Fooling + Somatic IFS lab

“An amazing, deep, beautiful group experience.”

Come and discover more about the parts that live in your body in Holly Stoppit’s Fooling and Somatic Internal Family Systems lab.

Dates: 22-26 February 2027

Venue: Clifton, Bristol

For: People who have completed Holly’s 5-day Fools School

Booking: First come, first served

What is 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 piece of performance out of their own body sensations, emotions, thoughts, memories and fantasies. The Fool might dance, sing, chat, embody their inner voices or just lie on the floor and breathe. Sometimes there is laughter, sometimes there are tears, most often there are both. At the same time.

What is 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, ie we are all made up of many inner parts and getting to know / building a relationship with these parts can create huge shifts in our inner and outer worlds. 

Somatic IFS pays particular interest to how this all plays out in the body, understanding the body to be both a location for insight and the place where healing happens.

How do these two practices fit together?

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.

Holly’s Fooling training brings together somatic / insight meditation, playful movement, playful voice work, embodied parts work, humour, performance, creative reflection, the power of community, compassionate witnessing and ritual. 

Holly has been a certified Fool for a very long time. Following her Step One Somatic IFS (SIFS) training in 2025, Holly began exploring how SIFS meets Fooling in her own body and with various collaborators, in many performance labs (Glitter Heart, The Fools in the Forest Retreat and The Clown / Fool / IFS lab). Holly completed her SIFS Step Two with Susan McConnell in January 2026 and dived straight into the first iteration of this workshop with a group of intrepid Fools.

You can read about what we got up to here.

You can read participants’ poems and see more photos from the week here.

This course will be a lab-style week, where together we will explore the meeting point of Fooling and SIFS. 

Some questions to inspire our explorations 

• How might developing an awareness of the ways in which our parts show up in our bodies enhance our Fooling?

• How might taking time to develop a more curious and compassionate relationship with our parts off stage impact our stage work? 

• How might the Fools stage become a space of ritual and collective healing? What might that look like?

During the 5 days, Holly will offer:

• Guided meditations
• Movement explorations
• Little nuggets of IFS and SIFS theory to support your explorations 
• Simultaneous solo embodied / creative explorations of our parts (everybody working in their own spaces at the same time)
• Pairs / small group exercises - supporting each other to dive deeper into our parts and discovering their wisdom
• Creative reflection - using artwork, writing, structured discussion
• Some solo stage time - maybe not every day - there may be one or two days where we dive deep into an exploratory process that doesn’t involve any solo stage performance.

The SIFS Map

We will be guided by the SIFS map to structure our explorations, weaving in the elements to support our play:

• somatic awareness - tapping into the element of earth to ground us in our bodies, exploring the parts that live in our bodies

• conscious breathing - opening to the element of air, connecting with the sky above, discovering the parts that live in our breath and voices

• radical resonance - tuning into the element of water to explore resonating with objects, our parts and each other

• mindful movement - being lit up by the element of fire, exploring our parts through movement

• attuned touch - calling on all of the elements to support us in offering ourselves, our parts and each other consensual touch.

Feedback from previous participants

“During the 5 days 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.”

“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.” 

“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!”

Who is this training for?

This training is for a small group of 8 people who have completed Holly’s 5-day Fools School. 

This course is booking on a first-come, first-served basis. 

There is an application process to discover a little about what’s drawing you to the lab and the kinds of support you might need.

This training is designed as an experiential personal exploration of creative and embodied ways of working with parts. It will be of benefit for performers and creatives, as well as therapists, counsellors, facilitators and people who work with people.

For performers and creatives, there will be a rich pallet of tools and techniques to help you access and unlock your creativity and ways to work with fears, blocks and resistance.  

For therapists, counsellors, facilitators and people who hold space for other people, the focus of this week will be on your own / the group process, rather than explicitly learning skills to use with other people. You may, of course, take inspiration from this week into your professional practice, but just to be clear - this is not an official IFS or SIFS training and you will not gain any training credits or be able to call yourself ‘IFS- or SIFS- trained’ on completion of this training. You may however call yourself IFS-informed.

Course details

Dates: Monday 22 - Friday 26 February 2027

Venue: Clifton, Bristol (more details on booking)

For: People who have completed Holly’s 5-day Fools School

Cost: £750 (standard) / £650 (lower earning)  / £600 (on benefits / in full-time education)

Please choose the tier that honestly reflects your current financial situation. Application process: There is an application process to make sure you're a good fit for the course and to gather a few details. 

Application form: here or below

We are also looking for an assistant for this course. This is a paid role. You need to have worked with me before and you need to be trauma-trained. If this is you - email me on info@hollystoppit.com

About Holly Stoppit

Holly Stoppit is a dramatherapist (MA), facilitator, educator, IFS therapist (Levels 1 +  2), Somatic IFS therapist (Steps 1 + 2), creative supervisor and creative consultant who has been designing group workshops for adults since 2007. 

Holly started her Fools training with Franki Anderson in 2001 and has been teaching Fooling since 2008. Holly’s current work explores the meeting point of Fooling and Somatic IFS, through workshops, performances and writing. More about Holly here.

ACCESS

Holly is a trained and registered dramatherapist. She is highly experienced in working with people who identify as neurodivergent and LGBTQI+ as well as people with disabilities, chronic illnesses and mild to moderate mental health issues. Holly creates a brave space where you can bring yourself and your needs.

The venue has 3 toilets - one is accessible at ground level, with a sink inside the cubicle. The venue has stairs leading between the rehearsal space and the kitchen, which will unfortunately make it not possible for wheelchair users to move between the spaces, but there will be an assistant and we will find a way to adapt for anyone with mobility issues.

COVID CARE

>There are still people who are vulnerable to covid and Holly wants everyone to feel as safe as possible in the space. 

>We can't guarantee a Covid-free environment, but we can do our best to minimise the risks for people with compromised immunity and/or those who are connected with immune-compromised people.

>If you have any covid-like symptoms, please take a lat-flow test and please don't come if you have tested positive. 

>All exercises can work with social distancing, if that is what you need. Please make sure that physical proximity is consensual.

>You are welcome to wear a mask if that makes you feel safer. Holly will not be asking people to wear masks. 

>We will be working with windows open for ventilation, so please bring extra warm layers.

>We will have an open discussion and make a group agreement on the first day to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable enough.

CANCELLATION POLICY

> If you need to cancel your place before the course begins, full refunds can only be given up until one month before the course starts.

> Should you need to cancel your place after this date, 50% of your payment will be retained, unless your place can be suitably filled.

> For drop-outs within 72 hours (3 days) of the start of the course, your full fee will be retained.

> If Holly needs to cancel this course for any reason, you will be offered alternative dates. If you are unable to attend the rescheduled dates, then we will offer a refund.

Photos: taken during the Fool + Somatic IFS lab, 2026