Teaching Autoethnographic Animation as Therapeutic Intervention
I offer seminars, masterclasses, and screenings to universities, mental health organisations, animation festivals, and corporate wellness programmes. My seminars and masterclasses bridge a research-informed therapeutic methodology and 40+ years of animation practice, and combine lived experience, academic rigour, and techniques such as scriptwriting, storyboarding, and editing, to teach how animation practice can help process psychological trauma.
2016
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masterclass and film screening, imfleiger arts, vienna
Who I work with and why:
- Universities and animation programmes
- Mental health organisations and NHS trusts
- Animation festivals and cultural institutions
- Corporate wellness programmes
Most animation speakers focus on technique. Most mental health speakers focus on clinical interventions. I bridge both, and in addition focus on my lived trauma experiences, to teach how animation's visuospatial, imagery rescripting, and bearing witness attributes can help process trauma. Grounded in cognitive science research, autoethnographic methodology, lived experience, and four decades of animation mastery.
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2019
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autoethnography symposium, royal college of art
Talks
Duration: 30-90 minutes
From Thin Blue Lines and Carnival to PhD: Four Decades of Practice Meets Research:
For universities, animation programmes
Autoethnographic Animation as Therapeutic Intervention:
For mental health professionals, NHS trusts, art therapists
Imagery Rescripting Through Animation:
For animation programmes, animator-survivors, wellness seekers
Animation as Method of Enquiry
For autoethnographers, animation programmes, creative practitioners, animator-survivors
From BAFTA to Breakdown: Creative Identity Meets Psychological Injury:
For animation industry, creative professionals, animator-survivors
The Body Keeps the Score: Animation as Embodied Practice (Bessel van der Kolk):
For somatic practitioners, trauma-informed educators, animator-survivors
Bearing Witness: Autoethnography, Ethics, and Epistemic Justice:
For universities, social justice organisations, animation programmes, animator-survivors
2025
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title keynote presentation, society of animation studies conference
Masterclass Formats
Half-Day (3 hours): "Introduction to Autoethnographic Animation":
Interactive discussion about the embodied nature of trauma, and cognitive science research into mental imagery and imagery rescripting for trauma processing. Outline of my autoethnographic animation methodology, film screening, and discussion of related ethics issues.
Bespoke Programmes:
Multi-session training for universities, NHS trusts, or corporate wellness programmes.
Group size: 8-20 participants
Full-Day (6 hours): "Animation as Therapeutic Intervention":
Morning: Interactive discussion about the embodied nature of trauma, and cognitive science research into mental imagery and imagery rescripting for trauma processing. Outline of my autoethnographic animation methodology, film screening, and discussion of related ethics issues.
Afternoon: screening of films made by other animator-survivors. Interactive discussion and analysis of this material.
