Talks, trainings and workshops

I give specialised talks and trainings in trauma-informed therapeutic practice and the use of the arts, body and creativity in the therapeutic process. Examples of trainings and talks I delivered:

- ‘Therapy of Gesture: Integrating Psychophysical Approaches from Theatre and Therapy in the Healing of Trauma’, Institut für Theatertherapie, Germany

- ‘Embodied Interventions for Trauma Healing in the Arts Therapies’, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

- ‘The Forgotten Joy of Play and Playfulness’ [PechaKucha presentation], The Place Theatre, Bedford

- ‘Story Making in Assessment and Therapy’, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

- ‘Autobiographical Theatre Research’, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

- ‘Trauma and Embodiment’, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

- ‘The Actor, The Playwright, The Director and The Witness: Interchangeable Roles in the Therapeutic Relationship. A Dramatherapy Perspective on Recovery’, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

I also provide bespoke workshops and trainings for organisations, practitioners or trainees in the fields of creativity, personal and team development, arts, health and therapeutic practice. I work with organisations in the public, voluntary and private sectors to address identified needs and develop creative strategies, alternatives and solutions for sustainable futures. I help organisations identify and work through conscious and unconscious dynamics that affect the performance and the functioning of the work group. I use creative, active and visual methods as catalysts to unravel these dynamics and create new possibilities and solutions.

Examples of previous workshops:

- ‘Reflecting through play’: workshop with Space 229 (youth support service in Bedford) aimed at developing play strategies to support vulnerable young people and to diffuse crisis

- Organisational development programme with Portsmouth City NHS Teaching Primary Care Trust aimed at improving the knowledge, skills, attitudes and confidence of staff within mental health services through action learning and arts based interventions

- Practice development drama workshop CNWL NHS Foundation Trust aimed at improving care practice and mental health service delivery following the performance of a theatre piece devised and performed by mental health service users

- ‘Meaningful Involvement of Service Users in Care’: original theatre production, entitled Call for Rescue, devised and performed by members of the Harrow User Group with the support of MIND in Harrow to address the issue of stigma attached to mental health.

In addition, I facilitate arts and creative groups for vulnerable and marginalised individuals with the aim of helping them improve health and well-being. Over the years, I have worked alongside adults with learning disabilities, adults on the autistic spectrum, adults with addiction problems, families and young children, and refugees and asylum seekers. Arts therapy programmes that I delivered include:

- A therapeutic performance project for prison inmates at HMP Bedford based on the theme of the ‘key’ and on the internal power for change

- A group dramatherapy programme in a psychological and rehab therapy service for people with drug and alcohol problems in Luton

- An arts therapy programme with Afghani unaccompanied minors entitled ‘Developing personal narratives, identity and belonging’ with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

- A movement based treatment programme at Brookdale Care for adults on the autistic spectrum