Mad in Ireland: Fields of Healing

About Mad in Ireland: Fields of Healing

We give some indication of the origins and aspirations of this podcast series in our introductory episode. There have always been what are sometimes deemed alternative approaches to understanding emotional distress, mental health issues, extraordinary experiences; and responding to them. Mad In Ireland embraces the post psychiatric new paradigm in mental health, in terms of giving voice to what is collectively embraced within this paradigm. Fields of Healing contributes to this overall expression by showcasing conversations with practitioners who are engaged in fields of healing that respond to life challenges, including those that relate to emotional distress and mental health issues. There is no expectation of contributors conforming to any one understanding of this new paradigm, indeed some may not even have a mental health language though fit the paradigm none the less.

Publisher

Mad in Ireland

Category

health & fitness · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Sept 2023

Latest episode

26 Jan 2026

Latest episodes

11 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Jan 2026

   Peer support in mental health: State of play in Ireland

   Liam Mac Gabhann in conversation with Martha Griffin, Ciara Glynn and Rebecca Fitzpatrick Peer Support in Mental Health as an accredited national qualification since 2016 is entering a second decade. Six years into Sharing the Vision (2020), mental health policy intending to embed peer support working into all aspects of statutory service and support peer led community services. One could imagine that as a discipline, peer support is thriving; mental health service teams have radically shifted form an insular biomedical coercive approach to a relational empowering service provision; and evidence based mental health interventions are generally peer led or at the very least co-delivered with other professionals. Let's not imagine, lest we get lost in fantasy. Instead, we have a chat amongst three people who have been involved in the evolution of peer support in Ireland and are at different phases of that timeline. All three have been peer support workers, with Rebecca most recently qualified and now a peer support worker. They introduce themselves at the beginning of this podcast. We hope you find a moment in time commentary on the state of play, interesting.

2. 

   19 Aug 2025

   So what is Eco-Arts Practice and how does it relate to mental health?

   Liam Mac Gabhann of Mad In Ireland in conversation with Siobhan Madden, Engaged Eco Artist ‘Ecological Art’ is a genre that emerged in the 1990s but in which was largely influenced by practices which had come in to movement in the 1960s.  Some of the principles and themes which underpin these practices are stewardship of interrelationships, emphatical approach to non-human species, connectivity, ecological and ethical responsibility, exploration of the complexities of life.  As well as the ability to bring awareness and pro-activism to environmental issues, eco-art aims to cultivate joy by drawing upon an instinctual love of life in which an empathic connection with Nature births.  There is a restoration of the body, mind and soul when direct contact and awareness of Nature.  A dialogue occurs where the movement of what crosses you by no longer seems random and meaningless.  Nature’s patterns mirror your internal world and when seeking harmony and cultivating better health for the external environment, naturally this occurs inside the human body too, for we are the space we are in, and we are interconnected with all of Nature.  When engaging with nature materials like nettle cordage, felted wool or wild clay, it brings a directness to what came before you and empowers you with this recalling, where your body remember a vast language of survival, sustainability and celebration.  Pressing in to clay actually interplays with much deeper neurons in the body which opens new neural pathways in the brain.  Creativity has the ability to heal.  Our instincts naturally tell us to seek green spaces, with shade, food and water.  Our bodies naturally relax in these spaces.  We co-regulate with Nature with the ions of rain, the rhythm of a waving branch, our hands in the soil, the breath of a horse.  Ecological Art is a way of being, an approach and a call and an action to restore harmony between humans and non-human species. During the period of 2009-2019,  I worked as both a Special Needs Assistant in the educational system and a Health Care Assistant in a Public Hospital setting which supported my studies and my travels.  I also embarked on a deep healing path beginning with reiki and then to shamanic medicine.  In my memory it is times sitting with intention at a tree in the forest, noticing the shapes of shadows and light dancing, sound and movement of water, a fox, a squirrel or a bird that would catch my attention, that really grounded the big energies that were occurring on this path.  It brought safety, stillness and sanctuary and allowed my body and mind to come out of flight and fright.  This is what brings health. The herd of horses and the way they would signal to move, the sound of their hooves and snorts, the warmth of their breath and rhythm of their large bodies brought me back to my own. My yearly art pilgrimages to a roadless and carless village of Ginostra  with Art to Heart brought heart-centered way of giving space to artmaking in myself and in holding space for others with sensory engagement as a central role.

3. 

