This event is included in a series of seminars organised in collaboration with the Therapy and Social Change Network.
This facilitated space-sharing offers a unique opportunity to participate in giving time to our political and sociological consciousness. It is based on the assumption that, conscious or not, you can create change beyond the therapy room, through small gestures, attentiveness, and values-led ideas — rooted in kindness and justice. The community meeting is an opportunity to take stock of your values and ideas: preserving and equalising a “brave space”. This space can serve to elicit critical thinking and harmonise values with action. Rather than creating a set of rules, this space recognises the purpose of egalitarian practices for knowledge-sharing, emergences and co-production in three intentional moments: beginning, process and ending. Here, words, silences, pauses and attentive listening are all important and – together – restore and activate our individual and collective potential. The meeting is inspired by ideas and practices from Atavar (2016), Mycroft (2019), and Kline (2021). [Atavar, M. (2016). Better Magic. How to have creative ideas in 24 steps. Tonbridge: Kiosk Publishing. Kline, N. (2021). Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind. London: Octopus Publishing Group. Mycroft, L. (2019). A World in Miniature: the storytelling potential of research offcuts. Journal of Research in Postcompulsory Education. Vol. 24.]
Course Content
Organisation
This learning is avaibale in the FREE Student Hub
Presenter

Dr. Francesca Bernardi PhD is an advocate, author, coach, and artist, with expertise in MA supervision, dis/ability and community engagement. Francesca has an extensive background as a teacher and artist-in-residence, working with children and adults in various settings, including schools, alternative provision, further and higher education, corporate settings, museums, and public spaces (Tate Museums and the RSA.org). She’s dedicated to working with parents and caregivers of children and young people with dis/abilities who have experienced school exclusions and other forms of social discrimination.
Francesca engages in multi-disciplinary and arts-informed practices with marginalized communities, and individuals experiencing loss and homelessness. Her approach is non-hierarchical, socially just, and creative, aiming to nourish healing and personal agency while honouring the wholeness of individuals’ personhood, choices, and capabilities.
Francesca has published her work on autism, arts-informed methodologies, childhood, and children’s rights in books and journals (Bloomsbury, Routledge, Taylor and Francis). She is the founding chair of the Antonio Gramsci Society UK, board member of the Disability Without Abuse Project (2020-), and an Associate Member of CATA/ACAT (the Canadian Art Therapy Association 2021-).

The Therapy and Social Change (TaSC) Network is a broad affiliation of people interested in exploring the interface between therapeutic ideas and practices and social justice perspectives and actions. We are interested both in the ways that counselling and psychotherapy can be practiced with social justice concerns in mind (for instance, tackling unconscious biases in the consulting room), and also in the ways that therapeutic principles and practices can be extended out to the wider social realm (for instance, developing social and emotional literacy in schools).