We all carry parts of ourselves we have learned to push below the surface. Inner Shadow Puppets is a full day workshop that brings those parts into the room, quite literally, through giant puppet-making, movement and play.

Drawing on Jung's concept of the shadow-self and the therapeutic practice of Process Work, we use creative making as a way to notice what is alive beneath the surface of our everyday awareness. The repeated patterns, the unexpected emotional reactions, the things we would rather not look at. These are not problems to fix but parts of ourselves worth meeting. And in this workshop we meet them by building them, wearing them and moving with them.

And by looking at ourselves we can also look again at our role in society. When our shadow parts go unacknowledged, we risk projecting our shadows out into society - as harmful narratives about other people. So the workshop is also an exploration of creative practice can be a tool for connecting across divides.

Expect a playful, thoughtful and connecting day. No experience needed to participate.

Workshop Details:
Sunday 14th June
St Annes House Bristol.
Fewer than 10 participants, with full day commitment

What we will do:
The workshop will make a space to play with diverse creative mediums (e.g. clay, movement, drawing, sock puppetry etc) as a way to connect to parts of ourselves we usually ignore. We will come up with characters and then craft huge versions of them as giant puppets. Finally we willput these puppets on to feel what it is like to embody the parts of ourselves that we unusually reject.

The facilitators:

Finn Strivens is a designer, maker and performer who specialises in crafting spaces for people to challenge their assumptions and dream about other ways of being. Their design studio, Futurall combines art and public engagement, and they perform alternative drag whenever they can find a stage.

Jake Garber is a trainee process worker and co-founder of Canopy where he explores the generative power of collective imagination for transformation and justice in society and the environment. Jake is also an artist exploring themes of fatherhood and grief.