Encountering the Ancestral
A somatic and experiential practice of witnessing inherited histories
Starts 8 October 2026
Overview:
What we inherit lives in us, known and unknown: the people of the past, the circumstances of their lives, and the great forces that shaped them — war, famine, genocide, and the systems that produce them: capitalism, colonialism, classism, racism. This work goes beyond the trauma, to the whole of a life: what they survived, and what they never got to become.
We don’t heal the past. We look at the conditions they lived in, and we come to understand them, and to feel for them. In that understanding, we find we don’t have to carry what they carried. For the person sharing, and for all of us witnessing, it is a reconciling with their ancestral history, in service of the here and now.
What Happens in a Session
I ask who in their family line they’d like to work with. Often it’s someone who might have flourished, had there been more support in their life. From there, we follow with curiosity and interest, no agenda for where we should get to.
Everyone else pays attention to what they notice, in the story, in the person, and in themselves. What surfaces in one person’s family line stirs something in the rest of us.
Around this, we discuss those forces, and in doing so we come to see ourselves, our families and our culture more clearly.
This is for anyone ready to face the people they come from. To turn to someone in your line and look at what they survived, and what they never got to live. Not to stay with the past, but to loosen its hold on the present, and on what comes after.
Facilitator: Stephen Brown
Stephen is a somatic and relational practitioner and trainer based in the north of Ireland. He is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), trained in Internal Family Systems (Level 3), Compassionate Inquiry (Practitioner, Mentor and Facilitator) and Gestalt, and has mentored hundreds of practitioners over recent years. His practice sits where the somatic meets the wider field: the transgenerational, the collective and the cultural. He has a particular interest in colonialism, and his approach is shaped by years of community work.
Good to Know
DATE
15:00–17:00 UK and Ireland time
LOCATION
Zoom (link on booking)
WHO CAN COME
PAYMENT
FAQ
Do I need prior experience?
No. If you’ve never done anything like this before, you’ll find your way in by being here and witnessing others.
Is this therapy?
No. It isn’t therapy and it isn’t a process group. It can move you deeply, and you may feel your own history stir. That belongs in your own support outside the group, not here.
Will it be recorded?
No. Someone shares something personal each time, so the group meets live and stays live.
How do I take part?
Book below. The Zoom link and anything else you need follow by email.
Joining the Training
Once payment is received, your place is confirmed.