New! Seasonal Program Series
Walking Between Worlds
We cross the threshold into the Inner World and the realm of the spirit in an immersive journey of self discovery and sacred time.
Introduction
In the Walking Between Worlds series, we cross the threshold into the Inner World and the realm of the spirit in an immersive journey of self-discovery and sacred time or ‘deep time’, which encompasses the past, the present, and the future. It is the time of landscape and cosmology, the time of dreaming, the space for the ‘subtle body’, and the time of the soul.
Here, we uncover the mysteries of the inner world, exploring the Celtic consciousness in our psyche through the realm of Depth Psychology, Psychotherapy, Irish mythology, ritual, Celtic symbolism, the Irish landscape, poetry, literature, folklore, and the ancient Gaelic world in this unique journey of individuation.
As a Psychotherapist and Depth Psychology facilitator, I see this as a metaphor too for our own unseen inner world, “the world below”, and how cultivating a relationship with that inner world can support us on our lifetime journey of individuation. Jung held the view that beneath the personal unconscious was a world of the collective unconscious, the realm of the psychic heritage of humankind. According to Carl Jung, living a symbolic life is a bridge to that unseen unconscious world, and exploring that collective world further unlocks deeper aspects of our personality.
The Celtic Year
The Celts divided their year into two halves: Winter and Summer, the dark and the light. For the Celts, the new year began in darkness at Samhain, just as their day also started at night. They understood that in the darkness came whisperings of new beginnings.
Our early ancestors celebrated key festivals throughout their calendar year that reflected their relationship with the world, the land, and the seasons—Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lughnasadh. Between those festivals were the solstices. These important times in the Celtic calendar marked powerful liminal “threshold” times, sacred times, in the seasons of their lives.
Our ancient ancestors believed the veil between this world and the realm of the otherworld (the realm of the gods, goddesses and Sídhe (the faery folk) was thinnest at those threshold moments in the year. The sídhe are prominent ancient burial mounds, such as Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange), dotted around the Irish countryside and considered entrance places to the Otherworld. For the Celts, these two realms had permeable boundaries where the ordinary and the supernatural worlds existed alongside each other, one seen and the other hidden and unseen.
In these seasonal programs and in Walking Between Worlds, we will explore the seen and unseen in our own psyche. In an early Irish poem called Carn Máil, from the 11th century ancient text Dindshenchas (meaning lore of places), we will "weave the web of knowledge", of Depth psychology and of the past, to your own personal development work.
PHOTO CREDIT: KEN WILLIAMSAre you yearning for a sense of meaning and belonging in your life?
Do you wonder about the inner mysteries?
Do you yearn for a deeper connection to yourself and the world?
Are you drawn to learning more about the ancient Gaelic and Celtic world? Do you wish to unearth your depths and awaken your inner wisdom?
“As we look we feel the presence of a lost world. We are out of touch. We have no bridge on which to step across so many centuries.”
PHOTO CREDIT: KEN WILLIAMSIntroducing: Seasonal Programs
Cultivate a sense of wonder and beauty, deepening into the inner sanctum of the symbolic world.
Why seasonal programs?
These seasonal programs are designed to support you in walking between those worlds through the lens of Depth psychology, psychotherapy, mythology and the Gaelic world, the language and old Gaelic poets, and the Celtic symbolic life to support your path of individuation, your personal growth and development. We will explore the inner world, the symbolic, how to work with our dream images, as well as the power of the Celtic creative force of “Imbus Forosnaí”, “the wisdom that illuminates”, exploring what that might mean in our inner world and to cultivate a relationship with it, to spark your creative instinct, your sense of wonder and curiosity, explore the mystery of life, attuning to the symbolism of the Celtic rites and ancient lore, and make conscious the ancestral lineage, building a relationship with your depths, to help you return to a sense of a home within.
Each seasonal program will be four months long, allowing you to explore the overarching theme more deeply. It is set up so you will have weekly content to explore in digestible amounts, mixed in with a live workshop every month to explore the concept with others walking between worlds. Each month builds upon the next, exploring another aspect of the theme and allowing you to fully experience, reflect, learn, and heal from the wounds in your life.
