Facilitating At The Speed Of Fun

Nov 05 2024

This years’ British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth) conference took place (mostly) online over the week of the 14th October 2024. It was titled: Creativity in Conflict; Empowering Change Through Dramatherapy and I was both an attendee and a presenter, gorging myself on all the dramatherapy goodness I could get my hands on, as well as offering my own workshop titled; ”Exploring Internal Conflict Through Creative and Embodied Approaches To Internal Family Systems (IFS).” 

This blog explores my learning during two sessions at the conference, Drew Bird’s Monday morning presentation, “To Be Or not to be a clown: Conflict on and off the stage” and my Friday evening embodied IFS workshop. It’s a blog about bringing fun into facilitation. It’s a blog about what stops us following our impulses towards connection and play. It features theory from clowning, fooling and Internal Family Systems (IFS), as well as personal reflection and ponder points for you, dear reader. It’s quite long, my Inner Academic may* have got a bit carried away. 

*She definitely did, but waddaya gonna do?

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Fool + IFS: A 5-day Lab

Oct 02 2024

In April 2024, eight wonderful Fools gathered together in a beautiful dance space for a 5 day experimental, experiential, emergent and engaged research lab, co-facilitated by Saskia Solomons and me.

What’s In The Blog?

  • The story of how the 5-day Fooling + IFS research lab came to be

  • An outline of what happened in the lab

  • Little chunks of IFS theory from Saskia's morning talks

  • Descriptions of some of the ways we integrated IFS, creativity and the body - you could have a go at some of these if you wish!

  • A brief outline of our Fooling + IFS solo stage experiments 

  • My key learnings

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ONLINE ONE-TO-ONES SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2024

Sep 03 2024

I am delighted to announce a fourth season of one-one-one Creative Clarity, Supervision and Creative Consultancy sessions online on Zoom!

From September - December 2024, you can book a series of 6 or 3 one-hour sessions to explore yourself, your work, your creativity, or your path.

One-off sessions are also available for anyone wanting to dip their toe in.

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Summer Adventures

Sep 02 2024

I left the sanctuary of my quiet Glastonbury attic at the beginning of July and headed back to life on the road, travelling about, teaching, learning and catching up with lovely pals in lovely places for the summer....

I'm back in Glastonbury now, resting up and savouring all the summer memories. I'd like to share a few snippets of summer with you to give you a taste of the wonderful worlds I've been inhabiting and a whiff of the residue they've left on and in me.

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IFS + Fooling; a two-day therapeutic process

Aug 22 2024

This blog is one of a series charting my discoveries in blending Dramatherapy, fooling and Internal Family Systems (IFS)

This blog charts an incredible 2-day therapeutic process which I got to facilitate in London earlier on this year for Emily, a freelance multi-disciplinary artist, theatre practitioner and community music facilitator.

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Dramatherapy + IFS workshops this autumn!

Jul 30 2024

I am delighted to announce that I will be sharing some of my research at two dramatherapy conferences this autumn! Dramatherapy Southwest in Exeter on 14th September and The British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth) online in the week of the 14th October.

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A year of Wandering in the Wilderness

Jun 16 2024

It’s been two years since I packed up my Bristol home, jigsaw puzzled all my belongings into a storage unit and moved to Devon to to volunteer as a coordinator at The Barn meditation retreat centre. I am astonished to realise it’s now been a whole year since I left The Barn!

This is the story of the last year of my life.

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The State of Flow

May 26 2024

This blog explores Flow: what it is, how to find it and why being in the Flow State might be A Good Thing To Do. There’s a video workshop, 'Exploring The Flow State Through Play and Journalling', flow poetry from past participants of Mindful Play and a story detailing a moment when I lost connection with flow and how I managed to find it again (with a little help from my friends, a tiny dog and a squidgy baby).

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Where does Mindful Play​ come from?

May 07 2024

Whilst preparing for my three new Mindful Play Weekends in May, June and July, exploring the themes of PLAY (May 19 + 18), FLOW (June 22 + 23) and SPONTANEITY (July 20 + 21), I've been reflecting on the history and development of these courses. 

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When are you going to bring back Intro to Clown?

Apr 24 2024

This blog charts the story of my Introduction To Clowning course, from it's circus beginnings, through it's therapeutic development, to it's rising success, to it's online version, to it's resting phase and finally to it's rebirth as The Mindful Play Weekend! Read more >
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