Our mission is to create a centre for sustainable health
Our vision is to illuminate the path to wellbeing
A Family Welcome
Elmfield is a Shaw family operation whose heritage is one of farming and health. It is the vision of Jane Shaw to create a centre for sustainable health at Elmfield, illuminating the path to wellbeing through the work of The Elmfield Institute, providing a tranquil private learning environment for organisations, and raising awareness of healthy living through the Elmfield Wholefood and Wellbeing market. Whether you visit for a wellbeing training, a day to the market, or for a company awayday, you will be met with a warm Shaw family welcome.
What We Offer
Facilities
Wellbeing
Market
Meet the People
Jane Shaw
Jane Shaw marries Jungian psychology, craniosacral therapy and trauma-informed neurobiology to support individuals to recover from and become resilient to adverse life experiences. As a therapist, writer and educator, Jane delivers training programmes and retreats experiences in Ireland and internationally as well as running a biodynamic craniosacral therapy clinical practice at Elmfield.
Her teaching approach is one of embodied presence, compassion, equanimity and deep listening, bridging the latest developments in neuroscience and new medicine with lessons from ancient healing arts, while always learning from the natural world and its ability to heal and be healed.
As part of her bid to raise the global conversation in body-mind medicine, Jane has organised conferences and international events that have a history and reputation for providing a platform where new ideas emerge in the field of trauma and body-mind practices. She has brought together leaders in the field to share ideas and move conversations forward. Speakers have included Daniel Siegel, Stephen Porges, Gabriel Roth, Bessel van der Kolk, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Rupert Sheldrake, Gabor Mate, Babette Rothschild, Stanley Keleman, Mae van Ho, Peter Levine as well as many others.
Before immersing in the world of mind-body health, Jane worked for many years in business and finance, including a position as Finance Director of a boutique consumer brand and entertainment PR agency in London. Her experience in the corporate world provided her specialised business knowledge but has also shown her how the stresses of modern life adversely affect our health and behaviour.
She holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and an M.A. in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is a registered craniosacral therapist and SSP provider. Having lived for many years in London, Jane now lives at Elmfield Estate, Co. Down Northern Ireland full time.
Catherine Shaw
Dr. Catherine Shaw trained as a medical doctor, specialising psychiatry. Her research interests are focused on trauma-informed approaches to child and adolescent mental health as well as the complex nature of chronic health conditions.
Ann Shaw
Ann Shaw is a former physiotherapist, and company director of family farming companies and of Colly Farms Cotton, a publicly listed company in Australia, in which the family held a major shareholding. Ann served as chair of the Healthy and Safety Agency NI for which she was awarded a CBE in 1998, and was the first female chair of the Institute of Directors. She was a member of the Better Regulation Task Force in the Cabinet Office under Prime Minister Blair’s term of office, and a member of the NI Memorial Fund. Her involvement in education was as a member of the Senate of QUB where she was more latterly on the Board of Visitors, and also as a member of the Post Primary Review Body. Ann has always been involved in the charitable sector; a board member of Cooperation Ireland, and chaired the Full Stop Appeal for NI. She was made a national Vice President of NSPCC five years ago having been a trustee of the NSPCC NI for 10 years. Her musical interests allowed her to previously serve as a board member on the now-defunct Opera NI and on the present orchestra Camerata, a NI based orchestra.
Derek Shaw
Derek Shaw’s career has been in the international food sector. At Elmfield in the 1970’s he started a large beef fattening enterprise. As a beef producer he was involved in forming a farmer’s cooperative to process and market N Ireland beef. This later became Linden Foods and where he was chairman until 2005. In the public sector he chaired various Task Forces related to farming and food. He was a director of The Industrial Development Board and subsequently Invest Northern Ireland and chairman of Armagh and Dungannon Health Trust.
In 1980 he invested in Australian agriculture and was the founder and creator of Colly Farms Cotton PLC and subsequently a director in other Australian farming companies. In 2000 he became a shareholder and director of North Australian Pastoral Co a cattle company selling to local and international markets. He was a shareholder and director of M P Evans PLC a UK Plantation company with interests in Australia and Indonesia.
History of Elmfield Estate
Elmfield Estate has been a family home for generations and of the Shaw family for the last 60 years. It has evolved through the years, from a modest dwelling house and stable yard in the 18c to an impressive Victorian Scottish baronial style house with turrets and ziggurat balustrades, built by the wealthy linen barons in the mid-1800s. The estate ran into disrepair after the second world war but was saved by the Shaws who have lovingly restored the house, farm, and gardens room by room lawn by lawn. Elmfield has certainly been a place of transformation and vision over the last 60 years. When Derek and Ann’s three children were little, they enjoyed the freedom and wildness that only a semi-derelict estate can offer. To turn that into what you see today is down to Derek’s vision.
There are more than 300 years of fascinating history to be discovered here, from the history of the founding, design and redesign of the house to the plans for the grounds and courtyards. Over the years more than one family dynasty of linen merchants has called Elmfield their home, and the layers of heritage here offer deep insights into Northern Ireland’s once-dominant linen industry.
During World War II Elmfield was home to a very different cohort of people, housing German and Italian prisoners of war within its grounds. Some years after the war a comprehensive restoration of the Elmfield Estate was completed by the Shaw family and forms the basis of what you can see today, enabling the estate to host rewarding holistic experiences that include trauma-informed training programmes, corporate wellness and leadership programmes, and transformative retreat experiences.