How to stay in tune and know your inner self

Lifestyle – Judy Murphy gets self – care and health advice from psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Máirín Ní Nualláin

Get to know yourself. Be patient with yourself. Work on being in tune with yourself and follow your own star, even if other people say it is crazy.”

That sound advice for self-care and good health comes from Dr Máirín Ní Nualláin, a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst who practises psychotherapy in Galway City, offering a service for both Irish and English speakers.

After graduating in medicine from UCG, Máirín trained in psychiatry and became a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Later, in her 30s, while working as a psychiatrist in London and trying to figure out her own feelings about life, she went for counselling. Her counsellor recommended that she explore the teachings of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, which she did by attending a fortnight of workshops in Zurich.

After returning to London she continued her own psychotherapeutic work and availed of Jungian training facilities. In 1987 she returned to Ireland as her father had died, and finished her training here.

Psychotherapy as a profession suited her, she says, as she was always drawn towards “the inner life”. These days she knows more about a person’s inner existence than about their physical body.

People who seek out Máirín’s services are usually either suffering the pain of depression or abandonment, or having difficulties making relationships – issues that impact on how they feel about themselves. She also gets people who are examining their lives and making transitions, people who want to look at their choices.

In our fast-moving world, where televisions, computers and smart phones are always on, we live very external lives, says Máirín. But sometimes having our needs met by external things does not cater for our spiritual requirements

The recession has been a difficult time for Irish people and she’s not trying to belittle its impact, but adds that perhaps it will take time for us to discover that’s what’s happening now may actually be beneficial for us.

Maybe we have learned to live with less and live happily, she feels.

One development she welcomes is the opening up of society in the past few decades.

“There was so much shame and pain in Irish society. Shame was a big issue, and it prevented people from being able to realise themselves.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.