Clowning is a liberation. A time given to be ourselves without the shoulds of life. This, and being given permission to play, seems to open doors and new ways of relating to ourselves, others and the world.
People often think this sounds great, but still don’t want to try it! They imagine they won’t be funny. But this is the marvel of this work, you don’t need to be funny, and when you let go of thinking you have to be, quite often you are!
So it’s my job as a facilitator to help you find your own unique way of being a clown, that grows from the inside, not any external ideas. All I actually do is offer a safe, warm and supportive space for us to explore simple exercises and games, before doing short improvisations, either solo or with partners.
Clowning can be all number of things, fun, poetic, dramatic, full of pathos. Why I think it heals is because it asks us to listen, to ourselves and others, and to be present to each moment. And we listen not just with our ears, but our eyes and hearts too. People will see your outward clowning journey, but you decide who will be witness to the inner one.
Angie Wakeman
Angie Wakeman
is a nurse with 28 years experience working in the Health Service.
She trained as a Waldorf teacher and in clowning facilitation with Nose to Nose.
She joined other health care professionals as part of the Blackthorn Trust Serious
Clowning project. She now uses clowning to explore the benefits for Health professionals
and their client groups.
She has worked with the ALDD clown performance group at Nutley Hall, and with the Amici Dance Company.
She lives near Norwich with her husband and their three gorgeous children.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
The wonder of clowning
Clowning for Healthcare Professionals
"Please remember it is what you are that heals, not what you know." (C.G. Jung).
For health care professionals, clowning helps us to honour relationships, helps us listen from who we are, and not just the role we perform. We can meet our client groups listening and receiving who they are, what they are saying; not prejudging or deciding in advance. We can learn to use our whole being to be present, and that alone is healing. Clowning also requires us not to know, a danger one would think in our line of work! But in this place of unknowing and full presence we become open to receiving new possibilities, that otherwise may not have come. In this way we are free not to know ahead of ourselves what the answers are that we’re seeking. In this place of openness things often emerge that otherwise may not have.
Serious Clowning: an interview with Dr. David McGavin
Interview published in Autumn 2004 in the anthroposophical magazine New View.
Dr. David Wheeler is a GP and trains doctors in consultation skills at the Greenwich VTS in southeast London.
A conversation with Rob Leiper around psychotherapy and clowning.
Rob Leiper is a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist and a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist.
Previous Workshops
Angie has been running clowning workshops since 2006, in venues including Norwich, Bath University, and Emerson College, East Sussex.
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Participants' Comments
"That was a superb session yesterday. Not only a breath of fresh air, but also plenty of nourishment of a different way of knowing / being / learning. I really appreciated your care, thoughtfulness and honesty in the leading of it."
"Loved the spontaneity, insights, what reveals itself / unfolds. Very interesting, exciting, freeing, inspiring... I am more willing to take risks, be myself, trust life unfolding, step into the unknown with trust."
"Thankyou for such a superb workshop. You... set up a safe, intimate and trusting space and made it easy to be open. I am looking forward to the next workshop."
"Thanks for brightening up my life!"