Circus Clinic - The art of wellbeing

Background In our previous circus work we focused mainly on "social" circus and on the idea of making circus possible for EVERONE! no limits, no borders, no thresholds but we wanted to make circus possible for all. In this project we go deeper into one aspect of this work namely the way in which circus can help youngster facing their vulnerablity and fears. We had come across this need working with youth; they have a need to feel safe and to explore their bodies and its boundaries. We feel a need to improve our preventive work with youngsters using circus as a medium to reach them. For this we need to increase our knowledge as circus teachers and social workers in relation to the menthal challenges we have working with young people. We feel that all three partners have started this work and would benefit immensely from working together and sharing our expertise and also from inviting experts in the field to increase our know how. Objectives A first research into the way psychology and circus can interact; researching the diffrent ways we use circus in a therapeutic setting or use circus in a "normal" setting and feel it can have a therapeutic value. All three partners felt they were working in a similar way but felt they wanted to investigate this together and exchange their knowledge to make it stronger. Creating an intellectual output together will benefit so many people working in our field and will also benefit the youngsters we work with. Implementation We organised 5 training and learning activities in the three countries. In these, we set up a diffrent theme each time. In the 4 day meetings we organised lectures by guest teachers or therapist, we visited the settings in which we work in the individual countries and did peer teaching as a lot of the particpants were very experienced. Achievements We published a book: Circus Clinic, exploring the therapeutic Potential of Contemporary Circus. We translated it in 4 languages: english, italian, czech and dutch. The book is free available to all online. Each country organised a multiplier event where the project and the publication was promoted and disseminated.