Love In Action
Ashe House is home to a unique and dedicated centre for MindBody Integration. The internal spaces and mature gardens offer calm, comfort, and quiet — a space for people to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and grow in their own time. The centre hosts a range of embodied and therapeutic approaches, including meditation, mindfulness, somatic movement, yoga, and compassion-based practices.
To become an enriching learning space for All.
To become a premier programme-oriented facility, focusing especially, but not exclusively on Meditation, Mindfulness and Self Compassion, Positive Neuroplasticity, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Trauma and the Body, Somatic Awareness, 5 Rhythms/Open Floor dance movement and Yoga.
The current owner and manager of Ashe House, Anne Kirwan, sees herself in the role as custodian for the house and gardens, holding dear to, and honouring the ethos and spirit of creating and providing a Sacred Space for individuals to find balance, healing and transformation. The house and gardens resonate with this energy, which enhances the experiences of all who come to visit.
The centre also embraces the ethos and thinking of Thomas Ashe (1885-1917) as his core values of education, creativity, and equality are honoured at Ashe House to this day.
Our Mission is to provide a sacred space and supportive community for individuals to learn the ancient wisdoms of meditation, mindfulness and self compassion along with other transformative practices and courses which integrate, heal and nourish each person who comes to Ashe House.
We are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment to enhance the learning experience and personal development of each individual. We believe in the unique and transformative power of this special place, recognising that retreat and refuge must always be in the service of something larger than oneself. We endeavour to give you the skills and tools to access your own talents and creativity for your own sense of purpose- and the world.
Ashe House is dedicated to providing a quiet, comfortable space to the groups and individuals who are our guests.
We hold the simple belief that the way we treat ourselves and the way we treat the world as being one and the same.
The gardens are used as a framework for how to use every aspect of our lives as an opportunity to create a kinder, more balanced, and more sustainable world- from the inside out and from the outside in!
Only by deepening our internal awareness can we create long term external change.
The outside working space at Ashe House supports ecology and sustainability through organic gardening, recycling all materials and self sufficiency with composting, along with careful planting to attract insects and bees for pollination, birds and other wildlife. This invites all of the senses to be engaged all year round adding to the sensory experience of learning and growth.
What makes Ashe House unique is its simple ethos of:
Inviting each person across the threshold, offering a point of entering and beginning of their own journey. A place where the principles of Loving Kindness and Compassion are honoured and cherished. Recognising that we all share the right to realise our full potential to love, to learn, to feel deeply, and to create. Living fully in all aspects of our being- mind, body, heart, soul and community. We take risks to reveal and discover ourselves. We provide learning opportunities and support personal and social transformation.
Offering a place and space of containment conducive to general well-being and bodily health.
Returning to the age old traditions of our ancestors of hearth space, where there is always the sense of welcome, warmth and hospitality, time and space for each individual to tell their own story, and allowing the opening for Heart space to happen.
Standing on the shoulders of the ancient ones and our Celtic traditions, a connection to something that is older than us, to those who have gone before. Building on this older knowledge and adapting it to present time.
We recognise the interdependence of all, appreciating diversity of persons, thoughts, actions, and beliefs.
Anne trained as a General Nurse, specialising in the area of neuromedical/neurosurgical nursing, and then as a Midwife over 35 years ago.
With a concrete background and passionate interest in neuroscience, neurobiology and psychology, it was a natural progression to training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy- a body centred psychotherapy grounded in somatic psychology and neuroscientific research.
Anne is qualified as an Advanced Practitioner (Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist) by the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute (SPI), Boulder, Colorado, and was the sole Organiser and representative in Ireland for all adjunct Professional Trainings both in Traumatic Trauma and Developmental Trauma offered by the Institute at Ashe House for over 12 years. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® draws from somatic therapies, neuroscience, attachment theory, and cognitive approaches, as well as from the Hakomi Method, all underpinned by Mindfulness.
Maria Dominguez is working as Administrative Assistant in Ashe House since December 2018. She has been a participant on the 8 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction(MBSR) and the 8 week Mindful Self-Compassion(MSC) Course as well as many workshops such as an “Introduction to Trauma and the Body”.
Through Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course (MBSR) she was able to cope with daily stress, tackle anxiety and sleeping problems that she endured back them. Similarly, the Mindful Self Compassion course (MSC) was a deeper experience about personal circumstances she had at the time. This 8-weeks course impacted tremendously in the way she looked herself and her live in Dublin. Mindfulness and Compassion has been very beneficial, helping her how to deal with stress and anxiety. As of today, she is still practicing MBSR Sitting meditation practice to reduce daily stress.
Since then, she has been organising and assisting with the logistics of the Onsite mindfulness courses, retreat days, and monthly evening meditations at Ashe House. She is also an integral part of organising the offsite courses such as the now annual 5 night (MSC Residential Intensive) at Ballyvaloo Retreat Centre, County Wexford.
Maria has a bachelor’s degree in business and a MSc in Data Analytics from CCT College Dublin.
Embrace the journey, and let the West of Ireland be your path to wellness and renewal.