“Discrimination affects our experience of our bodies… it lodges in flesh and bone.” Christine Caldwell and Lucy Bennett Leighton
On this (non-residential) workshop we wish to explore the embodied experience of oppression. We will begin by embodied resourcing, and contacting our own lived experiences of marginalisation and privilege. Exploring our heritages and identities. Asking ourselves, what does it mean to be humble? To really open to people’s experience of difference and marginalisation? Can our experiences of marginalisation become a resource in our work as therapists? Can we step into our privilege, to use it in service of others?
This is complex, confusing and demanding work. Re-enactments will happen around difference and diversity. We will make mistakes. We are interested in supporting practitioners to risk being clunky, to step forward.
As a training team we are integrating embodied marginalisation into the Embodied-Relational Therapy training. We are excited and challenged by this process. This weekend would serve as a useful introduction both to the ERT training and to how we are working with this material. The ERT training will start at the end of June and also be held at Eden Rise.
Our influences in this area of work include: Rae Johnson, Nick Walker, Eugene Ellis, Eli Clare, Dr Dwight Turner, Nick Totton, Resmaa Menakem, Christine Caldwell, Lucy Bennett Leighton, Arnie & Amy Mindell, Phil Bragman.
This workshop will take place in Bristol, at a location TBC
This workshop is a good taster for the Embodied-Relational Therapy Training starting in June 2025.
Cost: £240 – £120 Sliding scale. If you are able to pay higher up the scale, this enables us to keep the lower price available for people who need it, many thanks. Payment by instalment is welcome if this makes it easier for you.
Venue: Subud Hall, Bristol, BS8 2YD
http://bristol.subudhall.com/
Download the booking form here
Places will be limited to 12.
Allison Priestman – I am a white woman; living and struggling with both my disability and my ableism. I have been working as an Embodied-Relational Therapist for just over 20 years. I’m continually being woken up, challenged and nourished by my contact with clients, supervises and trainees. At this time of climate, diversity and equality crises, I’m interested in being part of a collective understanding of their interwoven causes. And part of a collective search for a way forward. https://www.allisonpriestman.org/
Stephen Tame – This area of work has become alive in new ways for me in recent years. People’s experience of marginalisation has become something to be more willing to be painfully close to, and my own privileges, including as a white man, have become less an intellectual idea, and more an embodied experience to grapple with. A resonant question for me at this time is: What am I prepared to give up? https://www.stephentame.com/
Contacts: [email protected] [email protected]