Podcast 22: Conversation with Moonqueen, Margaret O Brien on her journey from banker to healer

This week we bring Margaret Meehan O'Brian, aka Moonqueen, a qualified Intuitive Healer and Spiritual Teacher, who works with women who have suffered from domestic abuse. Margaret shares how she came about her healing practices and the benefits they can have for women who have lived through trauma.  You can learn more about upcoming workshops and contacts on moonqueenhealing.ie

The View is the only organisation in the third sector that puts women with lived experience at the heart of all that we do, from our board, to our volunteers, The View is a living community that is creating a brighter future through art, story-telling and hope. Come and be part of our brave mission and vision for a fairer world. Thank you for listening.

Transcript

Episode 22: Conversation with Moonqueen, Margaret O Brien on her journey from banker to healer

Madalena - Host for The View

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen

Madalena - Host for The View : 0:00

Welcome to the View Magazine's Rebel Justice podcast from our someone's daughter podcast series. This week we bring you Margaret Mehan, a qualified intuitive healer and spiritual teacher who works with women who have suffered from domestic abuse. Margaret shares how she came about her healing practices and the benefits they can have for women who have lived through trauma.

Madalena - Host for The View

 : 0:25

Margaret, thank you so much for, for coming and being with us, sharing a bit about your experience. So just to start with, I'd love you to tell us a little bit about yourself, mostly regarding how is it to be a modern Irish woman , in an Ireland that is changing so fast and growing in diversity and in strength?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 0:46

Okay . <laugh>. Wow. Well, first of all, thank you for having me on. I'm so grateful and so honored to be asked. So yeah, a big question, but , um, so for me, I'm 37, I'm a mom . I'm a partner. I'm a sister <laugh> . I'm all sorts. And in this world, I think at the moment , it's important that we have a voice, and especially in Ireland at the moment. So I'm doing a lot of work in the wellbeing and healing, space. But my background is in finance, and I came from a corporate banking world, so it was a very male driven kind of area. And, you know, it was very much dominated by, by men. And for me, I suppose I wanted to make a change. So I really worked my way up and I had quite a senior role and I loved it. But I think it's important that we, we don't lose our femininity as well in the process. And I think that's what I'm seeing in Ireland at the moment, is that women are stepping up, but they're not afraid to have the softness and the vulnerability, and also to love themselves. You know, it's , it's no longer a badge of honor to work yourself to the bone anymore. We used to live in a society where, you know, the more stressed you were , the better <laugh> , the better a worker you are . So now, you know, andI love that. I think it's amazing. And, coming from a corporate background, seeing all these women that are leaning in and all the , the women in power that are coming into these senior roles across all areas of Ireland, I just think it's really empowering for all the young women in Ireland as well to look up to.

Madalena - Host for The View

 : 2:43

Yes. Well, I really laughed when you said about, we used to think that the more stressed and the busy we are the most successful, And hopefully that's changing a little bit. 

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 2:54

I do think it is, and I would've seen that in my previous career where we worked the long hours and we were in early, we were there late. We were dying to be seen, but never seen and work on weekends and, you know, not taking days off. And I mean, that's just is no way to live. And it actually, you don't get the best out of yourself. Thats a very short term thing that we can do. And then I would've seen so many people on sick leave, stress leave, having breakdowns, relationships falling apart, becoming physically unwell, and it was all down to stress, you know? Um and I think now people are waking up to that connection.

Madalena - Host for The View

 : 3:39

Yes. So you come from a finance world, so how did you get into the healing and spirituality world? Maybe that's something that inspired you. How did that happen?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 3:50

