Synchronising & Resourcing
In the first two sessions we focused on synchronizing the group around the roadmap for the lab, by creating a shared intention, by introducing the competencies we would need for the journey, and by fostering coherence and presence in the group field
A key inquiry in the first session was looking at what brought people to the lab. The sharing about this revealed how the Famine feels like a distant event, hard to feel, and with a confusing narrative. Yet it also revealed a strong sense that the Famine has major affects for us as individuals, through our ancestry, and in Irish culture and institutions. For those in the diaspora, the sense of distance is even stronger and there are gaps and distortions in the emigrant narrative. Many people touched into something they had not felt before and the sharing of this created a strong and beautiful group resonance that surprised everyone. The coherence arose from the way we structured the inquiry and from how we facilitated the open sharing. This strong coherence at the start carried through to the final session of the lab, and was a major resource as we started to move into more challenging terrain in later sessions.
Our second session centered on resilience as a key resource—honoring what Irish ancestors endured to survive, and how their strength lives in us. Though facilitation lacked flow, open sharing revealed many felt connected to ancestral resilience as a support on this journey.
Meeting the Collective Trauma Landscape
In the third session we explored fragmentation, because that is the first thing one meets when looking into the famine. There is no coherent narrative about the famine; it doesn’t even have an agreed upon name (but most commonly in Irish it’s An Gorta Mór). What we meet is narrative gaps, narrative distortion, loss of the language, most history written in the colonizers’ language, etc. We looked at the individual, ancestral and collective dimensions of this. The exploration in triads was around how fragmentation is alive in us now, and there were many touching share as touched into this fragmentation in a new, deeper way for the first time. We also noticed that the work of the first two sessions helped the field feel more grounded as we started going into the traumatic events of the famine.
In session four, we explored absencing and denial. The Famine's trauma was overwhelming—too much to process, too painful to feel. In triads, we reflected on what our ancestors had to deny to survive, and how this echoes today. In Ireland, the legacy is palpable; in the diaspora, it’s often erased—left behind to forge an Irishness that excluded the Famine’s horrors.
Exploring Individual & Collective Conditioning
In session 5 we explored how individuals are affected by the famine. For this session, we anticipated that a lot would be coming up for people and we decided not to have triads but to do an Immram (an Irish inspired visualization/meditation) and to have a longer period of open sharing instead. It was a good decision. In the open sharing, many people shared that they were starting to see that some of their “personal issues” were coming down to them through their lineage. This was sometimes painful and disorienting, but most people were able to self-regulate well and thus have some space for integration.
In session six we explored how the social and cultural environment that conditioned us was affected by the famine. We took time at the start to highlight some of Ireland’s social problems and institutional challenges, and the significant influence in them of the Catholic Church. And in the diaspora we looked at how Irishness is viewed and portrayed in stereotypical ways (Paddywackery). The inquiry was what was it like to grow up in this environment and how did it affect us? The open sharing included many personal experiences of numbness and turning away that these systems rely on in order to function, and of feeling pressure to be a certain uncomfortable way simply in order to belong. Many rich shares about this.
Listening to Ancestral Roots & Voices from the Field
This stage involved guiding participants to attune to both individual and collective dimensions of ancestral trauma and resilience. We began each session with grounding practices and meditations to create a shared sense of safety and presence, emphasising somatic awareness and emotional regulation, while also tending to our shared (we-)space as a group, as we began engaging with the collective trauma field.
Through structured exercises, such as ancestral attunement and family tree explorations, participants were invited to sense the energetic imprints of their lineage and reflect on the interplay of resilience and unresolved trauma. We did our best to frame these inquiries as opportunities to uncover ancestral voices and narratives, fostering an atmosphere of curiosity and compassion. By presencing what was silenced or numbed in previous generations, participants explored transgenerational patterns and their impact on the present, including topics such as internalised objectification to collective shame and a sense of scarcity.
In triads and group discussions, participants shared personal insights while sensing into the shared field. Guided meditation, journaling, and prompts invited reflection on ethical violations and ancestral interconnectedness. By listening deeply and slowing the pace, we supported space for complexity and multiple truths within the collective field.
Integrating & Restoring
Our approach to integrating and restoring included grounding meditations, attuning to seasonal changes, and somatic practices to help participants connect with ancestral and personal experiences. Participants reflected on how their relationship to themselves and their lineage had transformed, identifying insights and new perspectives that emerged throughout the sessions.
Integration involved revisiting earlier stages of trauma work, including session eight—“the bend in the river”—where we sensed more in the field needing to be felt and witnessed. Small group exercises and journaling prompts invited reflection on questions like, “How have I changed?” and “What do I need for restoration?” These opened space for deeper voices from the field to speak to land, agency, belonging, family silence, and ancestral rage.
Ethical restoration was a focal point, emphasizing repair of fragmented connections and the restoration of "light" within the relational field. Participants shared experiences in triads and larger groups, supported by a potent short film based on Eavan Boland’s Quarantine.
By weaving personal and group insights into shared meaning, we supported a deeper integration of individual and collective transformation.
Transforming & Meta-learning
Participants explored individual and shared learnings from the year-long journey, focusing on ethical restoration and transformation across personal, cultural, and societal dimensions. Grounding meditations, co-regulation, and journaling supported embodied reflection and integration of insights.
Breakout groups encouraged dialogue, where participants shared realizations and reflected on collective learning. These discussions surfaced emerging possibilities—shifts in perception, greater capacity to hold complexity, and creative potentials. Participants considered how ethical restoration could inspire societal transformation and a reorientation of language and institutions to support healing and justice. The conversations carried both hope and a recognition of feeling mute in the face of large systems, while also affirming Irish sensitivity to injustice, what was lost, and the need to reforest Ireland.
Ritual practices, such as altar-making, honored personal and ancestral transformation and symbolized the inner and outer journey. A final plenary offered space for closing reflections, fostering a sense of integration. We did our best to hold the field with care, emphasizing our interconnectedness and the potential for this work to inspire broader healing and systemic change—grounding it all in gratitude and collective wisdom.
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