A Journey Inward
Celebrating the Harvest at Lúnasa
Taking Your Seat at the Banquet of Life - Cultivating Beauty, Sensuality and Meaning
Celebrate the Harvest Festival of Lúnasa/Lúghnasadh/Lúghnasa, one of the four main festivals in the ancient Irish/Celtic year. It marks the end of summer growth and the beginning of autumnal harvests. Lúghnasadh celebrates the fruition of the year’s work and a time to rejoice, with gratitude, at the hard work and embrace the abundance that life has to offer.
What might it be like to feel enlivened, creative, and inspired in our lives rather than exhausted, depleted and feeling that something of the soul self is missing?
Our past stories and wounds often prevent us from being present in the world, from feeling joy and gratitude, a sense of contentment in our lives, and feeling safe in the abundance of life around us. When we have these wounds, it is difficult to allow beauty in, to embrace the sensual, embodied life. We should allow ourselves to, as the poet John Keats wrote, “Singest of summer in full-throated ease”.
When we have past wounding, it can be challenging to truly feel worthy of that feeling of contentment in our lives or even to know what that feels like in the body. Even when we start to heal those wounds, it can feel bewildering and sometimes overwhelming initially because the body is unfamiliar with it. To begin to feel safe in your body, without being vigilant and watchful, to experience life not in survival mode, requires support to the self until it starts to feel familiar and safe to let it in. It can be difficult to rejoice in the force of life, to be in our body and senses, to feel one deserves to be, to take the metaphorical seat at the banquet of life, and to really and truly let it in. Learn how to support yourself in claiming life’s beauty and abundance at this harvest time.
This course will explore, through the lens of Psychotherapy and Depth Psychology, how we can interrupt our life force and our potential. We will explore what is unlived in one’s life and create a space of curiosity and reflection on how our past stories hold us back.
Join Eileen on a journey inward. Together, we will explore, through the work of Psychotherapy, Depth Psychology and Irish Mythology, how we can reconnect to ourselves through the cultivation of beauty, sensuality, and meaning.
What’s Included?
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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 the second section, we will deepen into story and mythology. For our ancestors, the world of storytelling, poetry, songs, and folktales shared around the hearth at night provided an escape from a harsh existence—an escape that brought them into the unseen world of imagination, psyche, and spirit. We will become curious about what images are stirring our own imagination today from these ancient stories and images, as they guide us on this journey inward.
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Next, we will have two seminars, where we will 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 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.
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After each 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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Once we have emerged from the last reflection section, 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 journey inward experience.
You will learn how to…
… deepen your understanding of your self-abandonment wound and its connection to your unlived life, your self-worth and our deservedness.
… recognize and identify how the self-abandonment wound interrupts you from fully connecting to yourself and others.
… understand how our old narratives and embodied trauma keep us stuck in vigilance and self-sabotage.
… build a foundation of insight to support change and growth.
… explore embodiment practices, which will focus on cultivating safety in the body, recognizing how vigilance shows up and prevents you from “playing” and being at ease.
… explore how you can fear letting joy in (foreboding joy) and how to change that pattern.
… explore beauty and sensuality, the life force of eros, the appreciation of life’s everyday moments, and how to deepen into the senses and embrace life in new ways that enhance fulfilment and creativity.
… experience curiosity, a spark of recognition and connection to your soul self, and a sense of gratitude for the abundance of life itself.
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Depth psychotherapy research, theories and practices, somatic psychotherapy, psychology and neuroscience, Celtic mythology, ancient Gaelic wisdom in folklore and stories, the medium of poetry, art images, symbol and metaphor.
What A Journey Inward Participants have said...
FAQ
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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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I wanted to translate the live workshops into a more impactful video-infused format that creates a more immersive and enjoyable experience. You can go at your own pace and start whenever you feel called to step into the journey inward. The essence of the courses is the same as the live workshop versions and still draws on aspects closest to my heart, from mythology, poetry, and the ancient Gaelic Celtic world, connecting to the body and the deeper symbolic, soul self.
I have added extra 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 A Journey Inward courses may be added in the future; please join the mailing list to be the first to be notified.
About
Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin
BSocSc, MSW, MA Psychotherapy, Dip Supervision, Dip Jungian Studies, Certified Coach (WCI)
I am a Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Coach with over 20 years of experience. I am dual-located in the US and Ireland (In Northern Nevada and on the West Coast of Ireland, in Galway).
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 Gaelic (Irish) speaking community where Gaelic 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.
I desire to share with you a sense of that culture and spirit and, as a Psychotherapist, to support how that connection can nourish and guide you on your personal development journey.
A Journey Inward Course Series
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Embodiment, Soul and the Celtic Spirit
Healing the Wounds of the Abandoning Self
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The Cailleach's Descent to the Underworld
Crossing the Dark Seas of Loss into Strange Country
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Resting Under Brigid’s Mantle
Cultivating Sanctuary and Self Compassion in Daily Life
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Awakening Bealtaine
Embracing Our Authentic Power
A Celebration of Granuaile -
Celebrating the Harvest at Lúnasa
Taking Your Seat at the Banquet of Life