beside – lines of work
HeaLovInsanity
performing arts applied to mental health
to visit the borders between the normal and the mad, empathizing from one’s own experience.
HeaLovInsanity is a series of guided group workshops that, through one’s own experience, invite us to enter the territory between the normal and the mad, health and mental illness.
This project was born from the encounter with Esther Gutiérrez, who took part in one of the ni.butoh workshops — INSANIA — and saw the potential of this line of work for the deep understanding and acceptance of psychic pain.
Through techniques of bodily research, each participant accesses an understanding of madness that comes not from books but from their own skin. we will think with the body: it will be our guide to venture beyond theoretical concepts and recognize our prejudices. understanding through experience brings us to places of empathy that are essential for accompanying psychic suffering with love.
why it is necessary
At a time when psychic suffering has reached the scale of an epidemic, and in which mental health is defined as the absence of pain, it seems essential to us to explore the question of madness in a safe and close way.
Whether you are a therapist, professional or caregiver, empathy is essential. but what happens when you can’t manage to empathize? when that person is “too mad” for you, when their behavior frightens you because it is far beyond what you know and can take in.
Many people labeled with mental illnesses suffer a deep sense of loneliness because their symptoms create tensions that translate into distancing. by safely investigating the limits of reason — from our own skin — we will improve our availability to empathize, understand and accompany these processes with greater presence.
We believe that mental health must be cared for from the ground up: where each individual, family and community deeply influences its evolution.
methodology
We start from the premise of systemic psychology: we all share something of the madness present in our psychological, family, social or cultural system. from a body available to embody madness, bodily and mental images arise that we explore together to investigate their meanings. from knowledge to wisdom: knowledge is outside me, wisdom is something I have already done.
The path goes slower at the start so that bodies open little by little.
experience → theory → integration
what it can offer you
empathy and acceptance
empathy and acceptance
Increase empathy and acceptance toward people going through psychic suffering. When you understand from the body, emotional distance shrinks and presence becomes more genuine.
experiential understanding
experiential understanding
Accumulate experiential understanding of mental-disorder diagnoses and their symptoms. Not from books but from your own experience: what you’ve felt in the body is not forgotten.
self-regulation
self-regulation
Identify your own self-regulation mechanisms to manage your psychophysical wellbeing. Concrete tools to hold your own balance while accompanying that of others.
new inner spaces
new inner spaces
Open new inner spaces of understanding around madness. Widen the map of what you consider possible, tolerable and human — in yourself and in others.
integration
integration
Recognize the positive qualities that each symptomatology can enhance as part of the path toward integration. Madness is not only deficit — it is also signal, energy, potential.
who it is for
professionals
professionals
Psychologists, doctors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, educators, nurses, assistants — any mental health professional who accompanies processes of psychic suffering.
family members and caregivers
family members and caregivers
People close to someone going through processes of psychic pain, with or without a diagnosis, who want to expand their capacity for presence and understanding.
curious people
curious people
Anyone interested in exploring in depth the question of psychic suffering from their own bodily experience, with no prior training required.
Psychologists, doctors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, educators, nurses, assistants — any mental health professional who accompanies processes of psychic suffering.
mental health professionals — psychologists, doctors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, educators, nurses, assistants.
family members and caregivers of people going through processes of psychic pain, with or without a diagnosis.
anyone interested in exploring in depth the question of psychic suffering.
HeaLovInsanity does not aim to be
a theoretical course
a covert indoctrination
a recipe book of solutions
a therapy group
an artistic training
a trivialization of madness
structure
Three monographic weekends, designed to be done consecutively.
Each weekend has 4 work sessions (Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and afternoon, Sunday morning), 12 hours in total.
Maximum 12 participants.
HeaLovInsanity 1
idiocy
HeaLovInsanity 1 — idiocy
Origins of madness. The attempts to order what is different. Relationships with authority and the loss of the communal.
HeaLovInsanity 2
the obsession
HeaLovInsanity 2 — the obsession
The first step of the spiral staircase. Mind-body relationships in obsession and mania. The fantasy of self-control.
HeaLovInsanity 3
the madwoman in the attic
HeaLovInsanity 3 — the madwoman in the attic
From fear to paranoia. Voices that speak to me in silence. HeaLovInsanity.
structure of each session
Start: presentation and support material.
Central part: psychophysical warm-up, dance and theatre exercises to create a space of freedom and permission, self-regulation tools for the journey into personal madness, dynamics related to specific symptomatologies, landing and return exercises, dynamics to gather information about the experience.
Closing: group dynamics for integration and deepening.
requirements
who we are
Esther Gutiérrez Martín
psychologist · psychotherapist
psychologist and psychotherapist with more than 17 years of experience in individual accompaniment in private practice. her personal history has led her to a constant reflection on madness, from its historical background to the present day. she brings an integrative and critical view of the different positions around mental health as a result of her own research and professional experience. she has worked on body-mind relationships from perspectives ranging from systemic and trauma psychology to yoga, contact improvisation dance and butoh.
Matilde J. Ciria
dancer · choreographer · pedagogue
a performing arts professional with more than 20 years of experience researching the relationship between art and madness through bodily and scenic work. intensively trained in techniques drawn from butoh, grotesque theatre, clown and the buffoon. his scenic work revolves around the impact of injustice and oppression on the human psyche, and therefore on his body. he regularly teaches workshops in butoh, artistic creation and performing arts.
contact
for any questions: amar.lo.cura.1@gmail.com