“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
LYDIA
CAMPBELL
Hello there
It’s wonderful to meet you… and this is Socks and Lucy.
I’m Lydia: changemaker, businesswoman, integral facilitator, coach, mentor, trainer, healer, mother, homebirther, doula, tea and croissant lover. I live on a mountain by a lake in the wilds of Wicklow in Ireland… and while I absolutely love all those identities, I also feel like I’m none of them.
Sometimes I simply long to see what the next breath feels like… and feel my son’s snuggles and drink copious amounts of tea while listening to the rain outside.
Early explorations
I found my purpose early in my twenties although it took a while to build a business doing what I loved. This path of exploration wove in training as a lawyer, working in business, and training as a minister. It brought me to working with child soldiers in Uganda, prison ministry for murderers and sex offenders in Ireland, HIV counselling in South Africa, leadership training in India. In between international experiences I was to be found either working in a Dublin law firm or crying on a cushion on a spiritual retreat… both of which were equally valuable.
Over a decade of experience
Since 2008, I’ve been midwifing leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers in the private, public and NGO sectors through their personal and professional development, marrying ancient wisdom with contemporary research and practices. I believe there’s an evolutionary point in the marriage of the old and the new. I worked globally across Africa, India and Europe with over 10,000 clients from private and non-for-profit sectors and once I became a mum, I based myself in Ireland.
Leading edge projects
Examples of work include corporate wellbeing programmes in companies like Apple and Microsoft, facilitating cultural dialogues in Trinity College Dublin, training entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, community development in Northern Ireland and conflict resolution in the Balkans.
Other exciting cultural shifting projects include an AI mental health initiative in London and directing sell-out conferences on mindfulness and culture change in Irish education.
For me, it all boils down to expanding our awareness and embodiment so we can live in alignment, skill and harmony together on Earth… hopefully for longer than the next 30 years!
Three pillars
My work is a weave of three disciplines:
+ indigenous Celtic wisdom + meditation
+ facilitation, communication and adult development
+ business development
My family and background
I grew up in an artistic, entrepreneurial family in Dublin with a love of the land, property, and beauty embedded deep in my bones. We were in an ‘East meets West’ spiritual community which gifted me a holistic perspective on life from a very young age. We were chanting Sanskrit daily in school and meditating from 4 years old which has given my system a deep grounding in transcendental practices. And like everything, transcendence has its shadows.
To embody fully on the earth I journeyed deep and dark into the shadows of my family, my community, my coloniser and colonised self, my spirituality, my traumas, my gifts, my beliefs, and the vessel through which they manifest - my body.
I returned to the indigenous ways of my ancestors, to our Celtic and pre-Celtic wisdom. I re-membered the honouring of the lower worlds, the land and the cosmos and was initiated into living in closer harmony with all life through ritual, ceremony and the beauty of the mundane. I am still unlearning the ways of our capitalist, extractive, white-supremacist society and reorienting my source of intelligence from the mind to the body, soul and Earth.
Those who know me longest would probably say that I have a compassionate heart, a multi-dimensional mind and a wild, unapologetic streak.
I’m a committed meditator and mother of a 8 year old boy. Of all the teachers I’ve had he is, by far, the greatest learning experience of them all.
PRINCIPLES OF MY WORK
WE ARE ONE UNIVERSAL FAMILY WITH CELEBRATORY DISTINCTIONS
LEADERSHIP IS SERVICE AND LOVE
THE TWIN TRAILS OF BEING HUMAN… THE INSIDE OUT AND THE OUTSIDE IN
THE ENDS AND THE MEANS ARE THE SAME… WE MUST BE (ACTUALLY BECOME!) THE CHANGE WE WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD
THE PRESENT IS A WEAVING OF THE ANCIENT AND THE FUTURE
AT OUR ESSENCE, EVERYONE IS WHOLE
WE DANCE WITH POLARITY
NON-HUMAN CENTRIC PERSPECTIVE… WE LISTEN TO THE LAND AND THE INTELLIGENCE OF ALL THINGS
BIO of trainings, qualifications, accreditations
The Adult Development Facilitator
Integral Facilitator - Diane Musho-Hamilton and Ten Directions
Professional Coach membership - International Coaching Federation
Retreat Director, Senior Coach - The Foundation for Transformational Leadership
Trainer of coaches, facilitators and mentors - The Foundation for Transformational Leadership
Trainer - Kingstown College
Mediator - Mediation Institute of Ireland
The Sacred Space Holder
Mindfulness studies - University of Massachusetts Medical School via Centre for Mindfulness in Ireland
Mindfulness Teacher - Mindful Schools
Energy Healer - National Federation for Spiritual Healers
Celtic Shamanic Practitioner - Slí an Chroí
Doula - Doula Training International
The Commercial World Bridger
FE1s - Griffith College Dublin + Law Society of Ireland
Legal Studies, Dip - Dublin Business School
Humanities, Dip - Irish American University, American College Dublin
History, BA (graduating 2024) - Irish American University, American College Dublin
The Supporter of Changemakers
Former Chairperson - The Change Leadership Foundation, a leadership development charity across 5 countries with 10,000+ alumni
Former Board memberships:
The Sarah Bird Foundation - an international trauma healing organisation
Herstory - a cultural movement that tells the life stories of historical, mythological and contemporary women
Open FM - Ireland’s first LGBTQ radio station
Lucca Leadership Ireland - the Irish affiliate of The Change Leadership Foundation
Co-founder National Grieving Day - an annual series of events honouring grief, loss and transitions in life
Co-director Mindfulness Practice in Schools - an annual conference that ran five sold-out events for pioneering teachers and culture shifters in Irish education.
