New! Online Course Series
Returning to the Well
Healing the Mother Wound | Mother Archetype & The Celtic Spirit
We return to the well, to this gift from a divine world, to support ourselves and connect to the nurturing aspects of the mother within in the service of our own lives and that of our ancestors.
Available to men and women.
Introduction
In this series, we journey into the depths of the Mother Archetype—perhaps the most universally recognised archetype of the feminine across cultures. In Jungian psychology, she is the great symbol of nurture, protection, compassion, and the life-giving force that sustains us. Mother is not only personal—she is mythic, ancestral, and collective.
In Irish mythology, the mother goddesses hold a place of great reverence. Danú, was seen as an ancient earth mother, the divine matriarch of the Tuatha Dé Danann—the mythical race who dwelled in the sídhe, beneath the sacred hills and mounds of Ireland. She was the embodiment of the land itself. Other goddesses were also the embodiment of the land—Ériu, for whom Ireland (Éire) is named, is one such ancestral mythic presence.
Psychologically, the mother archetype plays a vital role in our individuation. To forge a conscious relationship with the inner mother—the part of us capable of self-nurturing, holding, and inner reassurance—is essential for our growth. It is through this relationship that we learn to tend the soil of our own becoming, rooting ourselves in compassion as we move toward wholeness and self-actualisation. The Mother Archetype also has a destructive side, a devouring possessiveness, emotional unavailability and attunement.
In this Returning to the Well series, we explore the mother wound, through the lens of Depth Psychology, myths, folklore and the ancient Gaelic world. We will learn how the negative aspects of the mother wound in our own personal stories can impact our development and how we can come to meet this wounding, so as to embrace joy, contentment and abundance in our own lives.
This is a mythopoetic approach to healing the Mother Wound that weaves Irish myth, symbol, and archetype into personal and collective meaning-making. It invites the soul to speak through story, image, and metaphor, revealing deeper layers of truth.
The Mother Wound | The Shadow Aspect
Every archetype is a potential and every archetype has two sides, the positive side and the negative side. The mother archetype is no different. - On the one hand it nurtures and protects and on the other it can devour and suffocate.
When a child receives physical care from their mother but the emotional connection, nurturance and support was absent, then we call this, the mother wound. This wounding was passed down from one generation to the next, disconnecting us from the thread to our inner knowing, our inner life.
The reason we refer to it as a wounding is because it has a profound effect on us in childhood and later on in adult life. The very core aspects of ourselves, where we cultivate an inner trusting, knowing, boundaries, and an embodied sense of self, is impacted on.
This series explores both the positive and negative aspects of the archetypal Mother, so we can come to know our own personal and ancestral story with this archetype, both shadow and light, and become curious and engage consciously with how it impacts us daily and how we can come to understand and thereby change and heal it for this generation and the generations to come.
The Mother Wound looks like…
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You long to feel safe within and feel an emotional hunger for a deeper, nurturing presence that may have been absent or inconsistent in your life.
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You carry an inner critic and chronic self-doubt, often second-guessing your feelings and seeking external validation before making decisions.
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You struggle with boundaries, guilt, or people-pleasing—patterns rooted in emotional enmeshment or a childhood where saying “no” felt unsafe.
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You fear being “too much” or “not enough,” and tend to suppress your own needs or emotions to maintain closeness.
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You feel responsible for others’ emotional states and may overfunction in relationships to earn love or prevent rejection.
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You are more comfortable giving than receiving, and may feel guilt or discomfort when allowing yourself rest, support, or care.
The Symbolism of the Well
Wells have been with us since Neolithic times, as a means to access water from deep in the earth. Water is our first home: we enter the world when the waters of the womb break. In mythology and depth psychology alike, water symbolically represents the unconscious, what lies beneath the surface, to the hidden life within.
To return to the well, then, is to return to a wellspring of inner knowing—rooted in the body, in the earth, and in the ancestral soul. It is a reawakening of something once lost or exiled in our early lives, now calling us back.
In Irish folklore and cosmology the well holds profound spiritual significance. Across centuries, Ireland’s holy wells have remained places of ritual and devotion, threaded with ancient customs and offerings. In this work, we turn toward the stories, symbols, and myths surrounding the well—listening for the wisdom of our ancestors as we walk the path toward healing, remembrance, and wholeness..
This series is for you if…
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You long to mother yourself in a new way—to offer tenderness, safety, and unwavering presence to the parts of you that have felt unseen, unheld, or emotionally abandoned.
