Workshop: Standing on solid ground: Honouring chaos without losing one’s footing

Sunday 29 November 2020
18:30 to 19:30 (SOLD OUT)

In settings where dysregulation is rife, a climate of chaos can materialise. As therapists, we hold the hard stories of others, ideally without getting drawn into a client’s tumult. However, we all come with rich histories of our own and work more effectively when we acknowledge what triggers us and work on ways of nurturing ourselves back in touch with what is present. Chaos can be a state of complete disorganisation but also a state of change and transition. In Chaos Theory, chaos generates within dysregulation in order for patterns to break, leaving space for new to emerge towards a new state of regulation.

How can we face chaos in our journey of finding a new order- a solid ground, adjusted and regulated in response to the present? How do we sustain ourselves as therapists?

This Dramatherapy-based practical workshop is inspired by Pinkola Estes’ writings on the archetypal ‘feral woman’ and aspects of Chaos Theory related to the themes of transformation and rebirth. We will explore the themes and metaphors alive through the fairytale of The Red Shoes. We invite participants to traverse through the depths of this tale to uncover the strength and hope that lies within and explore the dynamical changes conveyed.

“This normalizing of the shocking and abusive is refused by repairing injured instinct. As instinct is repaired, the integral wild nature returns. Instead of dancing into the forest in the red shoes until all life becomes tortured and meaningless, we can return to the handmade life, the wholly mindful life, re-make our own shoes, walk our walk, talk our own talk”. By Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Nathalie Friel qualified as a Dramatherapist in 2017. Since then she has worked with CYP at a SEMH school, adolescents who are adopted; adolescents living with/affected by HIV at a trauma-informed charity and women affected by DV (including therapeutic workshops with mothers and their children) at a specialist DV organisation. Nathalie is a theatre practitioner and former member of an all-girl alternative choir. Elena Skreka is a Dramatherapist, specialising in working with children. She currently works in schools with bereaved children and children with social, emotional and mental health needs. She is also a Language, Literature and Drama teacher and a physical theatre artist. She has studied Drama and Movement Therapy, Drama, Physical Theatre, English and American Literature and Culture, Linguistics and Translation.

Please note, this workshop is limited to 15 people and must be booked. -SOLD OUT