SOMATIC CREATIVE SESSIONS
Deep body listening & creative expression.
For a taste of workshops see here: https://youtu.be/3Dhic-aaU88
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“Sarah is great, vibrant and positive” Becky Paton, creative writer.
"Gentle but very powerful, pushed out of my comfort zone without realising it" Participant, Osho Leela
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One to one sessions:
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Sarah holds space as a non-judgemental witness to give the client opportunity for their body to speak. Guiding in deep body listening she supports expansion of body awareness, including sensations, in order to hear what the body has to say and needs.
Sarah works with you as you are and responds intuitively to where you are at and what you bring. She will support you to find positive resources that will help you to enlarge your capacity to hold and contain strong emotions and experiences. This might be a picture, sound, memory or other that you associate with feeling internally calm, connected, positive, strong.... These feelings are expanded in the system and enable more challenging situations, experiences of memories to be touched upon and processed from this place. The result of this can be seeing seemingly impossible situations in a more positive light, being ale to identify solutions, gaining clarity or focus for next steps, discovering new resources to self sooth or find strength at challenging moments, able tp regulate yourself and emotions reducing a sense of overwhelm. Where appropriate art, movement, vocal sound, clay or other creative mediums may be incorporated to express an emotion or represent a positive resource or affirmation.
Sarah is a Neuro Dramatic Play Practitioner and trained in Somatic Experiencing and trauma healing modality.
For more on these see here: https://www.ndpltd.org/ https://sosinternationale.org/about-se
On Somatic Sarah: https://hutch32.wixsite.com/somaticsarah
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Workshops and groups:
Even if you haven't picked up a paintbrush since childhood or have never taken a dance class, creativity is accessible to all and can be cultivated. In these sessions you will have the opportunity to loosen your inhibitions and explore playfully from a place of deep body listening. Most importantly THERE ARE NO MISTAKES! With a shared intention for all to put aside critical judgements and give permission for experimentation, we can reduce self-consciousness and feel free to express creatively in the safety of the group.
Sarah holds space for you to connect deeply with yourself through the felt sense, noticing what's alive in your sensations and moving from here to move, flow on the page, write and sound, frequently coming back to the body and noticing, seeing what may have changed or expanded. Sessions may draw on memory to work with unprocessed material from the past, to bring it to light for creative release and to counter with memories and experiences of being full and resourced, in this way expanding the systems capacity to hold feelings and activating experiences. The creative expression in itself serves as a resource to support the healthy expression and holding of feelings and sensations that could overwhelm the system.
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Sessions can leave participants feeling grounded, expanded, confident, joyful and at ease. Through the process of deep body listening and entering fully into the body in expression, there is potential for "flow states" to arise, solutions to challenges, positives in seemingly negative situations, insights and clarity can also find space to drop in.
Sarah is a Neuro Dramatic Play Practitioner, trained under pioneering Drama Therapist Dr Sue Jennings and has trained in Somatic Experiencing with an approach founded by Dr Peter Levine initially to support recovery from trauma. For more on these see here:
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https://sosinternationale.org/about-se
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Sarah has the unique ability to put people as ease, build their confidence and cultivate trust. Leading by example, unapologetically being herself and showing fallibility, she gives others permission to do the same. Acknowledging that self-consciousness and fear may always be there, they do not have to stop us from being freely expressive - dancing, singing, creating.
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TYPICAL SESSIONS
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Sessions can be adapted to the needs and interests of the group and will vary in content but here as an example:
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-Warm up games: copying lead movements, throwing and catching balls or bean bags, copying rhythms using clapping and body sounds, combining sounds and movements.
-Free scribbling: with a choice of different coloured crayons, letting your hand lose on the page, no planning or hesitating.
-Stream of consciousness writing: the first thing that comes into your head goes down on the page.
-Creating layers of sound as a group, dropping in and out with vocal sounds, rhythms with hands or feet.
-Putting together free art and writing, noticing any patterns or connections between them. Relating to personal experiences. Creating a still image together in response, bringing this to life with music and movement. Creating sounds that reflect the feeling.
WORKING WITH MYTHOLOGY
If a particular theme is relevant to a group we may move from warming up with free art to more structured exercises which focus on an issue or feeling. Listening to a related story can inspire more art in response which takes participants deeper into the theme and their own relationship to it. This can lead to insights as well as further creative exploration.
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PERSONAL MYTHOLOGY
Our personal stories and experiences are often universal in their content, the feelings and issues which they touch upon are recognisable and relatable. If there is a particular relationship or issue in your life which you would like to work through this can be facilitated through drama and role play. Other members of the group can represent the key people involved and you can have the opportunity to explore dramatically current or past situations relevant. You might want to replay a scenario, then reflect on different behavioural or communicative approaches, before trying these out dramatically. You might want to rewrite scenes from your past, or rehearse for future anticipated events or conversations. Your visions and dreams can also be brought to life experientially through sculpting images and dramatic enactments.
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Everything is an invitation. While you are encouraged to challenge yourself, authenticity is prized, saying when you need to step back and observe or pause and take a moment is fully supported.
