Workshops
I’ve facilitated group workshops in community centres, squats, herb shops, food co-ops, community gardens, health centres, work spaces, schools and people’s front rooms, and would be excited to come to your project or community and run one or any number, or combination of the sessions below. Most can vary in length from 3 hours to 3 days. They can happen as one offs, or as part of a series, as intensives or spread over time. Workshop rates are totally negotiable, and depend on length, where they’ll be held, and context. Get in touch to talk about what you might like to see happen and what might work.
The Resilience Toolkit
The Resilience Toolkit is a trauma-informed framework and simple embodied practices (involving very short meditations, observations, exploring the breath etc) that we can use to resource ourselves with in terms of stress and trauma. It supports settling in body and mind, so we have more capacity to navigate and minimise the impact of stress and trauma, and transform the circumstances that cause stress and trauma together. In three, weekly 1.5hr (online, or in-person) sessions we’ll explore the framework and practices that are really accessible and easy to integrate. This mostly happens in groups but can also be shared in one-to-one sessions if preferred. Everything shared is invitational and optional; you can just see what is resonant and what isn’t, you can try stuff out if you want to, and see what works and what doesn’t. In group sessions, while there can be great learning from everyone’s responses to the practices, there is no expectation to speak or share anything, you are welcome to simply be there, take it in and see how it lands.
Bodylab: exploring embodied practices for rest & connection
An exploration of basic meditations, resting & movement practices, self touch & self massage for grounding, centering, release, rest and connection. This can be a session or series of sessions to explore ideas that can be good solo or exchanged tools/resources in the body.
Bodywork: exploring exchanged touch
An exploration of different ways of sensing into, connecting with and touching the body. It includes a look at basic bio-medical anatomy and some cross-cultural maps of the body. We will explore conversation around consent and creating safe space, and explore different approaches using touch through clothing and/or with some directly on the skin exploring different oils, with the option to sit out at any point if any exploration doesn’t speak to you. Open to anyone, whether you are new to therapeutic/intentional approaches to touch or want to deepen connection to and/or share of your own practice.
Introduction to Herbal Medicine
Our Bodies, Ourselves
This workshop uses the book Threads as a basis for information exchange and shared conversation about feminist health including anatomy, sex & gender, and the various differences and commonalities of experiences throughout the menstrual cycle. It will look at what gets called ‘PMS’, and also at what gets called ‘mental health’ and critiques biomedical stories we are given about the body/mind as part of opening up space to explore our different and similar lived experiences, and to consider both what health and what ‘self-care’ mean in the context of social justice and social change. Depending on length of the session we can also look at herbs and other holistic approaches for some common related health issues. The session is for any women, gender non-binary and trans folk for whom the issues are of interest. All welcome – whether you’re new to some of these ideas/conversations or want to contribute of your own body of knowledge.
The Politics of Experience
This workshop uses the book Warp & Weft as its basis and looks at some of the history, language and politics of what gets called ‘mental health’ including discussion about medical approaches, understandings and diagnosis. It will look at decolonising psychiatry, some of the history of psychiatry in the US & UK, and anti-psychiatry movements & alternatives from the 1960s to the current time, and consider some historical & cross-cultural understandings of consciousness. We will look at some of the progressive conversations around and understandings of psycho-emotional health in social context, and consider alternative approaches, and at conversation and resources around trauma and resilience. Depending on the length of the space we’ll look at some of the main herbal nervines (herbs that affect what gets called the nervous system) and talk about related approaches, practices and broader support for psycho-emotional health. The space is for information exchange, questions, shared dialogue and solidarity. All welcome – whether you are new to some of these ideas/conversations or wanting to contribute of your own body of knowledge.
Grief Spaces/ Death and beyond
Over the last few years I have been in involved with co-creating spaces to share grief in all its forms, also spaces to share experiences we have had around death, and beyond death. I am continuing to do that in different contexts and welcome collaborating on creating those spaces.
Mentoring
I offer mentoring for support and reflection to bodyworkers. If you are just beginning a practice, want to review your practice, or would like to have a regular or occasional space to speak about your practice, please get in touch and we can feel out the shape of what might be useful.
I also offer mentoring sessions to anyone, for more general counselling and support and/or to be alongside any particular challenges or transitions. If a combination of talking, sense making and exploring somatic practices could be useful to you please get in touch and I’d love to speak together about what kind of shape those sessions might take.