The Deep Play Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to explore life's biggest questions through transformative play.
We have hosted live action role play groups where players create personas out of marginalized inner parts. We have facilitated retreats where participants experiment with the edges of their relational practices. We have created events where we pretend to be futuristic stewards assisting participants out of their long periods of cryogenic freezing using games, authentic relating techniques and contact improvisation.
Every month we meet virtually on the existential playground. All our upcoming events are creative blends of transformative practices aimed at bringing participants into the joyous process of exploration of self, other and world.
We have hosted live action role play groups where players create personas out of marginalized inner parts. We have facilitated retreats where participants experiment with the edges of their relational practices. We have created events where we pretend to be futuristic stewards assisting participants out of their long periods of cryogenic freezing using games, authentic relating techniques and contact improvisation.
Every month we meet virtually on the existential playground. All our upcoming events are creative blends of transformative practices aimed at bringing participants into the joyous process of exploration of self, other and world.
ABOUT US
Who am I? What am I? What makes me who I am? What roles do I play out? What emotions fill me? What values guide me? Who do I become with you? What do I want? What do we want? What creates power? What shifts desire? What causes transformation? What is the purpose of my life? What does it mean to be in our world? What is truth, meaning, beauty, goodness, life, existence, reality?
These are some of the core questions of our existence. The Deep Play Institute’s mission is to use play to bring us into an open-hearted, curious process of discovery of what it means to exist. We do not aim to find answers to these questions; we aim to endlessly experiment and explore them. We use play to live the questions. We use play to try to deepen our connection and curiosity to all parts of ourselves, others, and world.
Our path towards joyful, existential, deep play is that of playing with the rules of our togetherness. The rules of how we come together make us into who we are, and shape how we think and act in this world. "Don’t be too loud", "take turns", "be polite", "don’t exaggerate", "speak up". To play with these rules is to play with who and what we are, and to re-imagine what we can be. We free associate, we notice what is here-and-now, we only ask questions, we pause, we speak using roles and voices, we break the rules and re-shape new ones. Every time we gather we enact inquiry which asks: how do I, we, and our worlds change when we we talk, think and feel differently? How can we be brought deeper into the infinite, playful inquiry of life? How can our togetherness make us more curious, more connected, more aware? How can this play make our lives more meaningful by turning the most challenging questions of life into a joyous process of discovery?
Practices that inspire us include: gestalt therapy, process work, psychodrama, internal family systems therapy, family constellations, group relations conferences, psychoanalysis, voice dialogue, hakomi, somatic experiencing, authentic relating, nonviolent communication, circling, coaching, facilitation, clowning, performance art, contact improvisation, social art practices, experimental theatre, LARPs, surrealism, fluxus, pataphysics.
The Deep Play Institute is a U.S. federal 501-c3 non-for-profit corporation. Our team members and advisory board are located across North America (Montreal, Portland, Nashville, Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland), Europe (Italy, UK), and South America (Brazil).
Note: DPI events are not therapy, nor should be considered a substitute for therapy. Some of the explorations we engage in have the potential to go rather deep. We at DPI believe that deep play lives on an edge between safe and dangerous. As such, we invite participants to play in this liminal space, and as facilitators we work to help participants stay on this edge. We see it as our responsibility to design a space that is trauma-informed, holds space for emotional processing, includes self-care, and normalizes opting out at any time. We ask participants to gauge when their experience has crossed into territory that they deem “too edgy” and take the steps necessary for their own emotional safety. Finally, we want to acknowledge that particularly insofar as we occupy privileged identities, we bring our personal limitations and biases into the space, and while we are working to educate ourselves and minimize harm, we recognize that we may cause harm and for that we apologize. Please read our more detailed thinking on these matters in our anti-oppression statement.
These are some of the core questions of our existence. The Deep Play Institute’s mission is to use play to bring us into an open-hearted, curious process of discovery of what it means to exist. We do not aim to find answers to these questions; we aim to endlessly experiment and explore them. We use play to live the questions. We use play to try to deepen our connection and curiosity to all parts of ourselves, others, and world.
Our path towards joyful, existential, deep play is that of playing with the rules of our togetherness. The rules of how we come together make us into who we are, and shape how we think and act in this world. "Don’t be too loud", "take turns", "be polite", "don’t exaggerate", "speak up". To play with these rules is to play with who and what we are, and to re-imagine what we can be. We free associate, we notice what is here-and-now, we only ask questions, we pause, we speak using roles and voices, we break the rules and re-shape new ones. Every time we gather we enact inquiry which asks: how do I, we, and our worlds change when we we talk, think and feel differently? How can we be brought deeper into the infinite, playful inquiry of life? How can our togetherness make us more curious, more connected, more aware? How can this play make our lives more meaningful by turning the most challenging questions of life into a joyous process of discovery?
