A Presentation and Exploration with The Bodies Collective
Based on our book with Routledge: “The Collaborative Body in Qualitative Research: Becoming Bodyography” (1), we will investigate the tension between the “fear of missing out” and “playful collaboration” in an embodied way during the session. We will open the space for co-creation of Bodyography by movement, art and writing together.
Bio
The Bodies Collective is an international group of researchers from different scientific and artistic fields. They aim to bring the body back into the focus of qualitative inquiry as a creator, explorer, and challenger of knowledge. The Bodies Collective is doing Bodyography, works collaboratively, and applies arts-based methods.
1. The Bodies Collective (2023). The Collaborative Body in Qualitative Research: Becoming Bodyography. Routledge.
Contact information of The Bodies Collective members:
● Alys Mendus, alysme@gmail.com
● Davina Kirkpatrick, davinakirkpatrick1@gmail.com
● Mark Huhnen, mark.huhnen@gmail.com
● Sarah Helps, slhelps@mail.com
● Jess Erb, jess.erb@centredself.ca
● Claudia Canella, claudia@canella.ch
● Ryan Bittinger, rbittinger90@gmail.com
Please always copy in all the listed collective members when writing an email.
Members’ bio
Ryan Bittinger (they/them).
Ryan Bittinger is a Doctor of Psychotherapy, specialising in therapist training & Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Their work is most often focused on supporting those healing from trauma, in particular childhood sexual abuse. This passion crystalised while volunteering at Kingdom Abuse Survivors Project (KASP) in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, and Ryan is proud to now sit on KASP’s Board of Trustees. Ryan is the Practice Manager of Centred Self Psychotherapy in Toronto, Ontario, and supports Dr. Erb, the founder, in taking therapy beyond the couch. Ryan is the Director of Clinical Training at Maria Droste Counseling Center in Denver, CO, USA, where their passion for training excellent therapists takes shape through rigorous internships, post-graduate fellowships, and supervisor training. Ryan’s research interests focus on understanding self, refining self-reflective therapeutic practice, and exploring the many facets of queer identities and bodies through experience-near accounts.
Claudia Canella (any pronoun fits).
As a member of The Bodies Collective, Claudia Canella explores collaborative, arts-based ways of experiencing the world from the body. Besides this, she is an artist; works as a qualitative health researcher at the Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine of the University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland; and runs a homeopathic practice in Zürich, Switzerland. She holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology, East Asian Art History, and Philosophy.
Jess Erb (she/her).
Dr. Jess Erb is a registered Psychodynamic Psychotherapist in Toronto, Ontario, specialising in trauma, BPD, and working closely with LGBTQIA+ populations. She is the founder and CEO of Centred Self, which is an innovative psychotherapy practice which meets clients through talk therapy as well as bodily therapies like: holistic nutrition & how trauma is formed in the body, yoga and breathwork therapy, boxing for anger expression therapy, and pottery for mental health and awareness therapy. Jess is an avid potter and is often found getting messy on the pottery wheel with her fluffy Samoyed Dog, Maggie. She is also a feminist activist who strives to bring bodily awareness, particularly awareness of ubiquitous silences, that are placed on the body - all bodies.
Sarah Helps (she/her).
Qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1995 and systemic psychotherapist in 2002, Sarah is a clinician, trainer, leader, researcher and academic. She is the editor in chief of the Journal of Family Therapy. She works in London, and the Highlands, UK. She is interested in how communication actually happens, whether on screen or in-person and is currently working on the #BetterCommunicationProject.
Mark Huhnen (he/him).
Mark Huhnen is a social worker, systemic psychotherapist and coach with a great interest in the expressive capacities of bodies since having gone to a physical theater school. His doctoral thesis (currently being examined) titled ‘How to do things without words’ examines how systemic practice is neglecting non-verbal ways of working. Currently he is involved with an indoor market building being taken over by the community.
Davina Kirkpatrick (she/her).
Dr. Davina Kirkpatrick is an Artist, Researcher and Visiting Specialist in Medical Humanities at the Peninsula Medical School, University of Plymouth. Her background is in site-specific public art, socially engaged practice, and collaborative interdisciplinary projects that have involved national and international residencies, commissions and exhibitions. She has an MA in Multidisciplinary Print. Her PhD, from University of the West of England, focused on grief, loss and living with the presence of absence. Her Postdoctoral Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship at University of Plymouth, titled Immersive Environments and Serious Play: New Initiatives for Patient Practitioner Interaction, explored pain.
Alys Mendus (she/her).
Dr. Alys Mendus is a feminist parent, artist, researcher, innovative educational consultant and casual academic at Melbourne Graduate School for Education and Deakin University, Australia. Alys is from the UK but has just spent the last four and half years living in tropical Australia. Alys’ background is as a very itinerant teacher from Secondary Science, Primary supply teaching, Outdoor Education, Special Schools, an International School in Switzerland, retraining in Early Childhood, Steiner Waldorf and Forest Schools, which led to a MA in Learning and Teaching (Sheffield Hallam, 2012). From this Alys received a PhD scholarship in Freedom to Learn (University of Hull, 2018) which allowed her to visit over 180 places educating differently in 23 countries. Alys’ first book “Searching for the Ideal School Around the World: School Tourism and Performative Autoethnographic-We” was published by Brill in December 2021. Alys did not find the Ideal School and will be home-educating their almost 4-year-old!