PORTFOLIO
This is a selection of some recent consulting work. While the manifestation of each project varies, THE aim across it all is to empower leaders, expand organisational perspective and elevate cultural consciousness.
The Celtic Wheel: co-facilitating year long journeys for women through an evolutionary development programme using the map of the Celtic Wheel, with wisdom teacher Mari Kennedy
Corporate Wellness workshops: mindfulness and wellbeing programmes delivered in KPMG, IRFU, City Group, GE Capital, Takeda, Metlife, Aviva, SAP, Cluid Housing, Community Credit Union, World Rugby, Teamwork, Segment.
Trinity College Business School: coaching MBA students around leadership and personal development
Conscious Entrepreneurs : directing weekend business training retreat for a female leadership team, developing conscious network marketing and new paradigm entrepreneurship
Artificial Intelligence : delivering facilitation and consciousness capacity building for a leading edge initiative at the intersection of mental health + artificial intelligence
Meditation for Coders: training computer coders how to meditate, aiming to elevate the quality of experience for end users
Mindfulness in Education Conference : Creative Director for annual conference for educators and teachers bringing mindfulness and a mindful culture shift to education in Ireland
Graceful Marketing Retreat: ran a retreat for conscious entrepreneurs on graceful, authentic marketing with Sara White at Right Track Creative.
Doulaing: trained as a doula and began supporting women during pregnancy and birth.
Handfasting Celebrant: co-celebrant at a handfasting marriage ceremony
Giving Birth : had a natural homebirth – the biggest initiation of my life!
National Grieving Day : co-found and supporting three annual series of events honouring grief, loss and the sacredness of transitions in all its forms
Wise Woman Summit : Speaker at online summit, sharing insights on birth and mothering, sofar
Celtic and Shamanic Studies: studied and was initiated in the rituals and ways of our indigenous Celtic culture
The Arts of Hosting in Ireland : gathering and hosting artful facilitators, in collaboration with Chris Chapman of Change Exploratory
The Change Leadership Foundation : Course director of programmes and week long retreats for emerging social change leaders
Brigid’s Way : committee member for a national pilgrimage dedicated to reawakening the feminine energy and journey of Brigid of Kildare.
Sarah Bird Foundation : Director at Irish charity aimed at relieving trauma in victims of conflict and natural disasters
Leaders on a Boat : co-hosting a series of dialogues on leadership with The Art of Navigation
The Well at Liss Ard : facilitating cross sectoral wellbeing sessions as part of an exploration into placing wellbeing at the centre of Irish life
Sunryse : directing weekend-long residential programmes on transformational leadership for a Dutch charity, working with professionals who live and serve with passion and strength (Netherlands)
Myanmar : part of two person team, travelled to Myanmar for discovery and engagement with humanitarian organisations requiring psycho-social and trauma support, with the Sarah Bird Foundation
Art of Navigation : building professional development services for mindful leaders
Be The Change : facilitating project development process for a community of changemakers in Inishowen peninsula, northern Donegal
Pachamama Alliance : facilitating and supporting a global community generating a critical mass of conscious commitment
Awaken Ireland : facilitating residential training for local facilitators in conscious facilitation - part of a movement, arising from the recession, exploring supportive and positive solutions for Ireland
The Change Leadership Foundation : ‘Leadership Foundations’ – directing week long retreats for emerging social change leaders (UK)
Lila Poonawalla Foundation : leadership coaching on week long residential programme, empowering Indian girls through education and leadership (UK)
Lucca Leadership Macedonia : ‘Leading Together’, directing a residential training weekend on conflict resolution and leadership (Macedonia)
The Change Leadership Foundation : ‘Catalyst’ – coaching and supporting young leaders on week long residential immersion programmes that focussed on deepening leaders’ inner strength and outer effectiveness (UK)
Lucca Leadership Ireland : directing Mentor Training’ for the support and development of young transformational leaders
Concern Worldwide : facilitator and trainer in Innovations for Maternal and Newborn Child Health’ over 3 months in India and Malawi.