Practices that inspire us include: gestalt therapy, process work, psychodrama, internal family systems therapy, family constellations, group relations conferences, psychoanalysis, voice dialogue, hakomi, somatic experiencing, authentic relating, nonviolent communication, circling, coaching, facilitation, clowning, performance art, contact improvisation, social art practices, experimental theatre, LARPs, surrealism, fluxus, pataphysics.
The Deep Play Institute is a U.S. federal 501-c3 non-for-profit corporation. Our team members and advisory board are located across North America (Montreal, Portland, Nashville, Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland), Europe (Italy, UK), and South America (Brazil).
Note: DPI events are not therapy, nor should be considered a substitute for therapy. Some of the explorations we engage in have the potential to go rather deep. We at DPI believe that deep play lives on an edge between safe and dangerous. As such, we invite participants to play in this liminal space, and as facilitators we work to help participants stay on this edge. We see it as our responsibility to design a space that is trauma-informed, holds space for emotional processing, includes self-care, and normalizes opting out at any time. We ask participants to gauge when their experience has crossed into territory that they deem “too edgy” and take the steps necessary for their own emotional safety. Finally, we want to acknowledge that particularly insofar as we occupy privileged identities, we bring our personal limitations and biases into the space, and while we are working to educate ourselves and minimize harm, we recognize that we may cause harm and for that we apologize. Please read our more detailed thinking on these matters in our anti-oppression statement.
FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
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Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, artist and pedagogue. He is the co-founder of The School of Making Thinking (SMT) and the founder & director of The Deep Play Institute (DPI). His practice involves expanding transformative inquiry through games, performance art and structured play. With training in Circling, Authentic Relating, and Psychodrama, he also facilitates experimental individual and group sessions inspired by these practices. Finbloom has presented works internationally at venues which include: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Gallery 151 (New York), Maschinenhaus Kulturbrauerei (Berlin), UNAM (Mexico City), and MainLine Theatre (Montreal). He holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities & Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently teaching Philosophy at the City College of New York and The University of Portland. finblooming.com
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ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
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Netta Sadovsky, MFA, LSW (she/they) is an artist and therapist living in Philadelphia, PA, and the Assistant Director at The Deep Play Institute. Netta leads retreats and events in their role at The Deep Play Institute, and has a passion for building community around relational mindfulness and creativity. At West Philly Therapy Center, they provide individual and relationship therapy specializing in Somatic Internal Family Systems, working with kink, polyamory, challenges of artmaking, and healing from relational trauma. Netta has a Masters in Social Work and Social Research from Bryn Mawr College, has level 1 training in Internal Family Systems Therapy, small group consultancy training in Tavistock Group Relations, and extensive training in Psychodrama and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Netta has a background in visual art, with an MFA from Tyler School of Art.
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COLLABORATORS
The Deep Play Institute's Collaborators are deep play facilitators responsible for curating innovative content and programming
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Anna Costa e Silva (she/ her) is an artist, director, teacher and therapist. She works with constructed situations between people that challenge the limits between reality and fiction, self and other, experience and memory and exist in a hybrid space between art and clinic. Her projects happen in the intersections between visual, performing arts and social practice and unfold in installations, films and ephemeral situations. Anna holds an MFA in Visual Arts by the School of Visual Arts (NY) and a post graduate diploma in Reichian therapy from The Living Movement Analysis Center (Rio de Janeiro). She teaches ArtLife Practices at Parque Lage School of Visual Arts - an interdisciplinary laboratory she created, that unites art practice, healing, self fiction, trauma and contact. Anna has also been trained in aura reading, mindfulness meditation, reiki, U Theory, theatre, among other techniques.
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Christie Animas is a playful human researcher exploring consciousness through embodiment, parts work, therapy, theater and play. Originally from Belgium, she first trained as an Occupation Therapist, and specialized in play therapy for children (Belgium). She then became a Voice Dialogue practitioner, a Fool Expression Workshop Facilitator and trained in Body Informed Leadership (UK). She loves exploring what she calls the "Inner Villages" within each one of us, made of sets of parts, dynamics and inner dramas. She works 1:1 with clients online and offers group workshops and retreats in the UK and Europe. www.christieanimas.com
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Dara Bramson is an interdisciplinary ethnographer exploring themes of the body and healing. She is a student and certified facilitator of Deep Listening®, which influences her writing, facilitation, curatorial, movement, and relational practices. Dara's current research in northern India on the healing dyad (doctor-patient relationship) in Tibetan medicine in exile builds on her work in Poland and Cambodia on post-conflict collective memory and healing. Dara is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, where she gardens, dances, and eats communally.