Yeah , so for me, I guess I'm lucky that I was always open to this world. So I was brought up in a home where we had good faith. I wouldn't say we were over religious, but we talked about angels and stories and old Irish folklores. So there was always that magic, I suppose, as a child. Then for me, there was a few times in my life where I was catapulted more into this world. So one was when I was 17, my dad passed away, and that really was a tough time because you , you don't expect your parents to pass, you know, and you think they're invincible. And all of a sudden my dad was there, and then he wasn't. So for me, I was searching then for, for meaning, and I dived into it a bit more because my heart was open to it. And then I went through my twenties and, you know, was enjoying life a little bit, but still very much open to that world. But when I was kind of coming around to the age of party, I was in very much in that corporate world. I could see people around me falling,  stressed, really struggling, and I started to feel stressed myself. I started to suffer physically. I used to always have an issue with my throat. I was a salesperson. I used to represent the bank. I worked for a lot in speaking and, and presenting. So I suddenly realized I had all these issues with my throat. I was swallowing difficulties. Anyway, long story short, I went to some many doctors , should I say, and the only relief I got was when I went to a healer and  within days, and it had been going on months , within days , she identified it was a blockage with one of my energy centers. I wasn't really expressing who I was or what message I really wanted to get across. And that really catapulted me back in and I started doing a lot of work, and I started bringing it more into my daily life, my rituals, morning routines. I started really to become aware. So I think I was living outside of my body for a long time, like we all do. And then we start to become aware and we can identify it. So that was about seven, eight years ago, and I haven't really looked back, <laugh> . I then also a few years ago went on a journey with fertility, and I now have a , a gorgeous , little boy Sean , but it took me a long time to conceive, and I had to do fertility treatment and, and that really got me deeper in again, I really leaned on my healing. I did a lot of wound healing, a lot of trauma, a lot of grief.  Yeah, I was very aware of that my body was storing emotions and I needed a way to release them , that wasn't just medication or, I needed to acknowledge what was happening and actively go through the growth and the work. And it led me down a path of this is my career now, and I love it.

Madalena - Host for The View: 7:11

Wow. Well , you talked about your throat and having so many issues. I'm professionally, I'm an actress and I'm a singer. And for many years also I was always having trouble with my throat

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 7:24

Okay .

Madalena - Host for The View: 7:24

I also feel like since I've opened up a little bit more, I probably , I don't do the work that you do, but became more open to things and tried to look after myself in that way that we're talking about in the beginning. Yeah . I hardly have had anything. Obviously, I'm curious about the work that you do and, and maybe a little bit more about it, but totally see how it comes from inside and us being aware of, of what's happening for us to ,

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 7:51

And it's so, it's so interesting that you say that because I say this to people all the times . Our bodies are so clever, and sometimes we can become frustrated if we're sick or we're anxious, and almost why is this happening to me? But our bodies are so clever, it's trying to get our attention, and instead of wondering why me, it's maybe sitting with that feeling and, and saying, Okay , what are you trying to tell me? And when you talk about the throat, it's funny you mentioned singing, because when, people come to see me in clinic, and I often say to them, put on a song, put on the CD player in the car and sing on your way home. Your voice needs to be heard in whatever way it can be. So just, just start to sing and you know, it's sometimes the simple things that really do work, you know?

Madalena - Host for The View: 8:37

Oh, that's so interesting. So maybe you could explain a little bit more about what your work involves . So when someone comes to the clinic, I think there's themes that used Flora found for Chlor and Saints. So it seems like to be a very broad sort of range.

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 8:55

Yeah, So, I've trained in so many different types of, of the healing that, we could be here all day, but I, I essentially just say, come to my clinic and we'll do an intuitive healing. So I'm very much led by energy. So like, science tells us that everything is energy, and that's what we're working with and we're tapping into. So often, primarily I deal with women. It just seems to be the area that I focus on. And often the women that come to see me, and , and this, you'll find this many people that do the work. There's certain, I suppose areas that , that come up a lot. And for me, it's usually, domestic abuse, sexual violence, sexual trauma, fertility issues. And for me, that, and people that work with energy, that's the lower energy centers in the body. So we have what's called sharas , which are our energy centers. And there's three in particular that I work with a lot. So our solar plexes, which is our sense of self , our sacral , which is our womb space, and our creativity and our route , which is our safety and our grounding. So in a lot of the women, I see these are off balance for many reasons. So when someone comes to see me, we have a chat, you know, I'm very intuitive. I pick up a lot, I feel the energy. We initially have a chat, and then, we go through the , the usual things, you know, just to make sure everyone's okay. Cause depending on someone's history , you know, there could be  triggers and things. So we'll just get to know each other and identify that. And then I treat them, so I bring them into a lovely meditative state. They're lying down, they're all tucked up cozy and nice. And I go through their body from the very top of the crown of their head right down to their feet and balance all of the energy in the body. And if I feel like anything is coming up or needs to be drawn out, then I work with that. And I do that through a few different things, but primarily reiki. So I'm, I'm a reiki master and teacher, and I channel the universal energy to, to clear, people's energy centers and to bring them back into balance and harmony. So if you can imagine, I'm a visual person, so like on our phones, when we've all these tabs open, we've hundred tabs open at one time. So essentially what we're doing is we're closing down more tabs, closing them all down so that everything is back to zero. Your glass is not overflowing all the time, and that you're able to go back out and, and take on whatever you need to do in the world. Everyone that's a reiki masters , slightly different. For me. I get guided a lot by my angels, my saints, my ancestors, my guide. So lots of messages can come in for people, and I share that. I always share that with them, and it could be something they need that's going to support them. So I'm very much like natural. So it could be an oil, that's supportive. So for example, rose oil. Rose oil is the, the oil of love. It's the highest vibration. So usually it's a very motherly energy. If someone's grieving or, or sad, rose oil is amazing to, to rob on the skin topically to , um, aromatically. So diffuse it. Um , so it could be a little message like that. And, we have other things then as well. But that's just, I suppose, a very <laugh> short and sweet answer to it. <laugh>

