Women On The Couch

Burning out? The importance of wildness, creativity and comfort in a sustainable life

In this video talk with slides Roz Carroll suggests that burnout is a loss of the flame of vitality; it’s the plug pulled, nerves frayed, can’t-take-it-anymore. She uses the word loosely and holds that there are many pathways going into and out of it, as her case material will show. Drawing on Stern’s ‘Forms of Vitality’ she illustrates ways of exploring relational rhythm through experiments with movement, gesture, sound and space.

To feed the flame requires deep listening to the body and, she proposes, the cultivation of wildness, creativity and comfort in ways that are specific to each client and therapist dyad. In this process long lost self-states, such as Mischief, Snuggle, Hibernate or Howl, may emerge and be reclaimed.