GROUP: PERSONA(S)
February 8 - April 5, Tuesdays 7:30-9pm EST
a weekly committed group where members will create a persona to assist in deep explorations of self and other
|
GROUP is a 2-month relational play laboratory aimed at exploring the big questions of self and other – what am I, who are you, how does our togetherness shape us, and how does this influence our daily interactions with others? GROUP will be facilitated by Aaron Finbloom, and co-facilitated by DPI’s four Team Members, who will guide the group through diverse relational exercises and creative togetherings.
Participants will construct a semi-fictional character which they will play for the entire duration of GROUP. This character will be modeled off of Internal Family Systems (IFS) 8 Cs of Self-Energy: Calm, Connection, Compassion, Creativity, Clarity, Curiosity, Confidence and Courage. The hope is that this fictional character will help participants to playfully investigate dark, shadowy or problematic aspects of themselves and others in a manner that allows for greater growth and transformation. In-between our GROUP sessions, participants will have short assignments such as writing letters to one’s inner parts, to other participant’s parts, and also brief support-sessions to help participants fully enter into their character. |
GROUP invites participants into a deep play container that may be somewhat risky and intense with the hope being that this intensity will be generative and transformative. Given the intensity of this container, we are requiring an application process, and participants will be vetted using a brief 10-minute phone call to make sure that everyone has the capacity and resource to hold this container. No prior experience with GROUP, Deep Play, or IFS is necessary to participate.
Details: GROUP will be held from February 8 - April 5 on Tuesdays, from 7:30-9:00 pm EST. The application deadline is January 31st. Our meetings will be held over Zoom. Income-based sliding scale tuition is $350-550 USD. Tier 1: $550 | Tier 2: $450 | Tier 3: $350 | BIPOC, Tier 3. Please review the various pricing options, and if you don't find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch. We are committed to paying our facilitators fairly while also making this possible for everyone who needs it. The maximum number of participants for GROUP will be 12. Participants must sign up for the entire GROUP series. Please contact [email protected] if you have any further questions. Importantly, while we hope this GROUP will provide therapeutic impacts, this series and its individual sessions should not be a substitute for seeing a therapist, counselor, or other mental health specialist.
Details: GROUP will be held from February 8 - April 5 on Tuesdays, from 7:30-9:00 pm EST. The application deadline is January 31st. Our meetings will be held over Zoom. Income-based sliding scale tuition is $350-550 USD. Tier 1: $550 | Tier 2: $450 | Tier 3: $350 | BIPOC, Tier 3. Please review the various pricing options, and if you don't find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch. We are committed to paying our facilitators fairly while also making this possible for everyone who needs it. The maximum number of participants for GROUP will be 12. Participants must sign up for the entire GROUP series. Please contact [email protected] if you have any further questions. Importantly, while we hope this GROUP will provide therapeutic impacts, this series and its individual sessions should not be a substitute for seeing a therapist, counselor, or other mental health specialist.
What participants from past iterations of GROUP are saying:
"This was an amazing process to be a part of at this point in my life and I am feeling very fortunate and grateful."
"Wildly different and nourishing."
"Very magical. Was able to really transport everyone."
"This was an amazing process to be a part of at this point in my life and I am feeling very fortunate and grateful."
"Wildly different and nourishing."
"Very magical. Was able to really transport everyone."
SCHEDULE*
FEB 8 |
INTRODUCTION
|
This session will provide an introduction to the GROUP series, and the facilitation styles therein. We will set rules and agreements for our container, and we will begin to create our characters.
FACILITATORS: AARON FINBLOOM / KHUYEN BIO / NETTA SADOVKY / NATALIA STROIKA / SARAH LEDBETTER |
FEB 15 |
PARTS MAPPING |
This will be our first session where we will attempt (for the majority of the session) to be in character. We will spend more time feeling out the contours of our characters, and then we will begin to dive into an exploration of our inner selves by mapping some of our parts, and perhaps uncovering some more marginalized or problematized roles.