Madalena - Host for The View: 12:41

Sounds wonderful. So, like you said, you do work with women that suffer from domestic abuse. And many of the people listening to the podcast, they are either working in the line of domestic abuse and prisons, or they have  other traumatic environments. So I mean, you have said how it would go if they came to see you, but do you have any tips for them to, like, maybe on their day to day to protect themselves from this trauma, but for their self care ?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 13:09

Yeah, absolutely. So everything as I said, is energy. And the one thing I always say to people is just to have an awareness. So if you are aware that, that, you know, you're walking into a room and you feel, Oh my God, there's such an atmosphere in here that's energy. You walk in and someone's had an argument, and you can cut the tension with a knife. So that , that's how I explain energy to people. So for people that are, you know, working in those industries or living in them, one thing I'd always say is to drop back into yourself. And there's a few ways you can do that, but a very simple way is placing one hand on your heart space and one hand on your wound space, and just allowing yourself to fill into that for a moment. And then taking three deep breaths. So breathing in through your nose and filling up your tummy. And so, like, as women, we're always trying to hold in our tummys , but no, we wanna fill it out, fill it up, and then letting a big sigh out through our mouth. And when we do that three times, we're doing a few things. So we're connecting back into our own heart space physically by touching ourselves. We're breathing life back into our whole body, so we're oxygenating everything, and then we're letting it all out again. So that really helps to center you, to ground you if you're feeling anxious. And in a lot of those situations, you could be a person that picks up on energy, so you might be actually feeling other people's emotions and not yourself. So that's a really good one to do on the spot . Um , another one is , is being out in nature. So barefoot, just standing in the grass and doing the same thing, taking a couple of deep breaths in and out, bringing yourself back within, that's the key thing. If you're somebody that works in it, I'm a real believer in protecting yourself, going into those situations and protecting yourself when you come out . So some people might take a moment in their car before they go in and just visualize themselves like in a bubble, you know, whatever sort of religion, faith beliefs you, you resonate with. Just maybe calling someone in and asking them to wrap you in a in a little bubble of protection. And then when you coming out after the day or after work or a visit and in the car just saying, you know, coming back in and asking them to , to clear on the energy. And, and the simplest way to do that is just imagining a wave washing over you. You're just clearing off anything that you don't need anymore. So it's very simple things like that. But the key is awareness, because sometimes I've been in situations before I really understood, and I go , why do I feel this way? Or, I felt great coming here, but I'm coming in now and all of a sudden I'm anxious, Or, Well , what was happening was I was picking up on other people's emotions, and I did know how to protect myself, and it , it would be another, be another podcast episode altogether. But like, I use crystals and sprays and, and different things to, to do that, but anything earthy is very grounding. So if you even think about like, soups with carrots and potatoes, and like the Irish to me turn up , um, even drinking things like that would be very grounding and bring you back down into your body.

Madalena - Host for The View: 16:32

Wow. And that is so interesting. I eat soup a lot, I'm Portuguese, 

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen  16:40

Right, Okay.

