About The Elmfield Institute
Our mission is to offer trainings and events which tend to personal, professional and community wellness.
Our vision is to Illuminate the path to wellbeing.
Foundations
The Elmfield Institute was founded by Jane Shaw to provide professional trainings, classes, retreats and events in holistic wellbeing.
Her vision is to offer an accessible path to wellbeing, through delivery of highly researched and enjoyable courses, trainings and events. All work at The Elmfield Institute is based on the foundational principles of depth psychology, trauma-informed neurobiology and creative practices, and providing measurable outcomes where appropriate.
Foundations
The Elmfield Institute was founded by Jane Shaw to provide professional trainings, classes, retreats and events in holistic wellbeing.
Her vision is to offer an accessible path to wellbeing, through delivery of highly researched and enjoyable courses, trainings and events. All work at The Elmfield Institute is based on the foundational principles of depth psychology, trauma-informed neurobiology and creative practices, and providing measurable outcomes where appropriate.
Sharing Through Thought And Feeling
The Elmfield Institute is a diverse group of intuitive and compassionate educators who share the common goal of tending to the wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Our facilitators are multidisciplined experienced educators, researchers and practitioners who have both learned from their academic studies but also through conscious self-exploration and lived experience.
Our aim is to support your fullest potential.
Our Team
Jane Shaw
Lisa Faulkner-Byrne
Gareth Toner
Laurence Shorter
Lisa Pounders
Wellean Wisdom
Using the symbol of the well, we at The Elmfield Institute, have coined the term Wellean Wisdom to describe an innate wisdom that we all carry and although it may be hidden, we can find our way back to that healing wisdom.
A well is a place where humans interact with a source of water. In ancient Irish tradition wells were sacred, and whether from the stories of Brigit’s holy wells or the Dinsenchas, Irish mythology indicates there is a deeper source of knowledge found in the earth’s water streams. Not limited to Ireland, there are many traditions in which wells and waterways symbolise the purity and source of life.
The archetypal symbol of the well suggests that each of us holds a deep knowing of self and collective healing. Embedded in this wisdom is the idea that there are multiple definitions of and approaches to what it means to be well. Thus, there are many streams or paths to the well, each stream presenting a different choice on a different day.
We have named seven streams flowing to and from the well—listening, relating, adapting, flowing, empowering, immersing and tending. There is a reciprocity at the heart of Wellean Wisdom—a giving and receiving. Wellean Wisdom is an evolving practice based upon qualities from diverse fields including depth psychology, trauma-informed neurobiology, empathetic presence, leadership and creative practices.
This shared knowledge of seven streams of Wellean Wisdom, provides a guidepost for sharing, growing and ultimately, getting closer to the well. Wellbeing. The Source. Whether it is through our approach to wellbeing courses for individuals and businesses, our work in communities, training health care workers, or working closely with those recovering from trauma, we find that fundamentally, bringing awareness to this innate wisdom helps to create a path to wellbeing for all.
The Seven Streams of Wellean Wisdom
Listening
Establish a witnessing embodied presence that facilitates active attentiveness towards self and others (human and non-human alike).
Relating
Form reciprocal streams of connection through awareness, compassion, and empathy to engage and tend the field of personal and collective interactions.
Adapting
Foster resilience by strengthening the capacity to consistently differentiate, normalize, and recover from difficult experiences.
Empowering
Equip oneself and others with the aptitude to make choices and realize intentions.
Immersing
Engage deeply with inner and outer resources to dynamically harness creativity and enable new ways of being and expressing; provoke emergence.
Flowing
Align with the movement that comes from accommodating impermanence, change, and transformation.
Tending
Return to Source by consciously nurturing, pooling and embodying the seven Wellean™ streams of wisdom.
Compassionate educators
The Elmfield Institute is a diverse group of intuitive and compassionate educators who share the common goal of supporting the fullest potential of individuals and communities through developing embodied awareness, resilience and adaption, and compassionate relating.
Courses & Events
Free Resources
The Elmfield Estate
Many of our in-person courses and events take place at the Elmfield Estate, Gilford, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. The 18c Elmfield courtyard buildings have been renovated as high tech, spacious conference facilities which are set in 100 acres of stunning landscaped parkland and gardens. Elmfield provides a dynamic, state-of-the-art training facility within a beautiful, tranquil setting.