Module 1
Opening The Field
Every meaningful journey begins by arriving.
This first session opens the shared field of the journey ahead. We arrive not only as individuals, but as carriers of lineages, memories, and questions that reach beyond our own stories.
Field theory reminds us that none of us exists in isolation. We are always shaped by the relationships, histories, and wider fields we belong to. Together we begin exploring how Ireland's story continues to live within us today. From here we begin mapping the Irish psyche as shaped by rupture, resilience, silence, and survival, and start naming what's often carried but rarely spoken: an ambivalence toward our own Irishness, a secret sense of it, a humour that connects as much as it deflects.
We ask: why am I here? What calls me to this room? This session is about building resource and safety together - a steady enough ground to meet, later, whatever this journey asks of us.
This is a threshold space, not only for us, but for those who came before, and those who follow.
This opening module is less about finding answers than about creating the conditions from which the rest of the journey can unfold.
Simon Courtney
Simon Courtney is an accredited psychotherapist, coach, and group facilitator based in Ireland. His work integrates developmental and collective trauma, attachment, somatic awareness, and spiritual inquiry, supporting people to explore the intersection of personal healing and wider cultural inheritance.
Alongside his private practice, Simon has facilitated groups exploring Irish identity, ancestral healing, and collective trauma.
He is committed to creating relational spaces where individual and collective transformation can unfold with presence, curiosity, and care.
“Society is… a partnership… between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”
~ Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)