Finding Our Ground: Exploring Wellbeing through Embodied Imagination and Eco-Somatics was the title for the 6th Annual Social Work and the Body Day organised by the Brunel Social Work Programme and the Embodiment in Academic and Professional Practice Research Group. It took place on Friday 20 October 2023 at the Hamilton Centre at Brunel University London. This year’s event took a twist compared to previous years:
- Rather than introducing several presentations by different scholars and practitioners, this year we focused on one exceptional practitioner.
- This change incorporated another major difference: whereas in previous years, the presentations were verbal and the opportunity for experiencing bodywork was limited, this time there was less talking and much more time for experiencing, moving, and sensing.
Our guest facilitator this year was Mo Brown, a highly experienced Social Worker, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and Somatic Movement Educator. Below are the event details as communicated by Mo:
The day aimed to inspire and support both our own well-being and client work through embodied arts-based practice. A closer awareness of our instinctual, embodied lives helps feed our imagination and our connection with one another. We often ignore basic bodily cues, from going to the bathroom to drinking water, and we shut them off because we are ‘too busy’ to address our needs. Somatics teaches us to pay attention to our body and respond to its needs to sleep, rest, nourishment, support, connection, pleasure, and movement.
Why embodied imagination for social work? 5 intertwined reasons
1. Compassionate eco-informed self-care
Simple practices to help reduce stress and promote resilience by having a less cluttered mind; savouring arts and nature-based resources that can support self-regulation as well as help take action on social justice
Example: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00208728221123160
2. Relational client work
All clients communicate non-verbally at times, but particularly when working with children or those with health conditions, our own mind-body awareness and capacity to use and understand the meaning and opportunities for play, touch etc. is crucial. Keywords: empathy; attachment; abuse; vulnerability; ambivalence; systems theory; emotional awareness; trauma-informed; creativity.
Example: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02615479.2017.1413083
3. Group work / management / organisations
Ability to tune into unconscious dynamics, listening to oneself.
Example: http://sebastiankraemer.com/docs/Kraemer%20anxietyatthefrontline.pdf
4. Research
Close attention to embodied awareness can contribute to social justice
Example: https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2021.1858472
5. Arts and culture for Health
The arts are often low-cost, even free and can be transformative. They can sustain professionals, clients and organisations by giving meaning and new insights.
Example: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229313487.pdf and https://www.thedebseffect.co.uk/
Session synopsis
Increasing our awareness of the vital but often ignored links between body, mind, imagination and nature can be transformational for ourselves and our clients. In order to live and work well it is crucial that we find healthy ways to find ease in ourselves, and to also find ways to keep our inner child well-nourished. The activity of our unconscious is that of the mindful body, open to sensing, intuition and the present moment where ‘all of us is welcome’, where we can be creative, be seen and spontaneous and deeply aware of our connection to the natural world.
In this restorative, experiential and experimental session, the container of the group will create a reflective laboratory for self-expression where we can support embodied learning for wellbeing and for professional practice.
In the morning session we will arrive, stretch and share through simple ritual, music and song. Through breath-based mindful practices we will then slowly establish our ground, our solid foundation. The session will draw on somatic movement, authentic movement, touch-based contact improvisation and drama techniques.
After lunch using movement and sound we will together work on a myth or fairytale and use drama to learn more from the personal and social themes that arise. We will take this into your creative practice - writing, poetry, drawing and making using a variety of media including natural materials will be available, before we come together to reflect on the day.
Equipment: Please wear comfortable clothing that you can easily move in we will wear slippers or socks rather than shoes. A mat and a cover to lie on, plus art or writing materials will also be beneficial.