Body, creativity, communication
I was born in Göteborg (Gothenburg), but when I was 14 our family moved to Moscow and since then I’ve lived mostly outside of Sweden. I’ve always been interested in people, physicality, communication and expression, and this has led me to study anthropology, sociology and languages, among others – in Scotland, Russia, Italy and Germany. At the same time, in a variety of ways and through various encounters, a strong interest in dance, theater and performance grew in me, which I have continued to pursue – both as a critic and author of texts and articles on these topics, as well as on the Stage as a performer in group and solo performances. In recent years, these experiences have become increasingly important for my work with groups, as I integrate improvisation and other theater and dance pedagogical tools as well as methods from creative writing into my training courses and workshops. I am particularly interested in the search for the individual voice and creative expression, and thus the opportunity for authentic and heart-connected communication
Body work – education, training, development
In 2011 I first encountered the Grinberg Method and from the start I really liked how this method combines body awareness and critical reflection to promote clarity and self-determination. I started the training in 2012 and am a certified practitioner since 2016.
In 2017 the Pantarei Approach came as a very important addition for my professional development. This is a new line of bodywork developed by Vered Manasse and Claudia Glowik – two of my foremost teachers within the embodiment field. Through their guiding and support I was encouraged and inspired me to question some basic assumptions in my work and to further develop my own tools and approaches in a self-determined way.
I have been working in individual treatments since 2013 and with group training and workshops since 2015, combining the ideas and tools I have learned through these two methods with my experiences and knowledge from others contexts.
Moving language – moving writing – moving life
As a child, I loved learning new words and word combinations, but I often found I got them a bit ‘wrong’ – I had developed my own interpretations of the words I had heard. Being corrected was always painful for me – as if the words I had struggled to conquer were locked away behind a grid of rules. Each time it left black holes in my language universe that filled with insecurity. Sometimes I even stubbornly stuck to my word interpretations, but at the same time I felt like I am someone who has difficulties in memorizing or mastering the rules of the language correctly.
Despite that (or perhaps rather because of that!), my curiosity for language and expression has continued to grow and has led me to embark on new foreign language adventures again and again. Simply being able to listen to a speech melody or the unusual combination of rounded vowels and angular consonants, without the pressure to immediately decipher what is being said, I find extremely pleasurable. And listening to and perceiving people in their holistic linguistic expression – their gestures, facial expressions, intonation, speech rhythm, posture and choice of words in order to be able to approach their heart matters – that has become the core of my work in individual sessions. Encounters like these are moments of connection I wouldn’t trade for anything else.
To me, one of the most valuable things we have is our own expression – our language – our individual way of perceiving and trying to make sense of the world, bringing it into a form that can be shared with others.
That a language at one moment can feel like a home, or like a second skin, and then in the next moment like a suit that is much too big or an endless sea and me a boat full of holes, these are contradictory experiences that I know well by now. It doesn’t necessarily make it any less challenging or painful in the moment, but reminding myself how different it can feel helps me to not allow myself to be too quickly defined or discouraged by single language “failures”. And these diverse language experiences have also become the motivation for me to go in search of tools that can strengthen a person’s connection to their individual linguistic expression and voice – that can help them feel more “at home” in their language(s).
Through my work with body-oriented methods, I have noticed that I can often free myself from writer’s block or a kind of linguistic rigidity through attentive movement with my body – that if I can shake or stretch myself out of a tense posture, my thoughts and words also have more space to flow freely. And I noticed that meditative approaches or playful movement impulses that draw attention to my body sensations help me find the right words and phrases more quickly. My language feels more alive, more moving and more directly connected to me – it really becomes more mine and therefore less sensitive to destructive criticism.
Bringing movement into the world
Based on these discoveries in the recent years, I have created various workshops and training concepts that combine body awareness exercises with creative writing methods, with the aim to enable more people to have such „embodied language experiences“ and encouraging them to strengthen their connection to their own voice and expression. Since 2015 I have offered and tried out different formats in different contexts, ranging from short weekly embodiment trainings, to series of workshops about writing and movement. I also several times had the privilege to work with students of movement, language and music pedagogics at the Clara Hoffbauer Fachhochschule in Potsdam, being invited to offer three-day-workshops about writing, movement and embodiment during their project weeks.
