Emma Philbin Bowman
I was born in Dublin in 1969, and now work as a psychotherapist, writer, lecturer and group facilitator.
I am a passionate advocate of integration, human complexity and how we may – throughout our lives – continue to support our individual growth and expression within the wider contexts of which we are a part. In my original workshops and courses, I try to offer an opportunity to engage with areas of existential concern, in an environment of safety, trust and subtlety of process. It is my wish to support participants to deepen their authenticity, insight and self-experience, while also expanding empathy. I am inspired by beauty, physical work, swimming, photography and the myriad expressions of uniqueness, generosity, fortitude and grace in others.
Background/Professional: My original (first class hons) degree was in Philosophy and English Literature from University College Dublin, and these remain a rich influence on my work. From my early twenties I immersed myself in Buddhist and Advaita teachings and practices, alongside work as a writer, care assistant, lecturer and teacher. After a year as garden manager at Gaia House Meditation Centre in Devon, I returned to Ireland in 2000 to train as a psychotherapist at the Institute for Creative Counselling.
For the past fifteen years, I have worked as a psychotherapist in private practice. For many years, I lectured at UCD on the MSc in Mindfulness and facilitate on the training at The Mindfulness Centre.
Current Context: More recently, I have studied and practiced extensively within the Diamond Approach (Scandinavia) and within the sangha of Contemporary Mystic Thomas Hubl – contemporary spiritual traditions committed to deepening our capacity for presence while also addressing character structure and relational healing. I am passionate about sharing the transformative and healing potential of relational inquiry in a peer practice context, and in working online and in person with group process that deepen our capacity to experience ourselves in relation with one another.
VII
by Wendell Berry
I would not have been a poet
except that I have been in love
alive in this mortal world,
or an essayist except that I
have been bewildered and afraid,
or a storyteller had I not heard
stories passing to me through the air,
or a writer at all except
I have been wakeful at night
and words have come to me
out of their deep caves
needing to be remembered.
But on the days I am lucky
or blessed, I am silent...I go into the one body
that two make in making marriage
that for all our trying, all
our deaf-and-dumb of speech,
has no tongue. Or I give myself
to gravity, light, and air
and am carried back
to solitary work in fields
and woods, where my hands
rest upon a world unnamed,
complete, unanswerable, and final
as our daily bread and meat.
The way of love leads all ways
to life beyond words, silent
and secret. To serve that triumph
I have done all the rest.