ghlór mná is a writing and creative wellbeing community for women and mothers in the west of Ireland. we’re not a writing class, and we’re not therapy. we’re the space between. where words are the tool, play is the purpose and connection is the core.
☀️creating moments of connection
☀️creating moments of connection
come as you are
leave a little lighter
I sat in a room full of mothers feeling completely alone, not because the room was empty. But because it felt like nobody was speaking the truth.
I left that room and decided to build a different one.
Because its not just mothers who feel this. Its women who have forgotten how to play for the sake of it.
Women who are so busy pouring into others they forget how to inhabit their own body. Women who are busy being everything to everyone that they have stopped prioritising themselves. Women who have not written anything for themselves in years.
Ghlór Mná is a community focused space for women to write, play and reflect.
Our work sits at the intersection of wellbeing and creativity, and our workshops are a chance for you to slow down long enough to ask what does play mean to me?
You don’t have to be a writer, an artist or a creative to enjoy our events. You just have to be willing to show up and the curiosity to learn. We all have the innate ability to play, here’s where you find it again.
ghlór|mná
voice|women
The voice that has been waiting for a room safe enough to speak.
upcoming events
+ workshops
We’ll be engaging all of our senses for a multi-sensory experience:
Sight: We’ll use a choice of a contemporary tarot or the classic Rider Waite deck as a visual prompt to guide us through our work.
Sound: As always, we’ll relax into the evening with a backdrop of ambient electronic music.
Touch: We’ll employ our hands using various materials from collage, paint, acrylic marker, to gold foil embossing and pastel. .
Taste: Through the night we will be served moreish snacks and charcuterie paired with a light fizzy 0.0% champagne.
Smell: As part of the meditation we’ll use a blend of familiar herbs, spices and essential oils.
Our sessions are designed around the Lapidus writing for well-being model, NLP techniques and use sensory anchoring.
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Your story matters, no matter how ordinary you think it is.
behind ghlór mná
ghlór mná is a writing and play centered community for women
We create intimate, held spaces where women can write, reflect, play and connect, with themselves and each other.
Our events are not writing classes. Not therapy. They are something in between, where the page becomes the place you can finally put down what you have been carrying.
Our work is grounded in the Lapidus International writing for wellbeing framework and the Pennebaker expressive writing research, which has been shown across more than two hundred peer-reviewed studies to improve mental health, reduce anxiety, strengthen immune function and support emotional processing. We believe creativity is not a talent reserved for certain people. It is a human function. And we believe that writing your story, however ordinary you think it is, is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself.
About Claire
Claire Kelly is the founder and lead facilitator of Ghlór Mná. She is a published author, a writing for wellbeing practitioner and a Lapidus International member. Claire is a student of Creative Change at Crawford School of Art and Design, and her workshops are modelled on the Lapidus guidelines, the Pennebaker protocol, creative storytelling and NLP.
Claire has facilitated writing and wellbeing events including sold-out workshops across Mayo. Her work has been published in the Westival anthology and she writes semi-regularly over on Substack at claairekellyy.substack.com.
A gentle note on what we are not
Ghlór Mná is a writing for wellbeing community and not a therapy service.
Our sessions are not a substitute for professional mental health support, and we do suggest if you are experiencing a mental health crisis please reach out to your GP or the Samaritans on 116 123, free and available twenty four hours a day.
We also have a library of resources available over on our instagram @ghlormna.women
testimonials
“Wonderful day Claire. Amazing how relaxed and laid back everything was. Lovely build up to the writing. Didn’t think I would write a word and ended up writing loads. Thank you so much”
“Thank you for a beautiful day. I loved all the connection and guidance”
“I didn’t realise how much I was carrying until now. Thank you”
“Thank you for showing me and reminding me that I can drop into myself, no matter the noise of the world!
Loved every part, especially the writing”
“You never want it to end, I feel lighter already”
“Wonderful program 🙌 Loved the theme of holy mountain & ocean”
“Slowing down may feel like a sacrifice in progress’ — a quote from the card I pulled and I’ll keep for the next while with me 🙂 Something I struggle with and a lesson I’m learning so I’ll take that with me from today”