“How Can I Be of Service?”
This is the question at the heart of my work. My intention is that all of my work is in service of sustaining life on this planet.
I can work with you in a number of different ways, depending on what you need, and what the circumstances, place or situation might require:
About me
I am an Artist, Facilitator, Wilderness Rites of Passage Guide, Celebrant, Coach, and Craniosacral Therapist. I use these skills in different capacities and contexts to support my work with individuals and groups.
I see my role in work and life as a catalyst, host, alchemist and pollinator.
I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, and a Master’s Degree in Industrial Relations. For 25 years I was a theatre-maker and co-director of Volcano Theatre Company.
Systems Thinking
I then qualified as a bodyworker and therapist. An interest in human potential and the process of change lead me to train as a coach, celebrant and rites of passage guide. In 2010 I became Arts Council of Wales Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme and initiated Emergence, a forum inspired by Systems Thinking, for dialogue and collaborative practice in support of a life-sustaining future.
My work/life/art practice reflects an ongoing and eternal attempt to bring together these different realms. I work with the embodied imagination, deep listening, opening to uncertainty and synchronicity to enable a process of ‘emergence’. All of my work is in the service of personal and planetary health and well-being.
My work is inspired and influenced by many teachers, leaders, elders, artists and activists. In an increasingly polarised world, I am interested not in generating a particular outcome, but in bridging opposites, making connection possible, and nurturing spaces for the emergent future to manifest itself.
Re-enchantment
I am influenced and have been mentored by the artist, critic and author of: ‘The Re-enchantment of Art’, Suzi Gablik, who wrote “there is a need for new forms emphasising our essential interconnectedness, rather than our separation, forms evoking a feeling of belonging to a larger whole rather than expressing the isolated alienated self”. It is these new forms that my work and ongoing practice is concerned with.
‘The Re-enchantment of Art:’ was published over 25 years ago and is as vital and relevant as ever. It is a ground-breaking book which has become a manual for combining art and life for many. I am part of a growing movement of creatives and artists worldwide, committed to combining a lived practice with spiritual questing and socio-ecological activism.
I am also a Craniosacral Therapist and run clinics in Mid and South Wales.
Link to my craniosacral therapy website
For more information as to how I might be able to work with you, contact me at fernismith @ gmail.com and let’s have a conversation.