
333 - Facilitating with Fabric, Feeling, and Freedom with Paula Short
About this episode
A Mary Poppins’ bag of glitter, a big beating drum, a lump of clay, and a shiny gold crown. Bringing her wonderful, precious collection of props to the show, is the brilliant Paula Short.
As a personal development psychotherapist, talented actress, and the founder of a 1997 youth centre, facilitation has been a guiding constant in Paula’s life and work. Now as a self-exploration retreat host, she facilitates deep transformation through the expressive arts, helping people to welcome unchartered emotions without shame.
We explore how donning the cloak of the villain in a fictional story can become an embodied breakthrough, why the collective support of the group can be liquid gold, and why Paula has such an issue with tissues.
A special, heartfelt conversation – join us!
Find out about:
- How roleplay, costumes and props can help us to access buried feelings and emotions
- The importance of letting emotions free-flow without interruption, or ‘tidying’ them away
- How Paula create safe containers for self-exploration through play
- Navigating our trauma responses, and why we must learn to trust our own vulnerabilities
- Normalising say ‘no’ – and why doing so gives us autonomy, helps us reconnect to our boundaries, and signals emotional safety to others
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Links:
Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.
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👉 What happens when being “professional” gets in the way of being human? My new podcast Unprofessionalism explores the rules we’re taught to follow at work, and what happens when we break them. Listen here: https://unprofessionalism.buzzsprout.com/ 👈
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