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To register or ask questions:
Phone/text Niamh Barrett: 086 2857212 or Josephine Lynch: 087 2372130
Email Niamh at wholeheartededucation@protonmail.com
THE WAY OF COUNCIL
A two-day immersive workshop in remembering our shared humanity through listening and speaking from the heart
Council is an ancient and universal practice of gathering in circle—of slowing down to speak and listen from the heart. We come together to bear witness, one voice at a time, sharing stories rather than opinions, and listening without judgment.
Through stories of love and loss, courage and change, we begin to recognise how much we share beneath our differences.
The Way of Council invites us to:
This foundational training (formerly Council 1) offers a grounding in both the spirit and structure of Council.
Participants explore the history, principles, and forms of the practice, and learn ways to bring Council into families, workplaces, and communities.
Through experiential learning and shared reflection, you’ll develop confidence in facilitating circles that foster presence, connection, and authentic communication.
This training welcomes:
Community organisers, educators, mindfulness and meditation teachers, prison chaplains, artists, activists, caregivers, therapists, and anyone drawn to nurture deeper listening in their lives.
Jared Seide — Executive Director, Beyond Us & Them
Dr. Ann Seide — Senior Council Trainer and board-certified Internist and Integrative Medicine Physician
Together they bring decades of experience in facilitating Council practice across diverse cultures and contexts.
Jared Seide is the author of Where Compassion Begins, a book about Council and mindfulness.
"Where Compassion Begins is an invitation to build the muscle of compassion, through exercises and practices that enhance our capacity to listen from the heart and, in so doing, take care of ourselves and those around us."
“A wonderful training that opened the heart. I can see how Council circles could be transformational in people’s lives.”
“A rich blend of theory, experiential learning and humour that brought everyone together.”
“Beautifully nourishing—professionally and personally. The trainers are exceptionally skilled and warm in their approach.”
Fee: €350
Early Bird: €300 if paid by 1 February 2026
This rate is also available for previous Council workshop participants
Supported Places: Limited number at €250 — please email to enquire
The fee includes a 5% contribution to Wholehearted Education (a sister project of showing up), supporting ongoing Council practice and training opportunities
Deposit: €100 secures your place; balance due by 17 April 2026
Attendance: Full participation both days is required
Time: Arrival from 9.30 for a 10am start till 6pm, both days
Venue: Avila Centre, Dublin 4
Please bring lunch on both days. Tea and coffee is provided.
Phone/text Niamh Barrett: 086 2857212 or Josephine Lynch: 087 2372130
Email Niamh at wholeheartededucation@protonmail.com
THE WAY OF COUNCIL
A two-day immersive workshop in remembering our shared humanity through listening and speaking from the heart
Council is an ancient and universal practice of gathering in circle—of slowing down to speak and listen from the heart. We come together to bear witness, one voice at a time, sharing stories rather than opinions, and listening without judgment.
Through stories of love and loss, courage and change, we begin to recognise how much we share beneath our differences.
The Way of Council invites us to:
This foundational training (formerly Council 1) offers a grounding in both the spirit and structure of Council.
Participants explore the history, principles, and forms of the practice, and learn ways to bring Council into families, workplaces, and communities.
Through experiential learning and shared reflection, you’ll develop confidence in facilitating circles that foster presence, connection, and authentic communication.
This training welcomes:
Community organisers, educators, mindfulness and meditation teachers, prison chaplains, artists, activists, caregivers, therapists, and anyone drawn to nurture deeper listening in their lives.
Jared Seide — Executive Director, Beyond Us & Them
Dr. Ann Seide — Senior Council Trainer and board-certified Internist and Integrative Medicine Physician
Together they bring decades of experience in facilitating Council practice across diverse cultures and contexts.
Jared Seide is the author of Where Compassion Begins, a book about Council and mindfulness.
"Where Compassion Begins is an invitation to build the muscle of compassion, through exercises and practices that enhance our capacity to listen from the heart and, in so doing, take care of ourselves and those around us."
“A wonderful training that opened the heart. I can see how Council circles could be transformational in people’s lives.”
“A rich blend of theory, experiential learning and humour that brought everyone together.”
“Beautifully nourishing—professionally and personally. The trainers are exceptionally skilled and warm in their approach.”
Fee: €350
Early Bird: €300 if paid by 1 February 2026
This rate is also available for previous Council workshop participants
Supported Places: Limited number at €250 — please email to enquire
The fee includes a 5% contribution to Wholehearted Education (a sister project of showing up), supporting ongoing Council practice and training opportunities
Deposit: €100 secures your place; balance due by 17 April 2026
Attendance: Full participation both days is required
Time: Arrival from 9.30 for a 10am start till 6pm, both days
Venue: Avila Centre, Dublin 4
Please bring lunch on both days. Tea and coffee is provided.
Phone/text Niamh Barrett: 086 2857212 or Josephine Lynch: 087 2372130
Email Niamh at wholeheartededucation@protonmail.com
BA Hons, Post-grad Dip. Journalism, Certificate to teach MBSR (IMA)
Niamh began her training in teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in 2007 with a foundation year at the University of Bangor in North Wales, and completed her training with the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches (Germany), graduating in 2010. Prior to this, her working life was in documentary film and television production, latterly as a director on the environmental programme, 'Eco Eye'.
In 2010 she began teaching the MBSR programme in Kilkenny and Waterford and since 2013 she's offered it in Wicklow, Dublin city and online. She is also a mindfulness-teacher trainer and supervisor. Niamh has been a committed meditator for twenty years and regularly attends silent retreats and further training, receives supervision while teaching and adheres to the Good Practice Guidelines.
For a number of years she has been exploring the intersection of mindfulness and social engagement through her own practice, retreats and teaching. Beginning in summer 2019 she facilitated a group through a six-month, long-form mindfulness and social engagement project, showing up. In 2019 the showing up programme engaged directly with the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis in Ireland. With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, these offerings moved online to facilitate mindfulness and 'connection circle' sessions to groups of foster carers, healthcare workers, school principals and members of the general public who wanted to connect in a mindful and meaningful way with others during the pandemic. The project continued online with anti-racism study groups and broadened to offer mindful engagement with the ecological emergency once back in-person.
Since 2017, Niamh has been participating in council circles and studying the Way of Council. Since 2023, she has organised council circle workshop training weekends in Ireland with trainers Jared and Ann Seide of U.S. organisation Beyond Us & Them.
Niamh is a student of Frank De Waele, Roshi in the tradition of Zen Peacemakers. In May 2025, along with Roshi Frank, she will co-lead a Bearing Witness retreat in Ireland on the theme of the Ireland's mother and baby homes.
