Altered Books: The Creative Power of Found Objects in Therapy

‘Altered books’ are a great starting point for utilising creativity in the therapeutic space, providing a joyful and disruptive experience that offers a progressive process for co-creation and self-knowledge. Inspired by the Dada movement and New Materialism, the practice of altering found objects for self-expression and meaning making can be extended to the therapeutic encounter in productive ways.

Merging personal expression with synergies and the words on the page, ‘Altered books’ invite experiences that are born of resonances and memories; becoming art pieces made by changing the role and appearance of existing books into vessels for new and unexpected ideas. Experience adopting a variety of simple techniques, such as covering, folding, painting, or collage, to create and explore a process of self-discovery that is ‘bound’, using the live moment to transform and respond to the page and its evocative power.

Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event

• The session will offer a live experiential activity for you to experience the possibility of utilising found objects as accessible creative vessels for self-expression. Clients can adopt this process as a rhythmic tool each time you meet.
• Learn to integrate arts-based and play methods to evoke self-discovery and healing, and generate new ways of thinking through synergies, populating a tangible repository of experiences over time.
• Employ a process of intra-action (Barad) to engage self-expression, joy and healing.

Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?

• Anyone hoping to engage in reflection and meaning-making through and beyond words: therapists, coaches and socially-engaged practitioners.

How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?

• This workshop offers an evocative experience and a tool for transformation (tangible and processual), creative play and self-discovery that are generative and can be ‘held’ in material form.
• Expand your therapeutic offer by adopting an accessible creative outlet for co-creation and self-expression, transcending and extending word-based interactions. Especially helpful when working with clients who speak English as a second or additional language.

Essential materials: An unwanted book (you can buy a book that you are happy to re-purpose at a flea market/second-hand store/charity shop or from a community book-swap). Pens, pencils, oil pastels, markers, glue stick (or tape), magazine/newspaper cut-outs.

ZOOM 

This event will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.

SELF-SELECT FEE

The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00, however, we appreciate that income varies greatly in different locations and circumstances. Please contribute what you can to help us maintain inclusive professional training.

___________________________

At Onlinevents, we and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a way that aligns with the ethical codes and frameworks of our respective professional organisations. We expect all colleagues attending our events to uphold the ethical principles of their professional membership.

If you are not a member of a professional organisation, we ask that you participate in a way that is both authentic and respectful, fostering a space of mutual learning and professional engagement.

By registering for this event, you agree to be present and interact in a manner that reflects these principles.

Dr Francesca Bernardi PhD, CATA/ACAT

Francesca Bernardi is an independent scholar, artist, and speaker. Her socially-engaged work focuses on individuals navigating dis/ability, cultural, and social exclusions. This work is non-hierarchical, decolonial, and multimodal, rooted in arts-informed methodologies, critical dis/ability studies, and social pedagogy.

She is the founding chair of the Antonio Gramsci Society UK, a forum for accessible civic engagement, and a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. She serves as an editorial board member of Disability & Society, and is a member of CATA-ACAT. Francesca has worked extensively as a teacher and artist-in-residence in schools, alternative provision, further education, museums, and theatres. Her published work includes original research, translations, and collaborations with institutions like TATE, the RSA, and the Leverhulme Trust.

She currently holds roles as a supervisor and lecturer in Childhood Studies and as a Visiting Scholar in Arts Therapies.

Website | www.frabeart.carrd.co