   28 Jul 2025

   Open Dialogue, it hasn't gone away you know

   When we consider much of the recent mainstream news coverage and indeed government bypassing of due process in relation to legislation and the reiteration by psychiatric soap boxes of the need for enhanced coercion in mental health, one might imagine that all notions of personhood, self autonomy, choice and voice by people with mental health challenges are being overridden. Whilst this onslaught against personhood and autonomy is rife, beneath the veneer of media bias and misguided government action, there is clearly a rising tide that seeks to embrace the international mandated paradigm in mental health that overrides and indeed has condemned outdated harmful psychiatric practices to the annals of historic cruelty. On the cusp of this tidal wave, Open Dialogue as an evidence based human rights based approach to mental health care in therapeutic intervention floats across oceans to many many lands, even Ireland. Most people that may be reading and listening to this will have some idea what we mean by open dialogue and Mad In Ireland have described it elsewhere  when publishing  on the effectiveness of the West Cork Open Dialogue approach as the service was withdrawn a few years ago. The effectiveness of Open Dialogue Approaches in its purist form and indeed in a more pragmatic dialogical practice form is probably indisputable at this stage, though there are critics who argue for more randomized controlled trials to be sure to be sure.

4. 

   6 Jan 2025

   Social Farming: Connecting with land, with community and with history

   Welcome to the latest Mad In Ireland Fields of Healing podcast episode. It seems fitting that as we move into the time of Imbolg the time when ewes are pregnant with their spring lambs, that we are speaking to a sheep farmer and how he has integrated Social Farming into his family’s organic farm. I realise when talking with Matthew that the ‘social’ in the faming programme is key and can incorporated anything from weaving folklore into the names and traverses of the landscape to popping in for a spot of lunch to the local community centre. Social farming provides a deep connection to the land and the seasons. It increases self-esteem and improves health and well-being on many levels.  The meaningful farm activities that allow people to participate in day-to-day farm activities are only one aspect of the experience.  The beautiful scenery, trips in the jeep, social connections, home cooking, and family welcome add a different level of expertise that is unmatched by any other opportunity, in Matthews's opinion.  Another aspect of social farming is the interaction with the local farming community. Participants can feel at ease and become part of the community while they are out on their placement.  It is a fantastic opportunity for people living in town settings like Dundalk, who usually wouldn't have the chance to work outdoors and be in nature. Social Farming in Ireland has the potential to grow, transform and support the well-being of many more people across the generations, from teenagers seeking to leave school to older adults.  Matthew celebrated with social farming teenagers who reached important life milestones, and he recently had a lady participate in social farming on her 80th  birthday. Social farming has been proven to be effective for participants across a range of services, including intellectual disability, mental health, physical disability, addiction services, asylum seekers, long-term unemployed and at-risk youths.

5. 

   7 Oct 2024

   Conversation with Thom Stewart

   This podcast is with Thom Stewart We met in Dublin city recently where Thom showed me two of his favourite trees. Thom introduces himself as having a foot in two camps. Thom speaks about system change and working inside and outside and his involvement up a peer cafe in Galway - The Galway Community Cafe. Thom outlines why he thinks peer support is a contradiction within a health system. Thom has a wonderful overview of society, systems, care and the professionalisation of peer support: Peer support is relational Requires a real emotional connection Can be practical in nature Thom talks about systems, managerialism and service culture using humour and sarcasm while bringing it back to how people who receive services are sometimes failed. Thom then looks at the health services and how professionals jossle and where peer support fits and how peer support can be prejudiced against. Thom finishes with what peer support would look like in a cooperative and the social determinants of health. Care - Cork University Press Cassie Thornton (feministeconomicsdepartment.com)

6. 

   10 May 2024

   Language giving voice to identity and expressing our soul

   In this episode I am delighted to be exploring the place of the Irish language (indeed any indigenous language) as a field of healing. And no better a man to explore this than with Conor Ruadh, who along with many others is an activist in our reconnection with Irish language and culture. Considering language as a field of healing may at first seem strange. Yet within the language of healing and recovery in mental health, we often consider connection, identity, meaning, belonging and sense making as part and parcel of a recovering journey. In this conversation those concepts are central to the relationship between the Irish language and ‘being’. The limit of my language means the limit of my world  (Wittgenstein) This is a sentiment reflected in the work of many philosophers and communication theorists. Language gives meaning to our known world, who we are, making sense of ‘us’ in relation to ‘other’ creating cultural identity that grounds us in connection and shared meaning making. What if all of that is eroded, though colonial cleansing and post colonial shameful perpetuation of that cleansing by the new republic. And a new identity, new meaning making, cultural abys and a disconnect between environmental sense making and prescribed scripts of life replaced a transgenerational identity? Simple things, some languages do not have a word for ‘I’ as they only understand and reflect being as a collective. In English you are something specific, e.g. Mad. In Irish something would be ‘upon’ you, tá brón orm [sorrow is upon me], a temporal condition, rather than a branded meaning. If language shapes our world, then in Ireland our world is shaped by and through the lens of colonialism. And it is here we will first explore that impact and reality, before thankfully exploring where and how our own language can be a field of healing. This episode is slightly longer than usual, though there are two obvious themes, with the first 28mins about colonisation of language and by association a people and the remainder specifically looking at Gaeilge/Irish language as a field of healing. We could have conducted this episode through Irish, except the point of this exploration was not to push the Irish language itself, it was to realise the importance of its connection to healing and by its absence, some of the shared indigenous challenges in being human through the linguistic lens of ‘other’.

