From 16-20 February this year, I ran a 5-day training / lab for 8 Fools, exploring where Fooling meets Somatic Internal Family Systems. 

Participant Feedback

“A powerful transformative fooling course. An intriguing group journey exploring parts of self through meditation, physical warm-ups and games, partner, group and solo performance.” 

“’I can tell more about the process of the course from this looseness in your being than from anything you've shared verbally about it' - my partner, after day 5”

“An amazing, deep, beautiful group experience.”

This Blog

This blog offers a glimpse of what we got up to in our 5-day group journey. There’s a section offering some context, an outline of some of the activities we did and photos of the participants at play. There are excerpts from one of the participants' creative journal, some poetry that I penned in the room and a letter I wrote to my future self. The blog ends with some more descriptions of the course by the participants.

There is a Part 2 - a beautiful piece of writing from one of the participants, capturing their experience of the week. Link is also at the bottom of this blog.

Treat time at Fools School

I wrote this during treat time, on the Thursday afternoon, when the Fools downed tools and spent time taking care of each other, using an exercise adapted from the wheel of consent.

We suffer together,
Resonate together,
Bare our pain together,
and then we dance!

Through expressing our individuality,
With open-hearted generosity,
We find our common humanity.

Clusters of humans
Holding each other
Humming, rocking, massaging
Tending, caring, loving
Clusters of humans
Holding and being held.

Context

Fooling

Fooling is a solo improvisation practice where the player steps onto stage with no script, plan or map. The Fool connects with the audience and weaves a bespoke performance out of their own body sensations, emotions, thoughts, memories and fantasies. The Fool allows these inner voices to take over their body, allowing them to express in whatever they want to; some like to dance, move, sing, chat, or just lie on the floor and breathe. 

When Fools play on stage, sometimes there is laughter, sometimes there are tears, most often there are both. At the same time. I have been studying, performing and teaching Fooling for 25 years, in the lineage of Franki Anderson.

Somatic Internal Family Systems 

Somatic Internal Family Systems is a branch of Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Susan McConnell who worked closely with IFS founder, Richard Swartz for many years. Somatic IFS builds on the foundations of IFS: i.e. we are all made up of many parts (ie the inner critic, the inner child, the inner teenager, the inner dreamer, the inner doer, etc) and getting to know / building a relationship with these parts can create huge shifts in our inner and outer worlds. 

Somatic IFS uses the tools of somatic awareness, conscious breathing, radical resonance, mindful movement and attuned touch, to help access and heal parts in the body. I finished my Step 2 Somatic IFS training with Susan McConnell in January this year. 

How I’ve been fusing these practices together

I have been exploring how IFS fuses with Fooling since I began my IFS Level 1 training in 2023. As a dramatherapist and a body-based practitioner, it felt like the natural path to bring the body more into IFS and so I started my Somatic IFS training in April 2025. I spent lots of last year exploring how Somatic IFS fuses with Fooling in my own performance practice, through the Glitter Heart lab and at the Fools in the Forest retreat. 

The first Fooling / Somatic IFS lab for Fools

This 5-day course was the first time I’d offered this exploration to a group of Fools. Having just finished my Somatic IFS Step 2, I was eager to find out what other Fools might discover with this delicious blend of Fooling and SIFS.

We met for 5-days in mid February, at Subud Hall, a cosy, carpeted space in Clifton, Bristol. There were 8 participants and one assistant, all of whom had completed my 5-day Fools School. We were all female and non-binary. This was not a conscious choice, it was just who happened to apply for this course.

What did we do?

I started with a loose structure, based around Susan McConnells’s Somatic IFS map:

Monday - somatic awareness (earth element)

Tuesday - conscious breathing (air element)

Wednesday - radical resonance (water element)

Thursday - attuned touch (all the elements)

Friday - mindful movement (fire element)

I had prepared a range of options of things we could do each day and held my plans lightly, making a conscious choice to be guided by the energy and curiosity of the group. Susan’s original map has mindful movement before attuned touch, but I did a little switcheroo to fit with where the group were at in their process.

Each day we began with a somatic meditation, based on the element of the day. Then we sat in circle and checked in with each other. Then we warmed up our bodies and voices, taking inspiration from the element of the day.

Each day, I adapted exercises from Somatic IFS, incorporating embodiment, creativity and play from my Fooling toolkit, to help people get to know their parts through their bodies. Here follows a wee snippet of some of the stuff we covered, to give you a flavour of what we got up to:

Somatic Awareness

Noticing sensations in the body

Exploring parts that live in and around those sensations

Embodying those parts

Conscious Breathing

Noticing the qualities of the natural breath

Exploring the parts that live and around in the breath 

Embodying those parts

Radical Resonance

Exploring different ways of being with / resonating with objects / the space / your parts

Exploring different ways of being with / resonating with each others parts

Exploring what happens when we embody each others parts

Attuned Touch

Tuning into our parts’ needs and desires around touch 

Exploring consensual touch with our own parts 

Exploring consensual touch with each other

Mindful Movement

Finding connection and group cohesion through movement

Exploring the elements through movement + exploring our parts’ responses to the elements

Discovering parts through exaggerating our natural posture, gestures and movements

Creative journalling

One of our participants captured their insights with images and words and generously gave me permission to share here.

Afternoon Fooling

In the afternoons, we re-gathered and the fools performed improvised solos for each other. Each day I offered optional experiments for them to try as part of their stage performance, including:

• notice your body sensations
• notice your breath
• notice how you are resonating with the space / the objects / the audience 
• invite other fools to come up and play your parts for you and explore your relationship with those parts
• ask for something else you need from the group - ie touch  / song / dance / playmates…
• Use the stage as a space for a ritual

Glimpses of what happened in their Fooling

​
A terrifying beast in a cage

seen from a distance

looks quite sweet, really.