Madalena - Host for The View

 16:42

At least in my family, we just eat soup at Emia . Love it . Yeah . But now, after listening to you, it is this being conscious of, okay, I am eating something from the earth.

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 16:50

Yeah, yeah.

Madalena - Host for The View: 16:51

This is gonna ground me, this can help me ground. That's very beautiful.

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen : 16:55

Yeah, I think it's because we're on our phones all the time, right? Or we're, we're multitasking and we're doing 10 things at once, but it's actually just being present. If all you have is five minutes to eat your soup and being present with it, or when we go for a walk , um, not always having the AirPods in and just maybe taking in the sounds around us. It's about being present really, and not distracting our mind too much. Obviously they all serve a purpose, but you know, having those pockets of time that are just for you to help you connect back in with yourself.

Madalena - Host for The View: 17:32

Yeah. And I think everything you said, I think it's very practical. I think anyone who's listening. Is something they can, you know, hopefully do easily and see the benefits. Which takes me to my next question. I mean, the benefits for someone who has suffered or is supporting someone who suffers from abuse, for example, are endless. But in your view, Reiki, how does it help to recover and heal? Maybe have an example , maybe have a story?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 18:02

Yeah, so I mean, it has huge benefits and, and the healing is one part of the work. So I would've worked with somebody last year. And so first of all, when they're in with me initially I tend to recommend at least four sessions, because it takes time and to open up. But when they first came to me, you know, they were sharing a lot about, what had happened and what was happening. So there's a few things happening. There's, trauma in the body already from past scenarios. There's fear, there's all sorts of emotions. So what we're trying to do is, a person's cup is completely overflow. What we're trying to do is energy wise , is to take some of that from the body, so what no longer is needed. So that , that's something on an energetic level. Um , and I would've done that with this individual. But another key part to my work is I really look at the self and self-love, forgiveness of yourself. We, we tend to hold, especially women, I think we blame ourselves for everything that happens, even when we're being abused or in difficult situations. So I would focus a lot and we talk about forgiveness, and I would give them tools. So I've also been trained as a holistic life coach. But I do it in tandem with the reiki. So we look at ways to work on themselves, and a lot of it is forgiven themselves because maybe they've stayed in situations because of children or financial reasons. And I do a lot of mirror work, so I give homework almost where I'm asking them to stand in the mirror and tell them good things about themselves like that they're , you know, we find it hard in Ireland certainly to take a compliment, you know, it's like, oh, this whole thing, but im like, take the compliments and it can be difficult and it can be triggering. But I usually we do a 21 day practice where every day we do something different in the mirror. So you're looking in the mirror and you're telling yourself things. And I asked these, individuals to, have a notebook and track it. This particular person had lots of physical , um, physical conditions presenting in the body. And by the time we had finished the four sessions, which took about three months, like a lot of the physical conditions were gone. The confidence levels were up, the, the belief in themselves, you know, the, I don't deserve this, you know, whereas in initially coming in it was, was, I know I do this wrong or that the language changed. And that's really what I work on with people is knowing that we don't deserve the things that happen to us sometimes. And it's okay to say I've had enough and it's also okay to forgive our past selves for maybe accepting this, because we can only be where we are now. You know, we can spend our lives regressing what we did 10 years ago or what's gonna happen in the future. So it's all about, working on yourself now to bring you just contentment and inner peace . So, with this, this person, it was like such a transformation from day one to the end of the three months. And they were then going on to do other therapies . So they were, they were doing another form of counseling that was going to look at some of the things that had happened where they were very closed off to that because they didn't want to, I suppose, revisit it. But by the end of the three months with me, they understood that to heal from it, they needed to go back and dig into it. And just more open and honest even with their medical team. Because often when I'm working with people, they're also under the care of, of their  general practitioners or maybe , um, psychiatric , um, nurse or doctor, and more open and honest about actually how they're feeling, because certainly a lot of us are go in and we say, Oh no, we're okay this week, and we don't really tell the truth. So I see huge transformations and I always find such I find such joy and such peace in being able to do that for people.