FACILITATORS: AARON FINBLOOM |
FEB 22 |
UGLY MUSIC |
In this session, participants will explore sound as an elemental, messy, even monstrous pathway to a fuller experience of Self relating with Parts. We'll take time to diversify our habitual vocal range with a plenitude of options, then move into a more focused inquiry with the selection of sounds that animate the Self or feel indicative of an important Part. We will ask: who is here, what is this presence protecting or serving, who does it become in a group setting, and what does it do when I'm not listening to it? “Let the wild rumpus start!” (Max, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, M. Sendak)FACILITATORS: SARAH LEDBETTER (& AARON FINBLOOM)
|
MARCH 1 |
PSYCHODRAMA |
Psychodrama is an action method in which participants use spontaneous dramatization, role playing, and dramatic self-presentation to engage a situation or encounter. This session will use psychodrama techniques to help participants more deeply engage with a handful of inner parts. After a brief warmup, and explication of the practice, participants will designate places in their room to represent their inner parts, and then move around the room engaging in an active dialogue with their parts. The hope is that hidden inner patterns will emerge, and that a participant's character will be able to use their inner resource to help parts better get along.
FACILITATORS: AARON FINBLOOM |
MARCH 8 |
NEW RULES |
What game are you playing? During this session inspired by Theater of the Oppressed and grounded in the practice of Ludic Liberation, participants will conduct an Existential Game Analysis to dissect the games their GROUP characters like to play - consciously and subconsciously - and experiment with ways to stretch and alter their existential rules. Through iterative gameplay cycles (simulations), players will be able to reflect on the resulting emotional and relational outcomes.
FACILITATORS: NATALIA STROIKA (& AARON FINBLOOM) |
MARCH 15 |
AUTHORITY IN
|
Netta will facilitate the group in a form of social meditation in which we collaboratively bear witness to power dynamics within and among group members. Through the influence of Internal Family Systems Therapy and Tavistock Group Relations, we will use emotional awareness and attentiveness to body sensation to make sense of the group's relationship to authority of various kinds.
FACILITATORS: NETTA SADOVSKY (& AARON FINBLOOM) |
MARCH 22 |
PARTS PLAY |
Given our greater familiarity with our parts at this point in the series, we will now create mini-plays or scenes for our parts. Using tools drawn from playback theatre we will create structured encounters for our parts, and see how they interact within the playful containers that we create.
FACILITATORS: AARON FINBLOOM |
MARCH 29 |
FEEDING THE DEMONS |
This session will explore the lovely annoying creature inside of you that holds you back, traditionally called the shadow. In this session we will be using toys (words and body sensation) to draw out and feed these little demons. It will be gentle, it will be pleasurable, and it will open you up to new possibilities. Think inner massage.
FACILITATORS: KHUYEN BUI (& AARON FINBLOOM) |
APRIL 5 |
CLOSURE |
This session will provide closure to the GROUP series. We will try to give gratitude to all of our parts, and our persona that we have been playing for the duration of the series, and create agreements to continue to engage in this material outside of the GROUP container. We will also hold space for emotions that emerge around endings and departures, as we say goodbye to each other and end our time together in this container.
FACILITATORS: AARON FINBLOOM |
*While we recognize the importance of planned trajectories and schedules, we also believe it is important to remain sensitive to the emergent group process. As such, we will read the group to meet it where it is and potentially alter and augment our offerings to meet the group’s needs.
BIOS
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
Natalia Stroika (she/her +/-) is an Existential Game Maker/Destroyer. She is the creator of Ludic Liberation, a practice of collective play aimed at revealing & releasing our internalized limitations. You can read more about the Ludic Liberation philosophy at www.ludicliberation.com, join a monthly Ludic Liberation Lab to help R&D new liberatory game mechanics, read The Lab Report of past experimental results and existential game theory, or work with Natalia directly on tuning up or redesigning your Personal Existential Game (PEG). Natalia has a Doctorate in Learning Sciences and training in Transformational Social Therapy and the Warm Data Lab process. Natalia lives in so-called South Philadelphia and as mummer with the Vaudevillains New Years Brigade, she has been a hoagie, a tree, a rainbow, a butterfly, a feral cat mother, a fish, a planet, and a pterodactyl.
|
|
Netta Sadovsky, MFA, LSW (she or they) is an artist and therapist living in Philadelphia, PA. She provides group and individual counseling specializing in alternative sexualities and relationship structures at West Philly Therapy Center, and is a teaching artist at Center for Creative Works. Netta is a student of Internal Family Systems, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychodynamic Therapy, Mindful Facilitation, Theater of the Oppressed, and Psychodrama, and makes artwork that borrows from and experiments with these practices under the moniker Suso Phizer.
|
|
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.
|