions.
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…you are interested in Depth Psychology, Psychotherapy and Jungian perspectives and how Deepening the Senses interweaves this with the ancient Gaelic psyche and soul.
You will learn …
…the psychology of trauma and meaning making and how meaning supports us transform suffering into insight, using symbols, myth, and story as pathways to healing.
…the archetype of the Wise Woman— how she is an inner guide, illuminating intuition, healing, and the call to wholeness.
…to explore Irish folklore and the Bean Feasa, discovering how ancestral stories mirror your own transformation and map the journey of the soul.
…to navigate liminal spaces that are so central in the Irish psyche—and how liminal thresholds of change, loss, and renewal—can be met with awareness rooted in symbolic and ancestral wisdom.
…to uncover the psychological and symbolic motifs within Biddy Early’s story and the psychological role of the bean feasa in her community, and how this can support us today, in our own lives.
…to bridge Jungian Depth Psychology with the Gaelic Otherworld, cultivating practices that awaken imagination, intuition, and the dialogue between inner and outer worlds.
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Depth Psychology and Psychotherapy theories and practices, somatic psychotherapy, Irish mythology, folklore, language, literature and Irish Heritage.
Biddy Early (1798-1874) - This is her cottage in Feakle, Co. Clare. Local clergy once forbade people to give directions to her house. Feakle’s name comes from the Irish word fiacail, meaning “tooth.”
Book Your Seat
Bridge to an Unseen Shore
Bean Feasa | Wise Woman and Mediator of the Gaelic Otherworld
Limited Capacity, reserve your seat for the LIVE workshop.
The Bean Feasa, a traditional folk healer, becomes a bridge to our own symbolic, unseen shores— guiding us between conscious and unconscious realms, the rational and the imaginal. From a Jungian psychological perspective, she reflects the Wise Woman archetype, the inner mediator who leads us from fragmentation toward integration. Through reflective practices, stories, and guided inner work, we engage our own intuitive capacities, listening for what wishes to be healed, reclaimed, or remembered.
FAQ
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Sunday, 1st February 2026, at the following times:
9 am – 1 pm (PST) Los Angeles, CA, USA / Vancouver, BC, Canada
10 am – 2 pm (MST) Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming.
11 am – 3 pm (CST) Chicago, IL, USA / Regina, SK, Canada
12 pm – 4 pm (EST) New York, NY, USA / Toronto, ON, Canada
5 pm – 9 pm (Irish ST) Ireland / UK
6 pm – 10 pm (CEST) Amsterdam / Berlin / Paris / Madrid -
All workshops, courses, programs and products are designed to support your personal development. They are not designed to diagnose, prescribe or recommend any specific psychological, psychiatric or physical health interventions. Anyone engaging in this work agrees to take responsibility for their own personal wellbeing and should they need to consult an individual licensed, qualified healthcare professional, they will do so at their own discretion.
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The LIVE workshops weave together the course content with group discussion and reflection, building upon community and the collective experience. After the LIVE workshop date, the immersive video seminars allow you to explore at your own pace and start whenever you feel called to step into the journey. The essence of the courses is the same as the live workshop version and still draws on aspects closest to my heart, from Irish mythology, poetry, and the ancient Gaelic world, connecting to the body and the deeper symbolic, soul self.
I add course sections for deeper reflection, videos that share the myths in a visual format, and journal invitations to help you directly apply the work to your daily life.
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New Meeting the Gaelic Otherworld workshops/courses may be added in the future; please join the mailing list to be the first to be notified.
The Bean Feasa’s own movement between worlds reflects our own psychological crossings—between the conscious and unconscious realm, the liminal moments when old identities fall away and something new begins to take form. It is a journey into the thresholds within us—where insight arises from the unseen, and where healing becomes an act of reconnection with meaning, lineage, land, and the numinous.
About
Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin
BSocSc, MA Social Work, MA Psychotherapy, Dip Supervision, Dip Jungian Psychology, Certified Coach (WCI)
I am a Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist, Supervisor, and Personal Development Coach with over 20 years of experience. I work internationally and am dual-located in the US and Ireland (in Northern Nevada and on the West Coast of Ireland, in Connemara). I work from a Jungian and depth-oriented perspective, integrating Jungian Psychology, Psychodynamic and somatic therapies.
I grew up in Connemara, a wild and rugged landscape on the Atlantic coast of Ireland. Oscar Wilde famously said of the region, “Connemara is a savage beauty”. I grew up in a small, rural Gaeilge (Irish) speaking community where Gaeilge is my first language, and is still spoken today in people's homes. This area was a major centre for the work of the Irish Folklore Commission, recording endangered folklore, mythology, sean-nós (old-style) songs, and oral literature. I have been greatly influenced by the wild physical landscape and immersed in those ancient songs, stories, customs, myths, legends, and music since childhood.
My work interweaves the Gaelic (Irish) World and Otherworld with Jungian Depth Psychology. The Gaelic world, with its symbols, language, myth, folklore, literature and heritage, becomes a doorway through which you can enter and explore your own inner landscape. I desire to share with you a felt sense of that ancient culture and spirit and, as a Psychotherapist, support how that connection can nourish and guide you on your personal development journey.
“Images that are true symbols... are the best possible expressions for something unknown—bridges thrown out towards an unseen shore.”