In-person Workshops
Where talking is not enough
Thoughts put into words can become trapped in the categories of our minds.
Sometimes, talking about a problem over and over brings us closer not to the problem itself, but to the story we have built around it.
Sometimes, it is possible to reach what is inside us without talking.
Rediscovering emotion
When we put our emotions into words, we filter them through definitions we already know. When we call something “fear,” for example, we are not only naming what we experience. What we already know about fear also shapes the way we experience it.
Sometimes, we feel not the emotion itself, but the definition we have learned for it.
Bringing the body back in
What we experience is not only the story we tell in our minds. The body has its own memory. Experiences can leave traces in the body — in tension, habits, reactions and knots.
Sometimes, the mind cannot move forward without first untying some of those knots.
Staying in flow
Like a river, the mind, the body, our emotions and our thoughts are constantly moving.
When we try to hold them in place, the flow narrows. Patterns and repetitions begin to take over.
It is possible to let change continue and to find our way back into flow.
Not doing it alone
The social and economic systems we live in can distance us from one another and alienate us from ourselves. Yet we often try to solve the problems created by isolation entirely on our own.
It is possible to think, play, experiment and move together.
Bringing play back
As we grow up, we learn to move away from play and pursue “serious” things instead. We often learn to feel safe only when we keep ourselves under control.
Yet play gives us room to try, fail, change the rules, step into someone else’s perspective and let ourselves loosen up.
Through play, it is possible to approach a part of ourselves that we may have forgotten — or even kept hidden from ourselves.
We explore all of this not only through conversation, but through the body, movement, play, art and contact with one another.
Technical Sources of the Work
These workshops are not based on a single method. We draw on different techniques developed in theatre, movement, psychodrama, improvisation, play and body-based practices.
Jacob L. Moreno — Psychodrama and Role Techniques
Working through action, spontaneity, creativity and role. We draw on techniques developed within psychodrama for group work and psychotherapy.
Augusto Boal — Theatre of the Oppressed
Exploring personal and social issues collectively, while experimenting with different perspectives and possible actions.
Viola Spolin — Improvisation and Theatre Games
Using games to develop spontaneity, creativity, attention, working together and the ability to experiment without excessive self-control.
Eugene Gendlin — Focusing and Felt Sense
Noticing and working with the bodily felt sense of a situation as a whole, before it has been fully put into words.
Rudolf von Laban — Laban Movement Analysis
A system and language developed for observing, describing and analysing human movement.
Anne Bogart & Tina Landau — Viewpoints
Improvisation, attention and composition through time, space, movement and relationship.
Rather than applying these techniques as fixed methods, we bring them together and reinterpret them within our own way of working.
Together
Elementalite does not ask you to become a better version of yourself.
It simply offers space
to come into closer contact
with what is already there.
Details, dates, and application information will be shared soon.
If you would like more information, please feel free to contact us.