This week, Dumitrița and I were in the Slí Eile Farm in Churchtown, Ireland, to give a two-day workshop with expressive arts. We arrived a little early, partly to prepare, but mostly to live alongside the tenants for a while: to see, listen, and really feel what life here is like.
Slí Eile isn’t just a farm. It’s a care community where mental health, wellbeing, and everyday life all meet in one place. The people here are wonderfully unique, each with their own mind, their own history. And yet, the togetherness is unmistakable. It feels strong and steady, the kind of bond you don’t often stumble upon.
Designing this workshop was a good challenge, the kind that stretches you in all the right ways.
Day One
We started gently, laying Dixit cards across a table and asking everyone to pick one that spoke to them. It was an easy way to begin, a small window into how each person was arriving that day. Then came spingle, a mix of speaking and mingling, moving to music, stopping to connect with someone nearby. It sounds light, but it did the heavy lifting. Suddenly there was laughter, ease, and a sense that maybe this could be fun after all.
“I feel better after this, and I really clicked with them, bring them back!”
Next came Draw Your Breath. Eyes closed, pen in hand, shapes sketched in rhythm with the inhale and exhale. It grounded the group, quieting the energy and drawing attention inward for a moment.
After a short break, we shifted into the Imaginarium: shoeboxes, cutouts, glue, and scissors. Each person built a little box full of what mattered to them: joys, passions, feelings. The room hummed with focus and creativity. Later, during a small exhibition, everyone peered into one another’s creations. The reflections that followed were rich, sometimes surprising. Imagination, it turns out, is a very honest mirror.
Day Two
By the second day, the shift was clear. People danced more freely, smiles came quicker. We pulled out the Dixit cards again, but this time the question was: Where are you today compared to yesterday? The answers showed just how much had moved in just a day.
Then came Voices and Echoes, a writing exercise that opens into poetry. At first, there was hesitation, poetry can feel intimidating, but what emerged was astonishing. Honest, fragile, raw.
“I’ve been in a hospital for a year, but this workshop is next level compared to the art therapy I experienced there.”
After a pause for tea, we ended with the Lucid Canvas: two paintings, side by side. One of how life feels now, one of how it could be. For some, it was heavy. For others, it felt freeing. For all, it was meaningful. The canvases spoke of longing, hope, and the quiet courage it takes to imagine change.
“Thank you so much, I was exhausted afterwards, but I got so many insights. By god I hope I will see you again.”
When everything was displayed, boxes, poems, paintings, it no longer felt like separate pieces of work. It felt like a shared story, told together.
What Stays With Us
The aim was simple: create space for connection, reflection, and resilience. But Slí Eile made it into something bigger.
“Bring these two people back.”
That’s the magic Jess Angland, our host, has helped build here. She welcomed us with open arms, and what began as a collaboration quickly turned into a friendship. With Jess, the staff, and volunteers, Slí Eile has become more than a care farm, it’s a place where people chat, cook, and carry one another in everyday ways. A place where community isn’t just spoken about, but lived.
Walk through its doors and you feel it straight away. That sense of care stays with you. It’s the kind of place that reminds you what being human, together, can really look like.
We approached this workshop through peer dialogue, expressive arts, and experiential learning. These are not just methods for us, they’re ways of creating real connection. We believe the best workshops are built with people, not just for them. That’s why we work closely with every group we meet, listening first, and transforming each experience to their needs. The goal is always the same: to offer the most meaningful outcome possible, and to create a space where people can feel seen, heard, and supported, through play, creativity and lived experience.