WHO WE ARE
Ecowellness Consulting Ltd. (Formerly Nature, Health & Wellbeing Ireland) is a “Profit for Purpose” business with a strong focus on achieving social, community and environmental benefits.
Meet the Team
Shirley Gleeson
Shirley is a Nature & Wellbeing Consultant and the Director of Ecowellness Consulting Ltd. She is also the Co- Founder of the Forest Therapy Institute. She holds Masters Degrees in both Health Promotion and Social Work and has over twenty years experience working in the areas of health and social care in the public, voluntary and private sector. She designs nature based interventions to improve and enhance people’s health and wellbeing and facilitates nature based training for mental health professionals.
She is a certified Forest Therapy Practitioner, Mentor and Trainer with the Forest Therapy Institute and has been a past trainer and mentor with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs, based in the U.S. She has also trained as a Nature Guide with Ecotraining in South Africa as well as undertaking an internship with the People and Conservation Departments of the South African National Parks. Shirley has trained in ecotherapy in the UK.
She has extensive postgraduate training in expressive arts therapy, counselling, stress management, therapeutic play, dialectical behavioural therapy skills, behavioural family therapy and theraputic use of mindfulness. She is also a WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Planning) facilitator. She is a member of Crann, Trees for Ireland.
Shirley has presented her forest therapy research and practice at international conferences in Ireland, UK, Switzerland, Greece & Austria and has addressed the United Nations in Geneva on the topic of human health and forests. She is part of the Advisory Committee of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) WCPA ( World Commission on Protected Areas) Health & Well-being Specialist Group. She was recently an Academy Awardee with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland.
Donal O’Keeffe
Donal is a Research Psychologist with over a decade’s experience in the mental health field. He supports the work at Ecowellness Consulting by guiding its development and progress in line with cutting edge research advances and advises on an evidence base for the programmes offered. Donal is an international expert on the recovery orientated approach in mental health; with special interests in nature based mental health interventions, recovery in psychosis, and service user involvement in mental health care/research.
Donal has completed his PHD in Meaning in Life in Trinity College Dublin. He currently works in DETECT, Ireland’s early intervention in psychosis service. His work focuses on mental health recovery and he has a proven track record of publishing in peer reviewed journals and presenting at international conferences. To date, he has played an integral role in the development and rollout of multiple projects and initiatives that have promoted positive mental health in communities in Ireland.