I left the sanctuary of my quiet Glastonbury attic at the beginning of July and headed back to life on the road, travelling about, teaching, learning and catching up with lovely pals in lovely places for the summer. 

In July I got to explore the archetype of ‘Wise Woman’ in Cardiff with a bunch of artists from different disciplines, delivered my final Mindful Play weekend in Bristol and attended a four day IFS-fool-clown research lab in Nottingham.

In August I co-created a 2-day Clown Congress dreaming process with Robyn Hambrook in Bristol, flew over to Germany to share my Clown-o-therapy toolkit with a bunch of clowns at the Ravensburger Clown School Summer Academy, whizzed back to Devon to attend a week-long Buddhism and Psychotherapy retreat with Nigel Wellings at The Barn, hunkered down in Bristol at Beccy Golding’s at home writing retreat and yoyo’d back to Devon to co-facilitate a week of Deep Play at Embercombe with Briony Greenhill. 

Phew! No wonder I’m so tired!

I'm back in Glastonbury now, resting up and savouring all the summer memories. I'd like to share a few snippets of summer with you to give you a taste of the wonderful worlds I've been inhabiting and a whiff of the residue they've left on and in me.

Wise Women in Cardiff

I had an incredible week at the start of July at Cardiff M.A.D.E, leading a wonderful new collective of powerful creative women through an excavation of the self, using play, embodiment, fooling, movement, voice, meditation, sensory exploration, site responsive creativity and discussion. 

This was a Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru / Arts Council Wales funded project, exploring the narratives of a group of women therapists, artists & archaeologists, offering an opportunity to discover what the archetype of ‘The Crone’ means, through a holistic collaborative process.

They invited me in for the first week to help them develop a shared language of Fooling, before I handed over the reins to lead artist and facilitator, Dominique Fester to continue the exploration. It was so nourishing to be met in this work with so much compassion and creativity.

Keep your eyes on this lot, they're cooking up some exquisite alchemy!

Mindful Play in Bristol

July birthed the third of my three new Mindful Play weekends, this time exploring the theme of SPONTANEITY.

Three new weekend workshops have now been tried and tested by a bunch of brave and willing explorers, who meditated, played, danced, sang, made art, laughed, cried, talked and listened, investigating their relationship with play, flow and spontaneity.

Big thanks to the participants for jumping into this ever evolving research with me. A stylish hat-tip to this season's glamorous assistants, Cat, Livvy and Spud. Thumbs up to St Werburghs Primary School for letting us use their beautiful dance studio. Endless gratitude to all my teachers for their inspiration and love. A nod and a wink to all those who have supported me in this ever-evolving work over the years.

What happens next with this work? I don't know! I'm going to spend some time reflecting and reading through the feedback and then I'll let you know! In the meantime, "May we never lose the wonder." 

Clowning, Fooling and IFS research lab in Nottingham

At the end of July I went to Nottingham to co-create a research lab with three other IFS-trained clowns and fools, Angela Hayes, Saskia Solomons and Sarah Burns. We’ve been meeting online for the last couple of years. We had one day when three of us were together in March, but this was the first time we were all in the same place at the same time! 

We spent four days in a phenominal clown house in Nottingham, exploring the meeting place of clowning, fooling and Internal Family Systems, through relentless experimentation, moving, dancing, embodying, singing, dressing up, discussing, artwork and free-writing.

Serious play took place. Great food was eaten. Big learning happened. Multiple conclusions were drawn. More experiments were called for. Watch this space for more!

2-day Clown Congress Dream Time

At the start of August, fellow clown teacher, Robyn Hambrook and I spent two spacious playful dreaming days together at Bridge Farm in Bristol. We reflected back on the four clown conferences we've had a hand in organising - the two online ones we co-produced during the pandemic; "Clowns In Crisis" and "Clowning Out Of Chaos," one in-person one in 2022 exploring political clowning (I was away for this one); and last October's hybrid event; "Clowns and Identity."

Through play, writing, collage, movement and discussion, we explored what this event means to us and the wider community of clowns and where it sits with our current individual work. We mused on what a sustainable, accessible model might look like and dreamed up a range of events for 2025 and beyond. Watch this space for news…

Clown-o-Therapy in Germany

I had a delightful week, sharing my Clown-o-Therapy toolkit with a gorgeous group of German and Dutch clowns as part of the Ravensburger Clownschule Summer Academy. It was so lovely to reconnect with that strand of my work and see how IFS integrates with it. A warm, dedicated and committed group allowed us to journey deep and discover much treasure.

