27 Sep 2025 | An Inner Journey with Clay IV: Working with Polarities in clay on the theme of Loss and Letting Go | Day Workshop | In-Person

In these experiential workshops, we have learned how to communicate with clay whilst exploring the fundamental archetypes of form: the Curve and the Line. In modelling, concavity and convexity correspond to the curve; planes, points and edges correspond to the line.

The workshops are designed for therapists who want to explore the possibilities and depths of working with clay in the clinical setting. This workshop will focus on the three-way communication within the form i.e. between the curve and the line, (roundness and straightness) and the maker.

An Inner Journey with Clay Part IV: Working with Polarities in clay on the theme of Loss and Letting Go. 

Clay holds and elicits memories, making it one of the most powerful substances we can use in therapy. In times of turmoil, (the) earth is a source of replenishment and nourishment, and can enable us to realign with our centre.

In this workshop, we will explore the possibilities of using clay to work with the polarities of Loss and letting go. When we work with clay, we are constantly adding and taking material away as we seek to bring about a form which expresses what we want to communicate. This inner dialogue takes us on a transformational journey as we become conscious of patterns of resistance, ambivalence to change, and feelings related to letting go. Our task will be to find a place of equilibrium between these polarities.

This method of working can be very helpful when we are supporting people who are conflicted between what is and what might be. We cannot erase the past or determine the future, but we can integrate what has been as we rehearse what might be.

We will observe in pairs and groups. There will be time given for questions and case discussion. This workshop is especially useful for therapists working in hospice or with clients experiencing long-term physical or psychological illness. The workshop can also be used as a tool for self-development. Please bring a notebook in order to record your process. It is advisable to wear an overall or old clothes.

Working with clay is grounding, messy, mirroring, fun, forgiving, and freeing, and it helps us to see the world differently!

Facilitator:

Marion Green is a former social worker specialised in child protection, school based social work and adoption. As an art psychotherapist, she has worked with men and women in the penal system, psychiatric care, primary aged children and their parents, traumatised adolescents, the chronically sick and dying, with homeless women and women working in the sex industry.

She is a clinical supervisor, workshop facilitator and visiting lecturer, specialising in the themes of Burnout, maintaining resilience and working with traumatised people. Marion has been a regular seminar leader at the annual International Anthroposophical Art Therapy conference at the Goetheanum, Switzerland. She has taught in Honduras, Spain, Georgia, South Africa, Taiwan and the Philippines and presented papers for Confer Psychotherapy events UK.

Marion has published articles on Burnout and is a chapter co-author in the book Art Therapy with Neurological Conditions. (Ed. S. Weston and M. Liebmann published Jessica Kingsley 2015).

In her spare time she walks, works in her garden and carves alabaster.