Welcome. I'm Aisling. I live in the wild edges of Donegal, working in person and online internationally as a Somatic Therapist and group facilitator.
My roots in the North of Ireland gave me both a deep love of nature and the lived effects of colonialism's legacy. Having grown up during the height of " The Troubles" ( the civil war), I struggled with depression, disempowerment and dissociation. I also couldn't relate to the wider values of modernity, and struggled to find my place and purpose in the world.
Catapulted by inner turmoil, I had to journey inwards, to dive deeply into my own healing- peeling back the layers of cultural conditioning that kept me feeling separate and small.
I became thirsty for wisdom ways to help me through. Beginning in my 20s, I immersed myself in trainings, retreats, and teachings in Ireland and abroad.
Somatic practice helped me to arrive back home to my body, and initiated healing and soul growth. I discovered that the way out of suffering, is through. Crisis, I learned, can become catalyst, just as the caterpillar re-emerges from the cocoon.
As the walls within me began to dissolve, I learned how to trust my body's wisdom and how to flow with life's waves, rather than being submerged by them. I began to experience a life richer in synchronicities and possibilities. The old patterns may remain but, a different relationship with them is possible.
“You are not an encapsulated bag of skin dragging arounda dreary little ego. You are an evolutionary wonder, a trillion cells singing together in a vast chorale, an organism – environment, a symbiosis of cell and soul.” –Jean Houston
Returning to live in the West of Ireland in my 30s, I came to know belonging and safety in community. My personal healing birthed a longing for wider collective change, as I experienced directly how life can be brought back from the brink.
Something of the Irish landscape called to me too, with a strong sense of the soul of this place, wild and untamed, defying human intention, calling us back to our full sensory aliveness. I fell in love with nature once again, and felt the glimmers of a soul-centred purpose, emerge.
Whilst taking root once again in Ireland, I continued to train and transform, offering guidance, teachings and therapy to individuals and groups.
I've had the privilege of training directly with Joan Davis, founder of the first Somatics training in Ireland, Jean Houston, co-founder of the Human Potential Movement in the US, Aftab Omer and other faculty from Meridian University, the Animas Valley Institute, and more ( see full bio below).
AnamSoma comes from these lineages, and from life experience. It is an evolving field of learning and inquiry, exploring how body, nature, and soul shape human development and leadership.
Somatic practice can heal trauma and relational wounding, as well as grounding us in the living intelligence of nature.
Celtic wisdom reweaves us into right relationship with one another and the world around us, understanding nature as animate.
Transformative leadership looks at shifting paradigms and supports the inner transformation needed to affect cultural change.
From cell to cosmos, from self to wider systems, AnamSoma invites us to explore nature's wisdom in these turbulent times.
Trainings.
1992-1998: B.A English Literature & French.
2006-2008: Teacher training Contemporary Yoga
2008-2010: Teacher training Holistic Well-being through Movement
2010-2011 : M.A Movement Research ( 1st class hons)
2012- 2018: Indigenous trainings in the Navajo and Celtic traditions
2012-2015. : Diploma Origins Somatic Therapist and Educator
2017-2018: Spirituality and sexuality trainings with Trish Cameron
2021: Feminine Power: Essential Awakening Course for Women
2022: Soulcraft introductory/ immersion training.
2018: PhD studies in Psychology and Transformative Leadership
with Meridian University, California.
2025: Nature and the Human Soul:
Human Development Program for Parents & Educators
Work History