The Corona Pandemic and the restriction it brought with it forced me to quickly learn about online teaching tools, which has in fact been a valuable addition for me, opening for new possibilities of on-distance-teaching, partly also enabling sharing and co-creating processes that probably wouldn’t have been possible in a physical space. Apart from that, the forced-conditions that the Pandemic has lead to – with increased hours in front of the computer, often being confined to the own four walls or with a restricted range of movement outside, and physical contact and touch being reduced to a minimum, has also made it even more clear to me, how valuable the teachings from the embodiment field really are, for remaining physically and mentally sane in a world turned upside down.
Learning with and through others
I am extremely grateful for and owe a lot of my own professional and personal development in the last few years to collaborations with passionate practitioners from different fields.
Deine Stimme //
Speak up!
2017-2020
In 2017 together with the Syrian author and theatre director Anis Hamdoun I initiated and led the project „Deine Stimme“ with workshops specifically aimed at young adult refugees, and in 2018 we continued with developing workshops offered at youth centers in Berlin-Moabit under the project name „Speak up!“. These were entirely new contexts for teaching for me and required a constant rethinking and adapting my form and content of teaching to suit it to the often very variable needs and wishes of the participants, which was challenging but extremely rewarding and valuable for my development as a teacher.
ANgrenzen
since 2016
Since 2016 I have also been collaborating with Svenia Sauer, a very dear body-work colleague of mine, in a Projekt we call „ANgrenzen“ (- which could be translated as „on boundary“ or „bordering“ or in extended sense „meeting at the borders“), where we explore and reflect what it means to have, to set and to cross boundaries in different contexts. The project was inspired through the cooperation with the wonderful organisation „Medizin und Menschlichkeit“ („Medicine and Humanness“), where we were invited to give workshops about embodiment for students of medicine and young people from healing and caring professions. Within the ANgrenzen-project we give workshops and lectures, interview practitioners from different fields for a podcast, and research and write for a long-term book-project. The collaboration with Svenia keeps bringing new perspectives on embodiment for me, as well as remind me about the extremely valuable basics of our work.
Express Yourself
2016-2017
In 2016 Megan Spencer – Australian writer, critic and meditation practitioner, invited me to collaborate creating a training about embodiment and personal expression. The result was „Express yourself“ – a one-day-workshop combining tools from mindfulness and meditation practices with movement exercises and creative writing, that we were able to offer three times in Berlin, before Megan moved back to Australia. The exchanges and reflections enabled within this project context was a huge inspiration and encouragement for my continuous work.
Biographical and Creative Writing
since 2019
In October 2019, in order to pursue my questions and thoughts about writing and language more in depth and to learn new tools for teaching, I started the master’s degree in “Biographical and Creative Writing” at Alice Salomon Hochschule in Berlin Hellersdorf. Studying for the first time completely in German was intimidating for me, but an important step to ground myself more in the language that has become one of my main „linguistic homes“. The studies themselves have worked for me as a much needed catalyser – inspiring me to try out new forms and contexts for writing, bringing my own writing to a new level, and driving me to prioritise long neglected writing projects. Even though the Corona Pandemic forced me into „home-office studies“ and also slowed down the study pace due to lack of child-care options, I have profited a lot from these past years of seminars and exchange with teachers and other students – especially to be able to reflect my own ideas and findings about writing in relation to movement and body awareness. These reflections will hopefully find a written formulation in my master thesis until spring 2023.
At home in Berlin
In 2010 through several turns and twists of fate I ended up in Berlin – a city I feel deeply connected to for various reasons. Since 2014 I am running the practice space „KörperRaum Mitte“ here together with my two colleagues – Julia Bonn and Annette Frauendorf. Our vision with the practice is to create a meeting place for different forms of body-oriented methods and creative approaches – spaces for reflection, exchange, dialogue, encounters, movement and personal expression. A place as an invitation to try yourself out in playful and creative ways, to engage with important personal and social issues, and to gather new impulses and inspiration.
