This blog is a contemplation on the inner parts that lead us into old, familiar holes. There are snippets of my own story, an exploration of the parts that like to push me towards the pit of burn-out, and some writing / ponder prompts for you to explore your familiar holes (fnar, fnar!). There’s a classic poem about a hole in a road, and some nuggets of advice from nature, about how to stop falling into holes. At the end, there’s an invitation for you to go out into nature and ask for whatever advice you need. 

This is part two of a two-part reflection on the Fool and Somatic IFS week that took place in Bristol on 16-20 February this year. 

This blog features writing from two of the participants.

The first piece, 'Frogspawn,' was written by Helyn Wilder, after spending time by the pond in the Easter Gardens, up the road from our training space. Photos are by fellow participant, Lucie Wild.

The second piece, written by Bess Spencer, features a poem that Bess wrote after attending my 5-day Fools School in 2019. Bess read the poem, titled 'To be seen is not a passive act,' in our closing circle at the end of our Fooling + Somatic IFS lab in 2026. They've written a short introduction to the poem for this blog, which includes some of their experiences through the Fool + Somatic IFS week.

From 16-20 February this year, I ran a 5-day training / lab for 8 Fools, exploring where Fooling meets Somatic Internal Family Systems. 

This Blog

This blog offers a glimpse of what we got up to in our 5-day group journey. There’s a section offering some context, an outline of some of the activities we did and photos of the participants at play. There are excerpts from one of the participants' creative journal, some poetry that I penned in the room and a letter I wrote to my future self. The blog ends with some more descriptions of the course by the participants.

On January 10th 2026, I gave a semi-improvised performance-lecture at the British Association of Dramatherapists’ annual conference in Glasgow. It was my first time performing in public for a very long time. I got a standing ovation. Fancy that! 

This blog charts the process leading up to the performance, offers a glimpse of the performance itself and explores the aftermath and key learnings from this project.

The photos get increasingly random as the blog goes on. Enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chat with Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI) legend, Briony Greenhill, exploring what might happen on our upcoming 5-day 'Performance and Parts' workshop. Here's the video and a loose paraphrased outline of what we discussed.

2025 was a year of facing down my demons and finally settling down in Bristol, opening to support and learning to receive more of it, diving deeper into Internal Family Systems (IFS), recommitting to Fooling, continuing to explore where Fooling meets IFS, Fooling in Nature, Fooling and The Body, Fooling and The Voice, running longer, deeper courses and residential retreats, developing my creative facilitation training, beginning to offer training for therapists, councillors and coaches, continuing to offer one-to-one support online and in person, exploring collaboration, co-creation, being an equal member of a group, peer support, becoming visible again in the media, stepping back onto the stage and remembering that I am a performer, musician, singer, Fool and public speaker!

Here follows a breakdown of my 2025 projects with some thoughts around how they might develop in 2026. 

I got to chat with Daniel Mandel on his Creative Engagement Podcast...

We covered a lot of ground, from my circus beginnings to my most recent fascination with embodied approaches to Internal Family Systems (IFS)... 

Nobody knows when the cats appeared at The Barn retreat centre, but they were ancient when I was there in 2022-23. Brother and sister, chalk and cheese, dark and light, sweet and spicy; Cirrus was tabby, frail and nervous and Nimbus was black, muscly and naughty as they come.

Hello readers. I am delighted to announce that after three years of wandering in the wilderness, I have officially moved back to Bristol!  

For those of you who haven’t been following my blog, welcome! For the last three years, I have been on a pilgrimage, trying to figure out where to put this particular version of me. Was it a spiritual quest? Was it an extended social experiment? Or was it a trauma response? This blog explores some of the driving forces behind my three year odyssey. 

If you’ve ever found yourself doing strange repetitive things that feel comforting at the time but eventually spiral into compulsion, then this blog is for you. If you’re curious to find out why anyone would get into that sort of thing, then this blog is for you too.

This blog tells the story of the first ever Clown Teachers’ Lab, which took place at Hawkwood in Stroud in February 2025, thanks to funding from The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust.

...Robyn Hambrook and I wanted to open up our peer support network, to spend a week collaborating with a small group of clown practitioners from diverse backgrounds, to explore new paradigms for teaching clowning in response to the pressing challenges of our times....