Presenter: Jon Blend

Description:

In the 1950s, PHG spoke to a postwar generation about new ways of relating, exploring autonomy and social interconnectedness. A series of self-awareness and personal growth experiments in Part 1 encourages the reader to investigate here-and-now sensory awareness, emotions, and mental process. Spool forward to today. In our screen- and device-dependent world, we risk losing acuity of our wider sensory apparatus through an overemphasis on left-brain hyper-cognition and speed. The adaptation has been dubbed “Red Queen Syndrome.”

This presentation seeks to reengage our senses through three experiments. In “The Space Around Us,” we begin by closing our eyes briefly and noticing our surroundings, experienced while sitting or standing. Then, environment permitting, we explore some of Jean Piaget’s “action schemas” – developmental movement sequences involving time and space – the beginnings of mapping. These include: dynamic back and forth, side-to-side exploration, circling or rotating, going over and under, enveloping and containing, and rounding and traversing a boundary. In the second experiment, “Blind Feast” – which can be done alone or with assistance – we explore taste, texture, and smell, with eyes covered by a mask or scarf (participants will prepare a selection of foods in mini containers for investigation). Finally, “Time Holes” offers an homage to composer John Cage’s famous 4′33″ opus. This group meditative experiment involves sounding and silence. Time will be set aside for “chewing” and giving feedback on these experiences.

Biography:

Jon Blend, MA Psych, Dip. Child, Cert. Sup., ECP, CQSW, is an adult and child psychotherapist of British/Austrian heritage. He is the director of Gazebo Arts Training School in West London, an adviser to the Violet Solomon Oaklander Foundation, and the host of CAEAIG, IAAGT’s bimonthly Child, Adolescent & Emerging Adult Interest Group. Jon works in private practice in London, together with canine co-therapist Coco, offering arts-based psychotherapy to adults, children, and families, as well as clinical supervision. He is a faculty member of the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE), London, and a visiting tutor at Terapia, Gestalt Centre Belfast, and Gestalt Centre Wales. A frequent presenter at international conferences, Jon also teaches in Brazil, Bulgaria, Italy, and Poland. His background includes over 40 years of working in the fields of NHS adult and child mental health, disability, HIV, social work, and the performing arts. In addition, he is a resident musician with London Playback Theatre (www.londonplayback.com).

For a list of publications, see his articles link at www.gacp.co.uk.