A novel approach to exploring relationship with a goal, situation, or an intention using embodied and spatial awareness.
When: Circle runs from 14th December 2023 to 17th of April 2024 (multiple dates, please check the calendar)
How to attend: please book your place via Eventbrite link here
Room: Art Room
Accessibility: Art Room is located on the ground floor and it is fully accessible. The Salisbury Centre’s kitchen door and toilet are now wheelchair accessible. The Garden can also be accessed by wheelchairs via a movable ramp via the Art Room Annex.
Participation in a Symbolic Space Circle allows individuals to experience a novel way of exploring their intentions and connections with the self and the world. A Symbolic Space Circle offers an opportunity to explore a relationship with a creative, spiritual or an every-day-life situation, a goal, an intention using bodily awareness and movement in space. This allows to activate additional processing mechanisms in the brain that are otherwise unavailable to conscious thinking.
The circle begins with a grounding exercise. Then an individual or a group intention is formulated. Sharing of an individual intention with the circle is optional.
Each session has a different approach, depending on the formulated intention(s). Guidance for a session consists of prompts or a series of simple, non-suggestive questions. Usually the goal is to externalise the intention and the situation surrounding it, and to explore a relationship with them through feeling into the bodily sensations, becoming aware of any images and associations coming to mind, working with provided objects, and/or moving through space of the room. The process might be individual or involving a group dynamic, depending on the intention(s).
Debriefing and optional sharing is done at the end of the session.
Ekaterina Shurkova, PhD is a cognitive neuroscientist. She is interested in how we connect with the world: how we learn, play, communicate, solve problems, and change our mind. Her research interests lie in creative problem solving and seeing the world in terms of relations, including the role of symbols, metaphors, and an awareness of space around us in our growth and problem solving. She has an interest in research on the mind and the brain, as well as in studies on animism, ritual, and ceremony. Ekaterina is currently a Teaching Fellow at the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh and runs a private coaching practice.
Symbolic Space website: https://www.symbolicspace.site/
Artwork by Olga Vornava: Olga’s Instagram
This is an invitation to practice ‘Dana’ (generosity) – please pay only what you can afford to attend. If you cannot afford the event, please get in touch with the facilitator to request a free/discounted place.