Our practice research journey began in March 2022 and completed in May 2023. 

It has been a privilege to work with such a courageous and committed group of women over this last year.  

The research has been a sustained period of investigation of experiences that lie at the edges of awareness, patterns of disruption and symptoms which often compromise wellbeing which are difficult to make sense of and tolerate. 

We have explored the space inside ourselves, outside of ourselves, between each other, gradually distilling themes and narrative that in some way touch on what may underlie these patterns. The dynamic of polarising to manage overwhelm, strategies of invisibility, losing and finding a voice, inhabiting a position of power and permission to have time to digest exquisite detail of the natural world as ways of healing. Finding stories, images, ways of moving and the creation of a Pochinko mask shaped by a connection to impulses and sensations as vehicles to progressively unearth and share each participant journey.  

Interspersed into the workshop process, our researcher Eszter has also been meeting separately with participants to measure physiological markers - interoception and heart rate variability. How does the nervous system reveal what may be integrated and digested through this embodied creative and performative process? 

We have also navigated Covid – all of us at different points becoming infected, necessitating moving sessions online and sometimes exploring how we can keep the process going through blended sessions as well as on occasions needing to conduct the session in surgical masks ! All made possible by the generosity and determination of the research group. 

This amazing process culminated in a performative event at Froebel college, Roehampton University in May 2023.  

Beautiful, authentic, powerful pieces that encapsulate each individual story and also as fellow travellers our collective journey.  

Thank you ! 

Over to Eszter now to write up the PhD due for completion in 2024.