This is the third part of a 3-part series of blogs, charting my journey through the Glitter Heart performance lab, lovingly held by Liz Clarke and Company and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, summer 2025. 

This blog follows my progress through the second and final weekend of the Glitter Heart lab. It contains:

• A catch up of what happened since the last weekend

• Three important conversations that shaped my final piece

• Notes from a largely unwitnessed extended improvisation, exploring what happens when I drop the words and express grief through my body (I got stuck in an infinite loop of suffering)

• My descent into the Shame Hole - exploring what led up to this.

• Preparation and notes from my final performance - playing from the Shame Hole.

• Afterthoughts - thoughts on grief, shame, trauma, my parts and how they’ve tried to look after me over the years, healing through creativity.

• My takeaways from the whole project - what happened, what difference it made and what I’m going to take forward.

This is the second part of a 3-part series of blogs, charting my journey through the Glitter Heart performance lab, lovingly held by Liz Clarke and Company and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, in summer 2025. 

This blog charts my progress through the first Glitter Heart weekend performance lab. Here’s what’s in the blog:

• A little musing about my journey since my last full-length theatre show in 2017 (a semi-improvised performance-lecture where I embodied many of my inner parts on stage)

• Notes from my first 10 minute solo improvisation at Glitter Heart, where I tried to bring my grief onto the stage.

• Notes from my hour-long improvisation at Glitter Heart, where I continued to explore my grief, with support from my inner cast and a small audience.

• My afterthoughts - the joy of playing, my inner protectors controlling the content, the audience love my critic.

• Some IFS theory - the importance of working at the pace of the protectors.

• A whole bunch of questions around putting grief on stage.

This is the first part of a 3-part series of blogs, charting my journey through the Glitter Heart performance lab, lovingly  held by Liz Clarke and Company and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, in summer 2025. 

This blog focuses on our first two evening sessions; 1.) exploring our own performance practices, drawing on inspiration from the Live Art Archives and 2.) an investigation of our relationship with collaboration through discussion and play. 

On Wednesday 17th September 2025, I presented an online session for World Childless Week. 

The session was called Exploring Childlessness Through Creative Approaches To Internal Family Systems (IFS). 

I'm going to be presenting a free online IFS workshop at World Childless Week in September! 

I've been attending World Childless Week for the last couple of years and have found it to be a big support on my journey to coming to terms with being childless, not by choice. Listening to other childless people tell their stories has helped me feel less alone. 

This year, I wanted to join the conversation, offering some of the tools and techniques that have been helping me.

Last week, I got interviewed by Ana Maia Marques for her podcast, Movement Is My Constant, which she describes as, "A monthly podcast about the body, movement, and the impermanence of life." 

It was a lovely chat which flowed quite easily, thanks to Ana's insightful questions and deep listening. I was a bit taken aback by the depth of her research. She'd actually read my blogs! We covered a lot of ground in just less than an hour.

She named the episode:

Clowning, Fooling, and IFS: Embodied Tools for Neurodivergence, Trauma Healing, and Burnout Prevention — with Holly Stoppit

This blog goes out to anyone who is interested in making changes in their lives. It contains three rituals for you to: 1.) Explore your inner parts and their relationship with change 2.) Take yourself on a nature walk to contemplate what you want to let go of and what you want to draw in and 3.) Create a piece of artwork to encapsulate and activate an intention. But first, a little context!

Announcing my autumn workshop programme! 

Whether you're looking to explore your inner voices through solo improvised performance (Fooling), learn about Internal Family Systems through play (Playful Embodied Creative Approaches to IFS), train as a creative facilitator (The Well-Held Space), or get some one-to-one support, I’ve got something for you this autumn!

Hello readers. I am delighted to announce that after three years of wandering in the wilderness, I have officially moved back to Bristol!  

For those of you who haven’t been following my blog, welcome! For the last three years, I have been on a pilgrimage, trying to figure out where to put this particular version of me. Was it a spiritual quest? Was it an extended social experiment? Or was it a trauma response? This blog explores some of the driving forces behind my three year odyssey. 

If you’ve ever found yourself doing strange repetitive things that feel comforting at the time but eventually spiral into compulsion, then this blog is for you. If you’re curious to find out why anyone would get into that sort of thing, then this blog is for you too.

Greetings friends!

I’ve just got back from Portugal, where I was studying Somatic Internal Family Systems (SIFS) with Susan McConnell.  

Here's a video I made in the Portuguese sunshine, chatting about what I was experiencing and how it might make it's way into my summer schools this July and August..