Returning to the Well | Healing the Mother Wound
The Dark Mother
Entering the Sacred Grove
Encountering the Shadow in the Mother Wound
Every archetype is a potential, and every archetype has two sides: positive and negative. The mother archetype is no different. - On the one hand, it nurtures and protects; on the other, it can devour and suffocate. This program explores the shadow aspect of the great mother archetype so we can come to understand it in our ancestral and personal story, and how we can consciously support ourselves in it. We will look at the importance of establishing boundaries as we come to know the ancestral wounding in the stories of our lineage, so we can make it conscious and begin to re-mother ourselves.
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.
The shadow is the hidden realm of the psyche where repressed emotions, unmet needs, and inherited archetypal patterns reside. Though unconscious, these forces shape how we see ourselves and relate to others.
As children, we often suppress parts of ourselves to stay connected and safe. In doing so, we exile emotions like anger, grief, or wildness to the unconscious. Jung described this as the personal and collective unconscious — the personal shaped by our experiences, and the collective shaped by universal patterns.
The shadow side of the Mother archetype may live on as an internal voice of shame, emotional control, or self-abandonment. But the unconscious is not only a place of wounding — it holds forgotten creativity, power, and potential.
This course offers a path to meet what was hidden, reclaim your inner wholeness, and step into a more authentic self.
This course is an immersive, visceral odyssey of the soul and spirit, a journey to the metaphorical well of wisdom that flows through Irish myth and memory. You will see sweeping images of the Irish landscape, and experience the music, poetry, insights from Depth psychology and Psychotherapy, and ancient stories, meeting the great Irish goddess mothers of the landscape, to help connect you to your inner world, the shadow aspects in your psyche, personal and ancestral, and thereby heal the Mother Wound in your life.
Join Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin in your very own return to the well. Together, we will explore, through the work of Psychotherapy, Depth Psychology and Irish Mythology, where we can begin to meet what was hidden and reclaim your inner wholeness.
What is 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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We begin by introducing the themes of the course in a 30-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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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 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 from these ancient stories and images, and deepen our relationship to our soul selves.
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This second seminar draws on the features of all the Deepening the Senses workshops and includes ritual, mythology/folklore, music, and poetry. It is a space of reflection and exploration, a space for sharing and mutual learning. This seminar aims to create and deepen into the theme on the path of discovery and self-development.
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Here, we sit at the symbolic hearth to create a pause and space for reflection. I share insights with you on the key themes, from my work with clients and those who attended live Gatherings over the years. This is designed to support you in your own integration of the learning thus far.
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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.
This course is for you if…
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You sense there are buried emotions or inherited patterns within you — anger, grief, shame, or self-abandonment — and you’re ready to bring them to light with compassion and courage.
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You feel held back by an internal critical voice, emotional entanglement, or the lingering sense of absence from your early maternal experience — and long to reclaim your true voice and sovereignty.
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You’ve been on a healing path but feel called to go deeper — into the mythic, archetypal, and ancestral roots of your wounding, guided by the Irish landscape and the wisdom of the Great Mother.
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You are drawn to Jungian shadow work and depth psychology and want to explore these through the lens of Irish mythology, the unconscious, and embodied ritual practice.
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You carry a deep yearning to reconnect with lost parts of yourself — your instinct, wildness, creativity, and intuition — and are ready to meet the unconscious not as a place of fear, but as a wellspring of transformation.
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This offering is particularly relevant for you if you are engaged in psychotherapy, or if you are interested in your own personal development and you are curious to learn more of Irish heritage, ancestors, language, folklore, and myth as a lens into your inner world and soul self.
Purchase the Course
✓ Over 120+ Minutes of Immersive Video Lessons
✓ 30+ Page Companion E-Workbook
✓ CPD Certificate for Irish Professionals
✓ Instant & Unlimited lifetime access
✓ A Depth Psychology Experience Rooted in the Irish Landscape
Listen to a short excerpt…
You will learn how to…
Through guided practices, depth inquiry, and gentle embodiment work, this course will help you:
Explore how the Mother Wound shapes your sense of self-worth and silences your creative, soul-led self.
Illuminate the shadow of the Mother Wound—those intergenerational patterns, silences, and burdens that inhibit your growth.
Cultivate a compassionate relationship with your inner child, transforming cycles of perfectionism, guilt, shame, and self-punishment.
Learn how to support yourself in reclaiming joy, play, and your authentic creative path.
Work with the archetypes of the Embodied Mother and Inner Protector to foster inner safety, healthy boundaries, and emotional nourishment as you face what has been hidden.
Engage with the great mother figures of Irish mythology, folklore, and poetry—meeting them not just through story, but through the body and imagination, allowing them to guide your healing.
Deepen your appreciation for the Irish language and ancestral wisdom, weaving the rich textures of myth and land into your soul’s unfolding journey.
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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.
About
Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin
BSocSc, MSW, MA Psychotherapy, Dip Supervision, Dip Jungian Psychology, 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.
Returning to the Well Online Course Series
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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