It was a rare treat to hang out and compare notes with four other clown teachers, Caroline, Ton, Bernard and Andreas, who were all leading their own clown workshops. Massive thanks to the organisers, Andreas and Sabine for inviting me, supporting me and trusting me to share my Clown-o-Therapy methodology with their precious clown community.

Here’s a beautiful poem written by one of the participants:

Buddhism and Psychotherapy Retreat in Devon

I returned to The Barn on the Sharpham Estate in Devon, where I used to live. This time I went to attend a retreat exploring where Buddhism meets Psychotherapy. Retreat leader, Nigel Wellings introduced us to Dzogchen meditation - which is basically just sitting around, staring at a wall, doing nothing, really.

Sounds simple, eh? Cue big swirling storm of grief, shame and despair! 

“Oh hello old friends! So nice of you to drop in!”

I asked my feelings what they needed and they guided me out onto the land. We drifted together through the soft undulating landscape, swam in the wide salty Dart and lay side by side, gazing up at the clouds. My grief, shame and despair were grateful for the time and attention, after several weeks of being cooped up in my suitcase, while I’ve been travelling and teaching. In tuning into their needs, they helped me slow down, simplify and find my way back to nature, where joy, wonder and bliss abounded. 

Thanks to Sharpham and The Barn for holding me so that I could hold myself through the storm.

Writing Retreat In Bristol

After a few days of hanging with lovely pals in Devon, I returned to Bristol to attend Beccy Golding’s 4th annual at-home writing retreat. This is a glorious week where Beccy makes her house and garden available to various writers who come and go, scribbling poems, chatting and laughing, plotting their writing futures, eating good food, drinking cups of tea, lounging in the hot tub and napping whenever and wherever they like. 

I spent my time gently preparing my autumn programme and writing a blog, capturing a 2-day therapeutic process I facilitated for one incredible individual earlier on this year. You can read it here.

Deep Play Retreat in Devon

My final summer project was 5 glorious days of singing, dancing, playing, resting, eating, swimming, hugging, laughing, crying, learning, remembering, forgetting and breathing in the wonderful open arms of Embercombe. 

Such an extraordinarily delicious opportunity to co-facilitate an emergent retreat with Collaborative Vocal Improv (CVI) teacher, Briony Greenhill, supported by our glamorous assistants Sarah Burns and Saskia Solomons, held by the land, staff and volunteers at Embercombe. 

Together we discovered a plethora of possibilities where CVI meets clowning, fooling, IFS and our more than human friends. I'm excited to see where this work goes next!

Conclusions

Wow! What a summer! How lucky I am to get to do all this cool stuff and meet all these cool people! I've LOVED that I haven't had to organise everything myself and I love that I've had a whole lot of support, both inside and outside the various rooms.

AND I've done all this without a base! Sometimes it's joyful and sometimes it's hard; going from place to place, tribe to tribe, with nothing but a suitcase of colourful clothes, a full spectrum of flowers for my hair and a laptop bursting with a lot of Very Good Music.

I've enjoyed using the full range of my skills and experience on so many different projects. I love creating new bespoke workshops and then adapting my offers to suit whoever's in the room. It's such a joy to give my gifts and see them having astonishing impacts on individuals and communities. I mean, I don't get it right every time. Sometimes my offers sink like a stone, but I have enough experience and optimism to know that I can change direction at the drop of a hat. When I relax and soften and trust the group to show me what they need, magic will invariably happen. 

But as you can see, my energy waned around mid-August when I probably could have done with a week at home. But I didn't have one to go to, so I went to the next best place - The Barn retreat centre - where I kind of disintegrated like a teenager for a week. It was tricky to do this in front of people I didn't know, but I didn't have many other options. I'm so grateful for the familiarity of The Barn, the containment of the schedule, the kindness of the volunteers and staff, the medicine of the land and the river and the trees and the birds and the beasts and for my friends who scooped me up afterwards and held me tight while I reconfigured. 

All roads seem to be pointing towards finding this Holly a home soon. In order to sustain this ever-deepening work, it appears I need a base. I have this lovely sublet in Glastonbury for a couple of months and I'll spend this time getting clear about WHERE I want to live and then I shall find my Holly home!

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I am open to more creative collaborations and actively looking for people to host and support my workshops throughout the UK and Europe and maybe even further afield... Have workshops, will travel (once I've had a rest).