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Gabrielle Revlock is a choreographer, performer, improviser, and somatics educator, whose work is influenced by postmodern dance, experimental theater, conceptual art, and compassionate communication. Her pedagogical approach is focused on strengthening community as a way to foster individual agency and self-actualization. Play and anti-coercion are foundational principles. She is the creator of Joytime, an improvisational practice, and Restorative Contact, a partner mindful touch and movement practice. Her choreography often depicts complex interpersonal relationships in order to interrogate underlying social norms and create moments of absurdity, joy, humor, and compassion. She is a New York City Bessie Award-winning choreographer and has received funding from organizations including the Independence Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and the US Department of State. Revlock is currently a teaching fellow/MFA candidate at Smith College where she teaches Dance For Everybody, Contact Improvisation, and Contemporary-Postmodern Dance. More at GabrielleRevlock.com
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Ilana Simons (ilanasimons.com) is a psychologist in NYC who runs the Radical Parts Work Groups. With PhDs in both literature and psychology, she has taught literature and writing at New York University and The New School. She is the founder of Tin House Reels, a home for videopoems on the web; writes a blog for Psychology Today; and is the author of A Life of One’s Own: A Guide to Better Living through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Penguin). She makes movies (ilanasimonsart.com); and is trained in Voice Dialogue, a form of parts work, licensed in NY, CA and NM.
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Indigo Esmonde is an artist and songwriter living in living in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. . Currently, they are doing a performance art series about how to destroy your own ego. You can find their work at daydreamsandassociates.com and realitycalibration.com. Indigo has been described as 'brilliant and terrifying,' 'naive,' 'an acquired taste,' 'a bit overbearing,' 'the best at throwing online parties' and 'lives on their own planet.'
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Julia Gladstone is an artist and social worker. In her artistic practice, she operates within the expanded field of choreography to figure socialities. Forms take shape through performance, sculpture, video, relational encounters, and experimental pedagogy. Her work has been presented in France, Belgium, Israel, and across the U.S. She is a recipient of the DAAD Fellowship in Performing Arts, organizes Clouds Gathering performance festival, and is a certified facilitator of Deep Listening. She is currently providing therapy to elementary school students at Smedley Charter School. She received an MFA from University of Pennsylvania, and is in the process of completing her MSW from Simmons University.
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Khuyen Bui is an author, speaker and well sought after guide who specifically works with purpose-driven leaders, community builders and coaches to level up their impact. Graduated cum laude from Tufts University studying Computer Science and Philosophy, he thrives in bringing analytical rigor into his fascination with human messiness. Khuyen enjoys writing & storytelling and has won several awards, notably Peter Drucker Challenge and The Moth Boston. His first book, Not Being - The Art of Self-Transformation, is about how our sense of self shifts from a separate entity into a wider sense of togetherness. He is currently based in Vietnam, pioneering this new yet ancient way of living, working and playing together, incorporating many modalities such as writing, coaching, contact improvisation, poetry, meditation and circling. His eyes lit up upon beautiful questions. Find him at khuyenbui.com
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Sarah Ledbetter is a dancing writer and a body-based psychotherapist whose work has been presented or published nationally and internationally at such cool spots and publications as the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Film, the Berlin Black Film Festival, Earthdance E|Merge Interdisciplinary Arts Residency, the Body Mind Centering Conference, floromancy, Fourth River, Right Hand Pointing, and R and R Literary Magazine. Her main interest is how the fiesta of being in a body flows reciprocally into creative, social, site-specific, and therapeutic process. She is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee and Skull Valley, Arizona where her body-based creative and psychotherapeutic practice is anchored and winged.
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ADVISORY BOARD
The Deep Play Institute's Advisory board is a volunteer panel of experts in the field who provide organizational and programming advice and support
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Aviva Avnisan
Aviva Avnisan is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is situated at the intersection of image, text and code. Using a host of emerging technologies including 3D scanning, augmented reality and virtual reality, she creates applications for mobile devices, interactive installations and technologically mediated performances that seek to subvert dominant narratives through embodied encounters with language. Aviva is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media & Technology and Media & Journalism at Kent State University. |
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Anique Vered
Anique Vered is an interdisciplinary researcher, curator and development practitioner renowned for the capacity to connect unexpected partners on unprecedented projects to mobilise impact. Through research-creation, public programming and participatory development innovations, I work at the intersection of community and network building, spaces of experimental learning and co-creation, decolonisation, and social innovation to unleash a new kind of networked agency. With fifteen years experience in communities and organisations across Australia, North America, Asia, the Middle East & North Africa, and Europe; recent projects include co-curating a Forum on Egalitarian, Sustainable Communtarian Organization for Art and Culture with Filipino artists and activists, as well as research and content for Diversity Arts Australia's Creative Equity Toolkit. |
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Lina Moreno
Lina is a Latin American artist and educator based in Montreal. Currently, they are dedicated to providing project management support to strengthen the design of emergent processes within organizations. Lina holds an MA in Art Education from Concordia University and currently works as Head of Organizational Process Design at inPath. |
MEDIA
DONATE
The Deep Play Institute is a registered United States federal non-for-profit corporation.
We gratefully accept donations and appreciate your support.
We gratefully accept donations and appreciate your support.
CONTACT
Email: thedeepplayinstitute [at] gmail [dot] com
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