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Cost: This weekend is offered in the spirit of generosity with space reserved for those who may not have access to financial resources. In order to make these offerings viable and continue to offer this important work to those with less access to finances, we offer a sliding scale payment.
Sliding scale for the Standard single room is from €350 to €390. For an ensuite, sliding scale is from €390 to €430.
You will be asked to pay a €100 deposit when signing up for the retreat.
Practising generosity allows others possible younger folk to attend. So if payment presents a hardship to you and you feel strongly called to join this weekend, please reach out and connect with us as we have a number of bursaries available.
Fees include supper on Friday evening, breakfast lunch and dinner on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. All meals are vegetarian. Gluten-free and vegan options available by request after booking.
To book please fill this form in:
https://forms.gle/by8QiAQXuopeXK8g6
And then please pay your deposit at the Book Now button below.
How do we engage consciously and creatively with what’s unfolding in the world around us without shutting down or burning out? During this weekend we make space for our gratitude and grief, our rage and numbness, allowing ourselves to experience collective practices for creating a just and life-sustaining future for all.
In the midst of climate breakdown, violent conflict and oppression, political polarization, increasing income disparity and ecological destruction, it's easy to fall into despair, overwhelm and numbness. The dominant culture of modernity, built on colonial power and industrial growth, thrives on this psychic numbing. This impedes our capacity to respond with resilience and imagination.
During this weekend, we will learn about and experience the spiral of The Work that Reconnects and the practice of Active Hope, developed by eco-philosopher and environmental activist Joanna Macy. This work was developed over many decades using teachings from systems thinking, deep ecology, deep time, undoing oppression and spiritual traditions.
This spiral journey includes four stages that we will experience together as an interactive group process in depth across the weekend. It’s a process we can experience over and over again beyond this weekend, each time gaining new insights, boosting our resilience and strengthening our resolve to act on behalf of all life.
Is this for me? This gathering is open to anyone who currently has the capacity in their lives to experience this work within a group setting. If you are called to creatively explore how to be more fully alive and engaged in these unprecedented times, perhaps this weekend is for you. It is suitable for anyone both new to this work or with prior experience.
The weekend will be experiential in nature and will include dialogue in small groups, some brief meditation practices, with periods for silence, individual reflection, creative practice and rest.
Check-in on Friday 16th May from 5pm until Sunday 18th May after lunch.
Situated in the town of Tullow, the venue of Teach Bhride Holistic Education Centre provides a supportive space, away from the distractions of business-as-usual, for this work of reconnection with ourselves, with others and with the natural world we belong to. Participants can enjoy the rolling gardens with mature trees and ample seating, nourishing vegetarian food and clean private rooms.
Teach Bhride is located in the centre of Tullow, Co Carlow. It is accessible by bus routes 800 and 874 via Carlow town, or if you would like to offer or avail of lift sharing please let us know.
If you are interested but unavailable for this weekend, we will be hosting more workshops and weekend gatherings in the future. You can contact us on ecomindfulnessireland@gmail.com to register interest and we will keep you posted on booking details.
If you are in a group or team that would like to hold a gathering for your group, please get in touch and we can share with you the various options available to facilitate this with an existing group over different time frames. We work with many groups from community and activist groups, to teams in larger organisations.
Sarah-Jane and Josephine are passionate about creating supportive space for individuals and groups to explore their deep ecology and relationship with the natural world, to grieve for its unfolding destruction and social injustice, and to cultivate their collective resilience and agency for deep transformation.
Sarah-Jane Cullinane (PhD, Diploma in Mindfulness-Based Interventions) is an experienced facilitator, mindfulness teacher, and educator with over 15 years’ experience working with adult groups. She leads programmes, retreats and workshops with both the general public and with existing groups including community, advocacy, activist, management and board groups. Her delivery and facilitation work spans the areas of group development, mindfulness, and The Work that Reconnects. She has also completed training in facilitating Council Circles which she uses in much of her work with groups.
Sarah-Jane is currently chair of the board of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland, a non-profit professional body of qualified mindfulness teachers. She previously worked in Trinity College Dublin as lead Fellow of Education for Sustainable Development and Assistant Professor in Organisational Behaviour where she led a curriculum reform programme across the University and co-developed transdisciplinary modules on Education for Sustainable Development, the Climate and Ecological Crises, and Work and Wellbeing. She co-developed the Postgraduate Diploma in Workplace Wellness in Trinity College Dublin and acted as an academic lead for Healthy Trinity. During this time Sarah-Jane published and contributed to content in national and social media on the topics of mindfulness and sustainability.
