This blog explores the pain of polarization (an IFS term describing when two or more parts have conflicting ideas about how to keep us safe) and paradox. We’ll be meeting some of the internal parts who have been involved in my decision-making about trying to find a place to live. We’ll be zooming in on the parts that don’t want me to settle down and exploring the impact they’ve been having on my system and my life. I’ve included a bit of backstory for those who are new to the blog (Welcome!). I hope you enjoy travelling with me, deep into my psyche and I hope my reflections support you with yours.

I’m gearing up to run The Well-Held Space, my 3-month creative facilitation course again. As part of my preparation I’ve been reflecting on how my own facilitation practice has developed since I last ran the course in 2021. 

This blog focuses on my development as a facilitator from 2021-2024, when I trained as a Creative Supervisor, spent a year at a meditation retreat centre, trained in Internal Family Systems and spent a year exploring ways to integrate all this into my facilitation practice. 

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?

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.

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.

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).

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. 

We’re a group of IFS trained clowns and fools who have been meeting online for the last couple of years, exploring the space where Internal Family Systems (IFS) meets clowning and fooling through experiential play and discussion.

In this blog I will be outlining our experiments and describing some of what happened for me during our first ever in-person play day. Read on for tales of grief, gratitude, identity, connection and home.

IFS is a therapeutic system which is based on the theory that we are all made up of many parts (ie feelings, sensations, thoughts, memories, dreams, fantasies, etc…). You may already have a sense of this in yourself; in conversation we often say, “Part of me thinks this and part of me thinks that.“ Our parts don’t necessarily all get along, they can have very different wants, needs, values and desires...

During the dark, cold month of January, I ran a 4-week Creative Clarity course online. Twelve intrepid adventurers from all over the world, gathered together on Zoom for two hours each week to explore different methods of creative inquiry.

Wanting to capture some of the groups’ wisdom to share with the world, I played around with the words they shared in the chat box to create the following three collective poems: How Is It To Enter The Unknown? How To Stay In The Unknown… and Playing With Tension and Release.