TED KIRBY

Ted´s journey of transformation came to him in an unexpected way. At the age of twenty-seven, while directing his first movie, his life took an incredible turn as he was diagnosed with a benign tumor on his pituitary gland. At this point Ted had no choice but to channel his energy into healing himself and staying alive. He used every healer he could find. He tried many therapies and every one of them helped him on his journey to recovery. During this time Ted created his powerful form of bodywork, Ancient Release Therapy. He developed this method through hours of Buddhist Meditation and training and by allowing his own body's innate intelligence to repair itself. By being so out of the way and vulnerable, due to the nature of his illness and subsequent recovery, Ted observed the brilliance of his body and harnessed its extraordinary ability, when given the opportunity, to fix itself. Ted brought back full function to both his pituitary and thyroid gland reversing the expectation of a future life dependent on medication.

During this period Ted returned to his Art and integrated it with his healing process leading him to a spend a number of years at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland. As a part of the Artist Residency program he combined his technological art practice with the Museums various community programs and Art Therapies. 

In 2001 Ted entered into training in the Transformational Conscious Arts. Here he began clearing out trauma on a deep cellular level and also old fear based ancestral imprints. This is where Ciara and Ted met and developed their love affair (one of the many perks to this work!). Ted immediately felt that he had found a whole new direction in his life, he had entered a whole new world based on energy and he threw himself into it fully. During this time Ted went through an intense purification of old limitations and behavior patterns that were no longer serving him. He developed a deeper connection with his feelings and his intuition, building a connection with his more feminine, sensitive and vulnerable nature, allowing him to understand and facilitate this deep and powerful group process.

Ted has trained in and facilitated numerous workshops and one-on-one counseling and healing sessions. Learning to facilitate people on an intuitive and energetic level, working with each person to release old behavior patterns and trauma so they can move forward into a more expanded and joyful life.

During this period he also exhibited both nationally in Ireland and Internationally.  Ted's art found its way into many public buildings and installations especially in the area of healthcare. Over one million people have viewed his art in public installations.

Ted lives with his wife Ciara and their boxer dog Sunny in the tropics of Panama, he loves sport, innovation and meeting new people.

‘3 is the magic number’ Meet Sunny + AKA + ‘the enlightened’ DJ SunDog

CIARA KIRBY

Ciara has always had a naturally strong intuition and telepathic nature. She has a great passion for learning about energy. She is a natural performer and she loves to sing and dance. During her teens she performed with professional musical youth theatre productions in national theatres in the UK. At the age of eighteen she was accepted into the Professional Actor Training Course at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. 

At the age of 21 years Ciara began a journey of self-development and spiritual awakening, entering a powerful group process where she learnt about the language of energy.  Here she went through, and continues to do so, an unraveling and purification on a deep cellular level. Clearing out old ancestral behaviour patterns and fear based cultural conditioning while learning the art of facilitating this powerful process of transformation and awakening.  

During the last 17 years Ciara has attended and completed 3000 hours of intensive training, including group therapy and individual counseling.  Here she refined and developed her natural gift of intuition and learnt to guide people to work with and release old behavior patterns and trauma so they can move forward in their life. She continues to train and purify herself, along side her work as a respected teacher and healer in her own therapeutic practice where she also offers Intuitive Life Guidance.

In 2002 she created and developed her highly successful ‘Soul Voice’ Training Method in Dublin, Ireland. Soul Voice was seen as a new and innovative method in working with the voice and natural expression from an intuitive and energetic perspective. For the last decade Ciara has had a successful practice where she has trained, facilitated and worked with people internationally helping them to unlock their unique expression and creative gifts.

 Ciara loves this intuitive and creative way of working as she feels it offers each person an experience that is totally unique.

Ciara loves to travel and to create new adventures. She also loves people, hanging out with her friends, watching good movies, singing, performing and creative writing. She is also very excited to be creating original music and to be working on her first children´s book. 

Ciara lives with her husband Ted and dog Sunny on the beautiful pacific coast of Panama. 

Below is a magazine article from the Irish Times in relation to Ciara’s (nee McParland) work at the time.

Inner voices; Saturday Times Magazine

At the start of our session in a room high above Westmoreland Street, Dublin, voice coach Ciara McParland requests the "Great Spirit" to generate an atmosphere of safety and love. As incense and candles burn, she explains that she is asking this of the "Great Spirit" so that we will be able to access our "soul voices" more easily. When she has finished and the water music emanating from the hefty stereo system behind her has faded away, she says cheerily: "you don't have to believe any of that of course, it's just the way I like to start."

It would be a huge mistake to think that you are coming to a singing lesson when you make an appointment with McParland, who dreamt up her company, Soul Voice, while on holiday in Morocco. That's not to say that by the end of a few sessions with her, your fantasy of being able to stand up at a party and belt out one of your favourite tunes won't be realised. What it does mean is that if you come looking for theory or technical expertise, then McParland - who has a heart-stopping singing voice herself - will gently steer you elsewhere.

"What Soul Voice does is allow you to have a look at what might be blocking you," the professionally-trained actress explains. "Maybe you were criticised during a school play or other performance, and the voice has held on to that trauma ever since. If you just try to sing through it without acknowledging those blocks, you could end up with a technically impressive voice, but you will have no connection with that voice. Soul Voice is all about connecting you with yourself. I like to tell people that while it's not therapy, it can be very therapeutic."

Her customer base has grown quietly but steadily through word of mouth. Lorraine O'Brien, youth arts officer with Dún Laoghaire Youth Service, came across Soul Voice while looking for innovative workshops catering for children.

"I am very interested in the therapeutic benefits of sound, which is what drew me to the kind of work Ciara does," she says. "In the days and weeks afterwards I had greater clarity and a greater peace and wellbeing. I don't know if it would be everybody's cup of tea, but I would describe it as self-discovery through sound. You may not think much is happening at the time, but you see the changes in your life afterwards."

During one session, she just sat for 20 minutes making primitive sounds with McParland. "It's an intuitive, abstract experience," she says. "When we are born, we can't speak, and we express ourselves only through sound. Sometimes words are useless. At times of deep grief or high euphoria, words have a limit, sound goes much, much deeper."

Mark Aherne, a freelance art history lecturer, came to McParland because he was exploring creative areas he had wanted to pursue for years. "I had a mild phobia about singing as I hadn't sung, even in private, for five years, for various reasons. I was terrified my singing fantasy would be shattered, so at first, going to Ciara was quite a fearful experience," he says.

He describes what developed from his Soul Voice sessions as "a small miracle". "I went from primitive sounds, to singing solo, to harmonising with Ciara, to working with drum and keyboard accompaniment," he says, still amazed at his rapid progress. "She approaches singing from an emotional, heartfelt and expressive place rather than an academic or technical one, which worked for me."

"For what I do to work properly, all you have to be is willing," McParland says. "It's not always comfortable working with such a vulnerable part of ourselves, so you have to be open to it."

During our hour-long session I didn't sing a note, which would have been disappointing if the experience weren't so powerful. Instead of a singsong, we sat and talked about possible blocks I might have and walked around the room having passionate conversations with my "soul voice". There were tears, and it felt a bit silly at times, but I left the room lighter of spirit, genuinely surprised at the insights McParland, and more importantly my very own "soul voice", had revealed. (And it's done wonders for my singing in the shower.)