Madalena - Host for The View: 22:32

Wow. It sounds really inspiring. So could you tell us a bit more about your upcoming workshops and what they were about and what people can expect from them? Do you have any, anything coming up?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 22:44

Yes, I always do. So in general, I do a monthly meditation group. And I teach reiki and I teach about crystals, and I teach about, we do vision boards. Okay. So I tend to always have some of them coming up and they're all about feeding your soul really, you know, look like what I spoke about, what we do in the one-to-one sessions, but self-love, you know, being kind to ourselves, forgiveness. And I usually have a team, and then, when I'm teaching reiki, but I also do retreats, so I have a couple of retreats coming up. I'm doing  two retreats in collaboration with two of my friends, Angela and Rochie? , they're both in the industry and they're called a Sakura retreat. So the cherry blossom tree. So it's all about, awakening after a dark winter, which is what cherry blossom represents. So very apt, I think considering we're coming back out in the world. And that's really a day of , connection. And we, we share some cacao and we talk about , grounding ourselves and healing ourselves, and I take them through meditation and energy cleansing. So it's just a lovely day. We have lunch together and everyone kind of learns a bit more about, about awareness and, and energy healing.  And then myself I run retreats, residential retreats, so I have one coming up in a few months where it's a three day retreat., I take small numbers, so I only usually take about 12 people, and I book a place exclusively, and it's just three days of like nourishing our bodies with good food. We do yoga , we do some creative activities, so we make some crystal jewelry, we do some art, we do healing. There's a silent meditation walk down by a gorgeous river and gardens, and yeah, it's just really an immersive experience, and it's all just about you and your healing. Um , and we spoil them. We have gifts and everything. So it's just really, I mean, sometimes I want to go myself and someone to taking part . So I have that coming up and I have, I always share details on, my website and my social media and all the usual handles.

Madalena - Host for The View: 25:15

So that's where I was going to ask, how do we get in touch with you, or how do we find out the detail?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 25:21

So my name is Margaret O'Brien, but my business is under Moon Queen Healing . So I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook under Moon Queen healing. My website is , MoonQueenhealing.ie . And all of my contact details are on there.

Madalena - Host for The View: 25:41

And do you do any online sort of support if anyone needs?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 25:45

Yes, so I do a lot of distance dealing sessions. So I have a lot of clients in America, Australia different parts of Ireland and across Europe. So energy doesn't know time or space. So it's actually sometimes my most powerful sessions are online. And it's, it's treated the same as if you were in , in with me. I do the very same process. It's just that you're physically in your own space, and that would be probably 50% of the work I do is online, with women, again, mostly. And I do work with children as well. Sometimes I work with parents and children together. But , yeah, quite a lot of online, particularly coming out of , um, the world we were in for the last few years. I moved some of my courses online as well. I do love the in-person aspect, but I'm aware not everyone is, is in the heart of Ireland where I am. So it's nice to be able to connect anywhere in the world really.

Madalena - Host for The View: 26:47

I'm sure it's great for everyone to hear that. So we just have a final question. I don't know if you ever think about this, but what would you like your legacy to be? What would that look like?

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 26:59

Oh, wow. I suppose since I've had my son, I've really, this has been something on my mind, about how you wanna break patterns and things like that. So for me, I'm a big believer in love. I'm always leaning into love, even when life throws me curve balls and  things come up that aren't expected. I lean into love and I trust that there's a, there's a plan and I'd like to, I'd like that to be my legacy. I'd like my son to carry that in his heart with them. I'd like whoever he falls in love with, to feel that as well. If he's blessed with his own children, that's, that's what I want to leave, that, love is always the answer, even when it's hard, even when it's messy, that if we can just drop into our own hearts that we'll always find the way.

Madalena - Host for The View: 27:56

Thank you so much, Margaret. It's been such a pleasure chatting to you, and I'm sure that everyone who listened to the podcast will feel your energy and to see the benefit of your work. So thank you so much.

Margaret Meehan O'Brien- Moon Queen: 28:08

Oh, thank you so much for having me on, and it's been such a joy to chat with you today.

Madalena - Host for The View: 28:14

And this concludes our podcast for today. You can learn more about Margaret's upcoming workshops and contact on MoonQueenhealing.ie. The View is the only organization in a third sector that puts women with lived experience at the heart of what we do. From our board to our volunteers, The View is a living community that is creating a brighter future through art, storytelling, and hope. Come and be part of our brave mission and vision for a fairer world. Thank you for listening.

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