Soma Strata Workshop Series

As part of my plan to develop Soma Strata as a hub for somatic practices and ethos, I’ll be curating a year of different monthly Sunday workshops. Each of these will be aimed at exploring and integrating our creative and bodied selves - or, more accurately, returning to our selves as inherently creative and bodied!

All information on booking and content below; if you have any questions, get in touch.

Our very first workshop will take place July 26th, 10-13:00.

Soft Boundaries: Body, Material, Environment

In this inaugural workshop, I’ll be inviting dear friend and colleague Dr Benjamin Skinner to share some of the practices that have informed his doctoral, and post-doctoral, research that explores how creative activities can change how we experience ourselves and the world around us, especially in relation to the environment and climate crisis. Using art materials, movement, and guided exercises, Ben will invite participants to reconnect with the living world and their place within it. Clay, charcoal and the senses will be your primary tools in a gentle exploration of how the physical body ‘reads’ space around it.

This does involve going outdoors - so please be prepared for whatever the weather. We will stay local; walking time won’t be more than 10 minutes in each direction.

Topping and tailing our time, I will facilitate a kind of ‘warm-in’ aperitif and ‘ease-out’ digestif. This will include a guided noticing through interoceptive and exteroceptive channels, with time to move in an unstructured way (how you need, at that time, in response to prompts and image), draw, write or snooze as ways to digest.

Mats and warm drinks provided; please bring layers you like to move in, writing/drawing materials and clothes and footwear you can go outside in.

We have a maximum group size of 8, so please book in if you know you want to come!

£55 if booked before 26th June, £60 thereafter.

please note, payment in full secures your place - transferable but non-refundable

Booking: info@somastrata.co.uk

Jennifer-Lynn Crawford is a Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and freelance dance artist with over 20 years of experience in contemporary dance, yoga, and movement pedagogy. Her practice with clients focuses on helping individuals find ease and spaciousness in their daily and extra-daily lives. Jennifer-Lynn's warm and gentle approach brings lightness and humour to the process of surfacing new awareness and integrating physical and perceptual change. More information available on her website - jenniferlynncrawford.co.uk.

Dr Ben Skinner is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. He completed a practice-based PhD in 2023 examining the role of arts-based and embodied approaches in shaping environmental understanding and responses to climate change. His work spans research, teaching, and public engagement, with recent publications contributing to interdisciplinary conversations between art and environmental inquiry (see link below). Alongside his academic work, Ben is a trained dancer and illustrator .

[Skinner, B. (2026) Embodied Futures: Arts Practices and Entangled Perceptual Possibilities- https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003583813-5/embodied-futures-benjamin-skinner]