7. 

   19 Mar 2024

   Music, the rhythm of the soul

   Welcome once again to Mad in Irelands podcast series ‘Fields of Healing’. This time around we visit the world of music and rhythm as a field or landscape of and for healing. Music is something that many people appreciate in its various guises and it has many forms. If we were to reflect on the impact of music on our lives, we might at the very least notice how different music evokes a range of emotional states; we might even feel that energetic drawback in time to a place when we liked a certain genre or listened to particular songs that remain with us today. We may not have considered the nature of music and rhythm generally as a healing field, yet since time memorial it has played a part in healing rituals. And within the broader eclectic paradigm of healing and how people can and do engage with music as part of their own healing journey, we visit that field. It is vast and at best we can give an Irish sample, in this case from two people who work within mental health services and outside of it, bringing their own version of music and rhythmic healing to the mental health field. We are speaking with Rory Adams, music therapist and Deirdre Howard, Community drum facilitator and hope your interest is peeked by our latest podcast.

8. 

   21 Dec 2023

   Shamanism and the Celtic shaman path towards healing

   We are delighted to be presenting this third episode of Fields of Healing where we discuss a healing field that is becoming more and more visible and popular within Irish healing circles. Shamanism is what many people might think of as something pagan and definitely something from ‘over there’, maybe South America or Siberia or Mongolia, not something Irish. Yes, it is something from ‘over there’ for sure, though more accurately something associated with indigenous healing practices in any part of the world. In Ireland, much of our traditional indigenous healing practices and even words have been disappeared. By various colonial usurpers, latterly by the catholic church and probably significantly influenced by the so called age of reason and science. Of course, healing practices, medicine men and women, remained in folklore and to a large extent perhaps could only survive within this dimension until recent decades, where we have seen a huge increase in interest and practices grounded in our very own indigenous healing. Celtic shamanism has re-emerged within this development and even still, lost words and descriptions are slowly beginning to emerge that give meaning to these practices. For now, shamanism can and does offer a way of being that encompasses this old and contemporary spiritual holistic healing modality.

9. 

   23 Nov 2023

   Family Constellations & Systemic Healing

   We are delighted to present this second Fields of Healing Podcast recorded in a healing field known locally as Granny’s acre. We have adjusted sound as best we can, though we can’t help hearing a short rain shower and distant laughter from outside of our Yurt. Mad in Ireland have opportunistically gathered together a group of family constellations facilitators at Irelands yearly Family Constellations Camp    https://constellationscampireland.ie/  (or https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064473321292) for this episode. What is Family Constellations? Although we attempt to answer this question in the podcast, to tweak your interest, a version or summary describing Family Constellations introduces us to the podcast and interviewees below. Family Constellations is a therapeutic modality founded by Bert Hellinger, who spent many years as a catholic priest and teacher in a Zulu school in South Africa. In Family Constellations we explore dynamics and patterns that run through families. The focus is primarily on trans-generational trauma: how the events that affected our ancestors continue to have an effect on us. Our ancestors often had to deal with massive traumas: war, hunger, early deaths, extreme poverty, and the attitudes and strategies they developed to deal with those events can show up in our lives, where they are no longer helpful.

10. 

    18 Oct 2023

    Kyrie Farm, An Ecological Approach to Mental Health

    We are delighted to present this first ‘Fields of Healing Podcast’, literally from a field, with the potential to bring healing to many who otherwise may not have the opportunity. This episode is longer than a normal episode. It unfolds as a story that can be paused when the listener chooses and can easily, like a good book, be picked up again when you are ready. The background, purpose and public face of Kyrie Farm can be found on their website above. Here in this Podcast, we interviewed three people pivotal to how Kyrie Farm will evolve. John McKeon the founder of this initiative brings the vision and rationale for why Kyrie Farm will be relevant in mental health care into the future. Dr Eoin Galavan is the Services Director for Kyrie Farm and outlines the aspirations for creating a therapeutic farm and what at this stage of collaboration the service will be like. Ciara Glynn brings the voice of experience to all aspects of the services development, as Peer Advisor at Kyrie Farm.

11. 

    20 Sept 2023

    Introducing our Fields of Healing Podcast

    This Podcast will be inluenced and brought to Mad in Ireland by a number of people from Mad in Ireland, in association with Dublin North, North East Recovery College. For this introductory episode Martha Griffin. Triona Byrne and Líam Mac Gabhann chat about their aspirations and plans for Fileds of Healing. Needless to say as the Mad in Ireland collective come to bear on the podcast, we will have  even broader fruitful aspirations. A Rumi poem comes to mind just now, Roughly speaking it goes like this. Somewhere out there beyond right doing and wrong doing there is a field, we will meet you there.

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