Playing when the Playing gets Hard
a 7-week virtual journey through playful practices to help us find play in the most unplayful of moods
7 Sundays 1/12 - 2/23 2025
Virtual (Zoom)
11am-1pm PST / 2-4pm EST / 7-9pm GMT
At The Deep Play Institute we believe that play can be deep, profound, serious, heavy, challenging and intense. But sometimes, the weightiest of weights don’t want to be played with. It might feel like the last thing in the world you are able to do is reflect, let alone bring levity, creativity, or play. What do we do then? Join the DPI Team as we take you on a 7 week journey through a variety of playful practices that offer ways to find play in the most unplayful of moods. This is the 2nd iteration of an incredibly transformative series, so we hope you join us for some deep play during the wintery season when play can feel so very hard.
Classes will meet Jan 12th until Feb 23rd on zoom, on Sundays from 2-4pm EST (or 11am-1pm PST, or 7-9pm GMT). Participants must sign up for the entire series. Classes will be recorded, so if you can’t attend one you can still watch the recording. See below for our list of classes and facilitators.
Cost is by donation, taking inspiration from the dana practice in Buddhist monastic settings. We believe that this play is deeply important and liberatory, and offer the series as an act of service towards collective healing and transcendence. Please give what you can and find appropriate to support our organization and skillful facilitators, and we welcome you regardless of that number.
Classes will meet Jan 12th until Feb 23rd on zoom, on Sundays from 2-4pm EST (or 11am-1pm PST, or 7-9pm GMT). Participants must sign up for the entire series. Classes will be recorded, so if you can’t attend one you can still watch the recording. See below for our list of classes and facilitators.
Cost is by donation, taking inspiration from the dana practice in Buddhist monastic settings. We believe that this play is deeply important and liberatory, and offer the series as an act of service towards collective healing and transcendence. Please give what you can and find appropriate to support our organization and skillful facilitators, and we welcome you regardless of that number.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
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1/12
Introductions: Grab Bags of Technique Party Favors Aaron Finbloom & Netta Sadovsky Welcome to our series! We’ll introduce ourselves, say some words about the series and its guiding ethos, then we’ll go over some agreements. We'll spend the bulk of our time during this first session playing a variety of shorter games inspired by practices such as: Internal Family Systems, Psychodrama, mindfulness and buddhist meditation, surrealism and somatic parts work. These structures, developed and iterated on by Aaron and Netta over our years of facilitating play with DPI, experiment with bringing lightness, flow, and connection to deep and challenging questions. Bio: Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, artist and pedagogue. He is the co-founder of The School of Making Thinking (SMT) and the director of The Deep Play Institute (DPI). His life work (and play) involves expanding transformative inquiry practice through games, performance art and conversation scores. Aaron has training in Circling, Psychodrama, and Processwork and holds a PhD in relational practice from Concordia University in Montreal. Bio: Netta Sadovsky (they/she) is a therapist and artist living in Philadelphia. They organize gatherings at the intersections of therapeutic, meditative, and creative practices through their role as Assistant Director at the Deep Play Institute. Netta has a Master’s in Social Work and Social Practice from Bryn Mawr, Level 1 training in Internal Family Systems, and an MFA in visual art from Tyler School of Art. |
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1/19
Right Brain Protocol Megan May Right Brain Protocol is playful embodiment practice meets speculative communication paradigm. In his book "Right Brain Psychotherapy," neuropsychologist Allan Schore details the power of right brain-to-right brain, implicit communication in the therapeutic process. Right Brain Protocol takes this research as inspiration for a creative exploration of non-verbal communication and collective resilience. The workshop asks: what if developing fluency in the non-linear language of the right brain is crucial for coordination in a hyper-survilled future? The workshop weaves together neuroscience education, somatic healing wisdom, and theatre games as it guides participants into relational attunement. Exercises will provide creative opportunities to explore right brain talents, including but not limited to, seeing the part for the whole, understanding the music of language, referencing a map of the whole body, and learning attachment and affect-regulation skills throughout life. By the end, participants will have a fresh sense of the relational fields we belong to, whether or not we're aware of them. Bio: Megan Daalder is a healing arts practitioner with a background in performance and video art. They are deeply committed to collective healing and collaborate on several popular education projects that make psychotherapeutic theories more accessible. They are currently training to become a somatic therapist while offering somatic coaching as a non-clinical, non-pathologizing container. You can book a free consultation at subliminalrelations.com or find them @subliminalrelations |
