A Journey Inward
Embodiment, Soul and the Celtic Spirit
Healing the Wounds of the Abandoning Self.
Sunday October 15th, 2023
9:00 am - 12:00 pm PST (Pacific Standard Time)
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm IST (Irish Standard Time)
You are invited to join me for a 3-hour live online workshop experience - Deepening the Senses – A Journey Inward – ‘Embodiment, Soul and the Celtic Spirit – Healing the Wounds of the Abandoning Self’ on Sunday 15th October 2023 at 9 am (PST) and 5 pm (IST).
This workshop is open to Ireland, USA and Internationally.
Many of us carry wounds from childhood. When we speak about trauma, what we mean is that the natural rhythm of our nervous system was in a state of overwhelm, and our innate survival mechanism (our limbic system) was activated in order to keep us safe. Where this becomes difficult in adulthood is when this survival mode becomes locked in the body as memory. This happens because the support just wasn’t there in childhood to process it. The survival pattern becomes deeply ingrained, keeping us stuck in anxiety and fear, and patterns of behavior that are not in support of our growth. This impacts how we engage with the world and how we remain disconnected from our authentic self.
To self-abandon is one such survival mechanism or coping strategy. This is where we place the needs of others before our own to try to maintain connection, acceptance and validation in order to feel safe. This is a survival mechanism practiced and perfected since childhood and can often be outside of our awareness. This is problematic because it leads us to abandon the heart of ourselves, our authentic selves. When we over-value the needs of others before our own we are eroding a sense of self and our sense of worth. This is because at the core of this wound is the unconscious belief that “I am not worthy of love and care”.
What does Self Abandonment look like?
We self-abandon when we ignore our inner voice, are highly self-critical, find it difficult to set boundaries and say ‘no’. We self-abandon when we minimize our feelings and avoid asking for what we need. We are hyper-vigilant of others, watching for any change in mood, feeling that another person’s moods are our fault and our job to fix. We are frequently in states of anxiety, not at ease.
We imagine we will be abandoned in close intimate relationships. When we deny our needs in relationships, we can feel (sometimes unconsciously) very resentful and hurt and this is communicated indirectly in a myriad of ways that can erode trust and safety in relationship. We can also feel shame too for having needs, which also leads to resentment. There is shame about feeling ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’. This erodes relationships and basic self-trust.
This is highly stressful on a day-to-day basis. There is no capacity to feel at ease or to relax. There is no space to drop down into our creative heart center in the body, to ‘play’ and feel the flow of life through us. There is no space to feel contentment and the fullness of life all around us. We are locked instead in fear, self-doubt, hypervigilance and shame.
How will this workshop help me?
This workshop will explore how patterns of self-abandonment are showing up in your own life. It will create self-awareness and will provide you with ways to support and resource you to begin to heal it.
Through embodiment practices, we will:
Focus on cultivating safety in the body.
Focus on ways of supporting yourself in your body to elevate anxiety in the body.
Explore how to enhance and deepen your relationship with yourself and others.
Support you to set healthy boundaries.
Support you to cultivate self-worth and build self-esteem.
What does this workshop include?
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There will be a presentation that draws on understandings from depth psychotherapy, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, literature and poetry using images and music that evoke and stir the senses and imagination. There will be opportunity through gentle embodiment practices, to resource and support you to connect to your body to enhance that learning experience. Trauma is held in the body, and we need to return to the body to heal it.
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This workshop will take you on a journey into the inner world and soul self, invoking the spirit and wisdom of ancient Ireland, its stories, myths, poetry, folklore and ancient landscape. This aims to help you find your inner ground and light the way for you on this healing journey inward.
When we listen to myths, we step into a timeless world, out of the rational concrete into the symbolic life. This is the world of soul, the world of metaphor and imagination. This makes us more receptive to our inner environment and the energies of life and the archetypal patterns living through us. This workshop is cultivated with great care to create an experience for you to engage your heart, mind, body and soul self.
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At the end there will be time for answering any questions you may have, to share reflections and to help deepen the experience for you and the other participants.
Book Your Spot
This workshop is grounded in:
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.
This workshop is ideal for you if:
You recognize yourself in the description of the Self Abandonment Wound and need to make changes in your life to heal this wound.
If you are feeling anxiety in your life and want to learn ways to support yourself in your body, to ease it.
If you are struggling with the Self Abandonment Wound in relationships.
If you are passionate and curious about deepening a connection to your soul self – to experience the fullness of that in your body and the world around you.
If you are curious and want to connect to a deeper inner world and landscape of a collective psyche and soul – through the ancient Gaelic Celtic culture, mythology, and landscape.
By the end of the workshop you will:
Be able to recognize and identify how the Self Abandonment Wound is interrupting you from connecting fully to yourself and others.
Begin to feel more resourced to support yourself in your body to heal this wound.
Begin to have a deeper understanding of the sensation of anxiety in your body and ways to support yourself with it.
Experience curiosity and a spark of recognition and connection to your soul self.
Experience the wisdom and the wonder of ancient Gaelic culture and tradition and how this wisdom can resource and support us today to deepen into the body and soul self.
About the host
Eileen Sullivan
I grew up in Connemara which is a wild and rugged on the Atlantic in the west of Ireland. I grew up in a small Gaelic (Irish) speaking community where Gaelic is still spoken today in the homes of people living there. Gaelic is an ancient language. Its traces, in written form, reach back to Ogham inscriptions on stone from the 4 th Century AD.
Gaelic is my first language. I did not speak any English until I started attending school at five years old. The region where I grew up was a major center for the work of the Irish folklore commission recording endangered folklore, mythology, sean-nos (old-style) songs, and oral literature. My own development, my soul self, has been greatly influenced by that physical landscape, and by being immersed in those ancient songs, stories, customs, myths, legends, and music since I was a child.
This is at the heart of these workshops and retreats. My desire is to share with you the experience of that ancient Celtic culture and spirit and, as a Psychotherapist, to connect you to how that can support and nourish your own personal journey to the soul self.
I hold a Master’s degree in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, a Master’s degree in Social Work, a Degree in Social Science, a Diploma in Jungian Psychology, and a Diploma in Reflexive Supervision. These workshops have been honed and developed over a period of seven years. I am really delighted to be able to share them with you.
FAQs
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Live on Sunday 15th October 2023
Start and finish times:
9am – 12pm (PST) Los Angeles / Vancouver
11am – 2pm (CST) Chicago / Regina Canada
12pm – 3pm (EST) New York / Toronto
5pm – 8pm (Irish ST) Ireland and UK
6pm – 9pm (CEST) Amsterdam / Berlin / Paris / Madrid
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To register and book your place, simply follow this link. You will receive a welcoming letter via email 7 days prior to the day, which will give you more information and suggestions on what to have with you on the day to create a supportive space in your own home, to fully embrace and enjoy this experience. And you will receive an email 2-3 days before with a Zoom Link for the workshop.
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No refunds and no exchanges policy. You will receive a recording of the workshop if you are unable to make it LIVE.