A young girl

creates a beautiful space

for others to enjoy.

But what does the young girl need?


Shame cowers under a blanket,

The exhausted one,

Spread-eagled on the ground,

An impotent critic shouts into the void.


Discarded clothes

spread out on the floor.

An outline of a being

unreachable, elusive, not there.


A boundary built out of cushions,

offering safety,

causing isolation.

Safe but alone.


A mystical storyteller

lays out an arc of significant objects,

tarot cards, walnuts and a tiny bell.

Each has a story

waiting to be told.


A little one burried deep underground,

another one can’t help,

because she doesn’t know

what a spade is.

Group Fooling

Through the depth of our explorations, the group formed very strong bonds, which allowed us to travel into new territory together. Midway through the course, we developed a new version of the form, where the solo performer could ask people to step in to embody their parts on stage. This allowed them to view their parts from the outside. The soloist played with physical distance, moving towards and away from their parts, exploring their changing feelings in relation to their parts. 

Some people invited two or more people up to embody multiple parts, this allowed them to see the relationship between their parts with clarity. This distance seemed to spark the compassion needed for people to come into direct relationship with their parts, so that their parts felt truly seen and heard, some for the first time ever. Protector parts relaxed and softened, tears flowed, hugs happened and spontaneous dancing exploded all over the stage!

The magical nature of group work meant that people found themselves playing parts for other people that they recognised in themselves. The healing was not just for the soloist, the supporting players AND members of the audience kept finding their parts being unburdened too. It was like one huge healing-fest for the whole group!

How the participants described their time in the Fool / SIFS lab

“During the 5 day's I was supported through movement, breath work, song, ritual and dance to open my heart, to unleash some of my deepest personal secrets (gifts) Each and every one of us had several opportunities to be witnessed and held by everyone as we gifted our most raw and vulnerable parts on and off the stage.”

“…it's a chance to dig deep... and hold gently ... a group coming together with a shared language and form of fooling as a route to being seen…”

“the transition from apprehension to astonishment at ourselves and each other in the fooling stage slots at the first day was magical, and the process of the group and individuals felt well held”

“remembering what a gift it is to connect with the vulnerability of others, when it is shared in a consensual, held, reciprocal container.”

“The openeness and generosity I experienced with the group during this week has definitely started the (long coming) process of my learning to truly trust in myself and my peers. This process has definitely caused a big shift in me. I'm too blown for many words at the moment, but they'll come…”

“Being held and nurtured by you Holly and by the group- this has been so sustaining for me. Learning to be more open and let my guard down- lead to more playfulness and more creativity! Who knew!”

“Beautiful memories of support and trust and I sense of having made major steps outside of my comfort zone which deeply challenged me in terms of my performance anxiety….I will trust these nuggets to unfold beautifully in the next few months…. I now have much more confidence to be seen as a result of fooling!”

“… trust in the process and not to fear the void..as thats where the magic comes from.”

To get a deeper glimpse into the experience of one of the participants, check out Part 2 of this blog.

A letter to my future self

Dear Holly in the Future,

This is Holly at Subud Hall on the final day of the Fool and Somatic IFS lab. Everyone is scattered around on the cream carpet, writing letters to their future selves with a soundtrack of melancholy piano music. The well-travelled supermarket flowers survived their long ordeal (poor things got absolutely vilified by the Fools’ parts this week - someone had to be the scapegoat and the flowers took the hit). Standing strong in a sturdy, basic, plant pot beside them are the simple, local, native snowdrops that proudly arrived mid-week. We are all the snowdrops and we are all the shop-bought flowers too.

This morning I wanted to bring in the four directions, to invite an atmosphere of ritual. I brought in a stone to represent the earth, a candle for fire, a jar to hold some water and an open bowl to hold the air. Whilst setting up, I realised 1.) I had no idea where North was and 2.) I don’t really know much about the 4 directions. Once upon a time I would have panicked, criticised myself for not knowing and frantically researched on my phone. But today, I simply put it to the group “Does anyone know where north is? And can anyone call in the four directions?” We figured it out together. 

Turns out nobody has to do it all on their own. Not even me!

They took their space this week, these glorious humans. They told their stories with confidence, courage and creativity. They supported each other to play, release, play, release. With compassion and care, we met their protectors, we acknowledged their efforts and we thanked them for their work. Revelling in the attention, the protectors stepped aside and today, lonely children found friends. They played in the mud,  hopped over stepping stones, put snails in their shoes and rode each other like horses. The play was wild and risky, free children asked for what they needed: “I need you to sing for me,” “I need you to give me a hug,” “I need you to pull funny faces,” “I need you to puppeteer this puppet,” “I need you to puppeteer me!” 

Such generosity, trust and care and love. 

This is truly beautiful work.

It matters.

Keep going, my love.

Rest often and PLEASE 

Keeping asking 

For more support!

Love, Holly  xxx

Big Thanks

Big thanks to assistant Laura Singer for her warmth, care, steadiness and generosity. Much gratitude to Subud Hall for letting us use their beautiful space.

So much thanks to the participants for their courage, compassion and kindness and thanks to all the beings and conditions that supported us to be able to spend this week making magic together!

Check out Part 2 of this blog - a beautiful piece of writing, written during the workshop by one of the participants and illustrated with photos of the nearby Easter Garden, taken by another participant.