This WCI Donegal, ‘Women’s Lives, Women’s Voices’ feature is written by Helen O Driscoll. Helen has led a varied life full of excitement and exuberance, but the essence of Helen is best described as someone who has a massive welcoming smile who loves to help others holistically. This is Helen’s story.

Being born on a dairy farm in West Cork has cemented my love for nature and Mother Earth and I realise it has, and continues to be, a rich resource for me as I navigate this journey called ‘Life’!! Being in nature, the sea, the woods etc is my safe place. We all need to identify what helps us most when we are going through the not so ‘sparkly’ times in our life and whatever that is, be it music, dancing, nature, crafting, writing, storytelling etc. Finding out what soothes our soul is essential, or at least it has been for me as I travelled and lived in London, Preston, Glasgow, Middle East, Australia, Spain and other European places. Finally landing back in Donegal some 7 years ago, a place where nature and the sea is in abundance.

Perhaps it was this early nurturing of animals that led me on my path to becoming a nurse, and gaining over 30 years’ experience, working in a variety of clinical settings. Starting my career in the nursing medical field I moved on to specialise in the Intensive Care (ITU) working in general, cardiac, burns and pediatric (ITC), in the UK, Ireland and the Middle East. Witnessing first- hand the experience of trauma and the body’s capacities to heal, the first seeds were scattered, germinating later in deeper study in this area.

From nursing I moved into the corporate arena, working for a number of large American multinationals, predominantly in the area of wellbeing, absence, project and change management, and employee assistance programmes. I was responsible for setting up the UKs first ever telephonic Disease Management Programme, as well as co designing and delivering one of the first ever Case Management programmes in the UK, wellbeing being at the core of both these programmes. Because of my long-standing interest in wellbeing and body work alongside my clinical and corporate roles, a life-long passion and commitment to individual’s wellbeing and a deep curiosity about body mind medicine, I trained as a Master Practitioner in Reiki, Neuro Linguistic Practitioner (NLP – Master), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT- Level 3) and Integrated Energy Therapy (IET- Level 3)). I also completed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course, Mindfulness in Schools (BiBo,) Breath Mastery and Tension Release Exercises (TRE),

My day job as the NW Living Well coordinator (a free HSE programme for people living with chronic conditions) and my additional roles as a facilitator with two Mental Health charities reflect my long-standing love and interest in facilitation and wellbeing so I went onto complete my Masters in Advanced Facilitation for promoting Health and Wellbeing, receiving a first-class honor. I witness a magic that unfolds when facilitating groups and wanted to learn the academic side of that also, along with a healthy dollop of how our own personal pieces affect a group.

Over the years I have read, listened to, and generally immersed myself in anything relating to understanding how our minds work, how emotions and especially unresolved emotions affect us. I recently furthered my study with two energy psychology modalities that specialise in subconscious reprogramming called Belief Coding®(uses elements of Psychology, NLP, CBT, EFT, Meditation, Matrix-Reimprinting, Emotion Coding, Kinesiology and Energy Healing and is accredited by the CBD Certification process) and Mind Navigation. These latter modalities being especially valuable where there has been an impact through trauma. My interest finds expression in the constantly emerging mind body field and brings together all my knowledge and the bespoke workshops that I create design and facilitate reflect this. This led naturally to running my first retreat in Jan 2023 with a particular focus on the Sacred Divine Feminine.

Fashion psychology is of particular interest to me and I completed a fashion diploma! I am an avid charity shopper with 90% clothing coming from there. From my research I got to know what I have always felt is the way we dress adds another dimension to ones overall wellbeing. This interest has lead to the development of my courses “Do You Wear You” (DYWY) and “Do You Show Your True Colours” and I am looking forward to delivering the DYWY course this May, in a couple of libraries, as part of the Bealtaine celebrations in Donegal.

Alongside all of this, I have been exploring, experiencing and deepening my interest in spirituality. You could say I am out of the ‘Spiritual closet’ as I truly believe that spirituality fills in the gaps that intelligence and emotion fail to fill. Victor Frankl (2000) in his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ says that a person is body, mind and spirit and who had a feel for a higher essence, could withstand much hardship, despite desperate physical conditions.

My extensive travels have included the Pyramids of Giza, Machu Picchu in Peru, Acropolis in Athens, Coliseum in Rome, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and many more destinations. My travels are for me, reminders that humans have always had this desire for the ultimate purpose or meaning of life, and that my ancestors have grappled with a desire to connect with something beyond their existence. Living my own life, I have a deep knowing that there is more. As a result I am open to change and growth and all of the other ‘spiritual ingredients’ required for a fully rich and nourished life. As Rumi’s (n.d.)says ”I looked in the temples churches and mosques. But I found the Divine within my heart”.   I move towards anything that enriches this in me, as it helps to avoid the hardness that can come with life’s wounds that we all experience.

John Moriarty was recorded in a conversation with Tommy Tiernan in which he says that dolphins who had been land animals went down to the sea and said to the ocean ”shape me to suit you”. What a great way to live life, full of trust that all is unfolding as it is meant to because we are all part of the greater mystery and it is certainly how I always aim to live this life of mine. Staying with the theme of trusting how life unfolds, I recently did the Sexual Health and Wellness Course as part of my continuous professional development and among the many things I learned on this course, was the lack of real education around sexuality, more especially the big gap that that there is  between spirituality, sensuality, and sexuality. I am stepping up into how life wants to shape me, so to bridge this gap in sexual and spiritual education, my friend Siobhan and I are organizing a live event called ‘Enlightenment in the Bedroom’. We will be presenting cutting-edge conversations that unravel the mysteries around sexuality, sexual wellness, relationships and intimacy that are relevant to all our lives and all our experiences. Come with an open heart and an open mind and you are guaranteed to leave with insight and information that will make a difference in your life. You can find details here.

WCI-Donegal are always looking for women to share their stories and looking for women to write features on topics of their choice which we will profile as part of our Women’s Lives, Women’s Voices’ series.