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1/26
Why Won't You Apologize? Gabrielle Revlock Apologizing is one of the hardest things to do because it requires the courage to be vulnerable. We resist because of the fear that saying “I’m sorry” equals being dubbed the bad guy. But what if apologizing meant that you were actually the good guy?! This workshop aims to equip participants with the tools to have a healthy and satisfying relationship with apologies. Drawing from psychologist Harriet Lerner’s book by the same name, Why Won’t You Apologize?, is a workshop in which we will approach the art of the apology face on and upside-down. Combining humility and humor, reality and fantasy, our goal is to relate, release, and relax. Come find catharsis through the act of apologizing and leave with serious, and not so-serious, tools for self and community care. Bio: Gabrielle Revlock is an artist and educator, whose work is influenced by postmodern dance, experimental theater, conceptual art and compassionate communication. Working at the intersection of wellness and creativity, she is the creator of Restorative Contact, a partner mindful touch and movement practice, and her chapter on the "Therapeutic Applications of Contact Improvisation" is published in the 2024 book, Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation at 50. More at GabrielleRevlock.com |
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2/2
Me & My Shadow: An Exploration in Community through Tarot Faith Danforth Shadow work helps us live more fully and expand our sense of self by inviting unloved, unclaimed or unseen parts of self into consciousness. We’ll playfully invite whatever of our shadow is ready to come forward using the tool of Tarot to help us see what is unseen. Using guided visualization, journaling, partner work and then giving voice to that part in community, we’ll create a space for shadow to be witnessed and accepted without judgment. Please bring a Tarot deck (or use one of the free ones online) and a journal. Bio: Faith Danforth has been studying, teaching and practicing Tarot and earth-based spirituality for nearly 30 years. Deeply informed by her women’s studies degree, training in facilitation, mediation and ritual as well as her day job as a manager in the non profit space, she strives to welcome our wholeness in every moment, especially the hard ones. |
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2/9
Rules of the Game: Finding Liberation through Containment Mistress Grace BDSM is a game with a lot of rules. If done right, it lights a path to a feeling of complete liberation through either being contained, or temporarily being granted control through knowing where the boundaries are. In this workshop, we will explore the ways that being held and holding with structure can open up doorways to deep and profound play. Participants will be guided through scene negotiation, roleplay, and playing with power dynamics. We will leave time for ideas, questions, and reflections before and after. Bio: Grace is a Dominatrix, cook, arts educator, and organizer. She lives by the idea that art exists in the everyday and everyone should have the time and space to access it. Community, collaboration, and compassion are the root of her somatic and visual practices, as well as her political organizing. You can find her whipping men and whipping up food for her neighbors in Lenapehoking/Queens, New York. |
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2/16
Vocal Reclamation Hamsa Fae Vocal Reclamation was birthed in 2020 as a community container for re-wilding the voice from intergenerational trauma and colonial oppression. It became a series of love letters to all those who have cursed one’s personal artistry and expression. To those who have been silenced. And a place to release to re-inquire with the play power of sacred rage, laughter, sexuality, and grief. When did I need my full voice and could not access it? Bio: hamsa fae (she/they) is a Vietnamese-French performance artist and poet from Los Angeles. She comes from a rich lineage of farmers, mystics, and women warriors. She draws upon ten years of research in shamanic journeying/animism to create portals for possibility. Her performances, publications, and playshops curate internationally. Please visit www.heartofhamsa.com for more musings / / / always for the trancestors |
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2/23
Our Invisible Organs* Chris Bodwitch Through clownish wisdom that is light-hearted yet profound, explore how your emotions move with different levels of energy. Play with simple creative movement, writing, drawing, and observing exercises to learn how to embrace your irritated, excited, bored, flustered, goofy, embarrassed, sorrowful, calm and dejected self. Bio: Chris is a long-time creative movement performer and educator, schooled fool and a trainer of Dynamic Emotional Integration®. She crafts spaces where individuals can reconnect with their emotional intelligence through physical, paradoxical, and imaginative expression. Learn more about her at muckandgold.com. *this class will go for an additional 30 minutes after the indicated time for closing reflections, integrations and goodbyes as a conclusion to the workshop series as a whole (facilitated by Aaron Finbloom) |