Each month will include:
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Introduce Monthly Theme: At the beginning of the month, you will receive a 30-minute pre-recorded video on the monthly theme 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 specific month’s theme and how this learning can be a rich source of knowledge to support you in developing a relationship with your inner world and soul self.
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An Immersive Experience Live and Recorded. 1.5 hour facilitation per month (total 6 hour live facilitation)
The Sunday Sanctuary Gathering draws on the features of all the Deepening the Senses workshops and includes ritual, mythology/folklore/ music, and poetry. It will be a space of reflection and exploration, a space for sharing and mutual learning. This space aims to create and cultivate a community of like-minded individuals who are on a path of discovery and self-development.
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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 from these ancient stories and images, and deepen our relationship to our soul selves.
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After the LIVE workshop, I will send out a form for each of you to share your insights and experience. I will compile (anonymously) the reflections and share with you all the various different ideas and thoughts arising from the month’s work, allowing you to hear other perspectives you may not have uncovered yet— deepening your understanding and experience.
We will close the month with a ritual and the essence of what we will be taking with us from the experience. What treasure will you take home? What will you symbolically leave behind on your path forward?
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COMPANION E-WORKBOOK
Each month, a downloadable workbook (6-10 pages) will be available. It will explore the monthly theme, offer exercises to deepen the experience and provide a space to note your experience through awareness, journal invitations, and personal reflection.
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) CERTIFICATE
For Irish Mental Health Professionals*, a monthly Continuing Professional Development Certificate will be available for download. (*If you are not an Irish Professional, you may check if your association will approve the certificate.)
WEEKLY EMAILS / BLOGS
I will send out an email each week that includes the relevant weekly links and allows you to break down the theme’s intentions with Journal prompts, reflections, and goals based on the monthly theme/workbook prompts.
PLUS! IRISH WORDS
A Focal Gaeilge/ Irish Word will accompany the theme via the weekly email to deepen your connection to the work, the word, the Irish ancestors, and the topic through the lens of the Gaelic language and Depth psychology.
Spring 2025 Seasonal Program
Returning to the Well
Healing the Mother Wound | Mother Archetype and the Celtic Spirit
FEBRUARY 2025 - MAY 2025
In the depths of darkness, in winter, we yearn for the returning light. In some Irish mythological stories, the Cailleach, the ancient crone, the goddess of winter, at the beginning of spring, turns herself into the Iníon Buí, ‘the yellow daughter’, and transforms into Brigid.
In this very first Walking Between Worlds Spring program, we will explore the mother archetype in our own lives. This is the most universally recognised archetype of the feminine in our culture. In Jungian Psychology, the mother archetype is associated with the qualities of nurturing, protection, loving care and compassion.
Autumn 2025 Seasonal Program
Out of Solid Stone
Healing the Father Wound | Returning to the Inner Touchstone
AUTUMN / WINTER 2025
Stone often marks important sacred Celtic sites in Ireland. The Lia Fáil, the Stone of Destiny, stands on the Hill of Tara, the Royal Center of Ireland. Ail na Míreann, The Stone of the Divisions, stands on the Hill of Usneach, the sacred centre of Ireland. And the Cailleach herself, at this winter threshold time, created the very mountains of Ireland herself, dropping stones from her apron as she crossed the landscape.
Healing the Father Wound is a journey into self. It is a wound that runs deep into the ground of our sense of self. It affects both men and women. If we had a personal father or caretaker who was physically absent, emotionally absent due to addiction, emotionally distant, or abusive…we may grow into our adult selves, feeling some sense of disconnection from our inner ground, feeling at a core level invisible, abandoned, rejected, and unworthy of love.
This seasonal program will help us acknowledge the wounds we carry and how these wounds impact our engagement with the world and with others. We will explore how to claim the solid ground within, trust the granite stone of our core sold selves, come into our wholeness more and more, and embrace our lives, mind, body, and spirit.
PHOTO CREDIT: KEN WILLIAMSWhat Past Participants have said...
About
Eileen Sullivan
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.