Josephine Lynch, M.A. Mindfulness-based Approaches (Bangor University), Lic. Ac., Dip. Herbal Josephine was among the first people to bring the teaching of mindfulness in the tradition of Jon Kabat-Zinn to Ireland and has been teaching MBSR/MBCT since 2005. She also is certified to teach Mindful Self-Compassion.Josephine was one of the core team of teachers on the M.Sc. in Mindfulness-Based Interventions in UCD and had been involved in programme development and delivery since its inception in 2014.
Her background is in Mind / Body Chinese Medicine. She was involved in developing and working with Sláinte Pobal in Dublin in the 1990’s, an initiative to bring courses in health education into areas of socio economic disadvantage.
Josephine was one of the founder members of the professional body, Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland, which represents mindfulness teachers in Ireland and was its first chairperson from February 2018 until October 2020. Josephine is one of the founders of The Mindfulness and Compassion Centre and she is co-director of the 18-month Professional Mindfulness Teacher Training programme which the Centre has been running since 2015.
She is a community member of the world wide network of The Work That Reconnects and deeply wishes to share this creative response to a world that is on fire.
Contact us on ecomindfulnessireland@gmail.com
“Don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel. Or the anger or the fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring” - Joanna Macy
“I strongly recommend Sarah-Jane and Josephine’s Active Hope workshops/tasters/seminars as they offer a space for people to stop and think about the mess we’re in. Having the space to think deeply about the climate crisis in a calm, connected and serious way and then working through overwhelm towards hope was invaluable. People from across the university found benefit in the sessions, despite their different world views, ways of working and backgrounds. I highly recommend.”
- Martina Mullin, Healthy Campus Manager, Trinity College Dublin
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M.A. in Teaching Mindfulness-Based Approaches, Bangor University, Wales
Josephine Lynch, M.A. Mindfulness-based Approaches (Bangor University), Lic. Ac., Dip. Herbal Medicine, has also gained the Certificate of Competence to Teach Mindfulness-Based Courses from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. She completed a two year programme with the Bodhi College in early Buddhist Psychology and its influence on contemporary practice. She is also a qualified to offer supervision to mindfulness teachers.
Josephine was among the first people to bring the teaching of mindfulness in the tradition of Jon Kabat-Zinn to Ireland and has been teaching MBSR/MBCT since 2005. She also teaches Mindful Self-Compassion and, having undergone a period of intensive supervision, and has completed all requirements to become a fully certified teacher of the Mindful Self-Compassion program as outlined by the Center for Mindful Self Compassion. Josephine was part of the team that brought the world renowned Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh to Ireland in 2012.
Josephine is one of the core team of teachers on the M.Sc. in Mindfulness-Based Interventions in UCD and had been involved in programme development and delivery since its inception in 2014.
Josephine’s background is in Mind / Body Medicine and she has worked most of her life using acupuncture, shiatsu and herbal medicine to foster mind / body wellbeing. She was involved in developing and working with Sláinte Pobal in Dublin in the 1990’s, an initiative to bring courses in health education into areas of socio economic disadvantage.
Josephine was one of the founder members of the professional body, the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland (MTAI.ie) which represents mindfulness teachers in Ireland and was its first chairperson from February 2018 until October 2020. She has been organizing CPD for mindfulness teachers and teacher trainees since 2008, fostering and supporting the development of a strong community of mindfulness teachers in Ireland.
Josephine is one of the founders of The Mindfulness Centre (mindfulness.ie, 2008), and she is co-director of the 18-month Professional Mindfulness Teacher Training programme which the Centre has been running since 2015.
Diploma in Mindfulness-Based Interventions, PhD, Academic FCIPD
Sarah-Jane Cullinane (PhD, Diploma in Mindfulness-Based Interventions) is an experienced facilitator, mindfulness teacher, and educator with over 15 years experience working with adult groups ranging from 5 to 500 participants. She leads short and long programmes ranging from 8 week courses, weekend retreats and half/full-day workshops, working with both the general public, with community / advocacy and activist groups, and with management / board groups in the areas of Group Development, Mindfulness, and The Work that Reconnects. She has also completed training in facilitating Council Circles which she uses in much of her work with groups.
Sarah-Jane is currently chair of the board of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland, a non-profit professional body of qualified mindfulness teachers. She previously worked in Trinity College Dublin as lead Fellow of Education for Sustainable Development and Assistant Professor in Organisational Behaviour where she led a curriculum reform programme across the University and co-developed transdisciplinary modules on Education for Sustainable Development, the Climate and Ecological Crises, and Work and Wellbeing. She co-developed the Postgraduate Diploma in Workplace Wellness in Trinity College Dublin and acted as an academic lead for Healthy Trinity. During this time Sarah-Jane published and contributed to content in national and social media on the topics of mindfulness and sustainability.
Sarah-Jane is particularly interested in creating supportive space for individuals and groups to explore their deep ecology and relationship with the natural world, to grieve for its unfolding destruction and social injustice, and to cultivate their collective resilience and agency for deep transformation.