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You notice patterns of guilt, people-pleasing, or difficulty with boundaries, and intuit that these may stem from early emotional enmeshment or a childhood where it felt unsafe to say “no.”
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You are seeking a deeper homecoming to your intuition, body, and soul, and feel called to reawaken your instinctual wisdom through sacred myth, somatic practices, and the animistic, ancestral landscape of Ireland.
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You feel the imprint of the Mother Wound in your life—a sense of disconnection from your inner truth, chronic self-doubt, or the belief that your worth depends on keeping others emotionally regulated.
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You are drawn to Jungian psychology, Irish mythology, and ancestral memory, and yearn to explore how story, symbol, and the Irish language can guide healing—personally and collectively.
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You are already engaged in therapy or inner work, and are seeking a mythopoetic, culturally rooted map that honours psyche, soul, and the wild, listening wisdom of the land.
You will learn…
To explore your relationship with the mother archetype—gaining psychological insight into how the Mother Wound may shape your patterns, beliefs, and emotional landscape.
To understand the intergenerational roots of the Mother Wound, tracing how the shadow of the distorted mother archetype moves through family lines, culture, and society—and how it can be consciously transformed.
To support yourself in reshaping your relationships, cultivating healthier boundaries, greater self-compassion, and a more rooted sense of self in how you connect with others.
To engage with the mother figures of Irish mythology, folklore, and poetry, drawing on these ancestral stories in a deeply embodied and imaginative way to guide and enrich your own life path.
To tend your symbolic inner well—a sacred space within that holds rest, restoration, and the deep waters of self-love, nourishment, and emotional renewal.
To cultivate an embodied connection with your intuition and inner knowing, awakening your creativity, self-trust, and instinctual wisdom as guiding forces in your life.
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This series is rooted in Depth Psychology and Psychotherapy, including somatic approaches, and shaped by a mythopoetic lens.It draws richly from Irish mythology, folklore, cosmology, language, literature, and the living heritage of Ireland.
This series is an odyssey of the soul and spirit, a journey of transformation and personal discovery, with sweeping images of the Irish landscape, music, myth, poetry, folklore and Jungian Depth Psychology supporting you in returning to the metaphorical well, healing this wounding and guiding you towards deeper belonging.
Returning to the Well
Complete Course Package
✓ All 4 Courses (The Great Mother, Dark Mother, Blessing the Waters, Kindling the Fire)
✓ Over 8+ hours of Immersive Video Modules
✓ 30+ Page Companion E Workbooks (x4)
✓ CPD Certificates for Irish Professionals (over 12 points total)
✓ A Depth Psychology Experience Rooted In Irish Mythology
BONUS GIFT: Inner Child Meditation ($25 Value)
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The Great Mother
The Guardian of the Well
Nurturing a Relationship with the Great Mother Archetype - Embodying your Sensing, Intuitive, Soul Self. -
The Dark Mother
Entering the Sacred Grove
Encountering the Shadow in the Mother Wound -
Blessing the Waters
The Inner Child
Embracing the Inner Child - Cultivating the Great Mother Within -
Kindling the Fire
Reclaiming the Ancestral Story
Embodying Sovereignty & Agency - Honoring the Ancestral Lineage
The Great Mother
The Guardian of the Well
Nurturing a Relationship with the Great Mother Archetype Within
In this course, we journey alongside the great mother goddesses of the Irish landscape—sovereign figures rooted in earth and myth. They will guide us as we come home to our own ground of being, reclaiming agency, embodiment, authenticity, and the right to our own voice and separate self.
The Dark Mother
Entering the Sacred Grove
Encountering the Shadow in the Mother Wound
This course supports you in exploring the shadow aspects of the Mother Wound — the unconscious patterns shaped by absence, criticism, engulfment, or abandonment — and how to bring them into awareness and transformation.
Blessing The Waters
The Inner Child
Embracing the Inner Child - Cultivating the Great Mother Within
This course explores how to cultivate a loving, nurturing "good enough" inner mother to support the wounded, exiled aspect of the self—what we call the "inner child." This journey of reparenting is a vital part of healing, allowing us to address deep-seated pain and reconnect with lost parts of ourselves.
Kindling the Fire
Reclaiming the Ancestral Story
Embodying Sovereignty & Agency - Honouring the Ancestral Lineage
We explore the Mother Wound and the ancestral patterns passed through the maternal line — the unspoken traumas, beliefs, and silences that shape our inner lives. You’ll be guided to understand how these inherited wounds impact your sense of self, especially as you begin to differentiate and step into your own sovereignty.
What Returning to the Well Participants have said...