The Somatic Practice and Chronic Pain Network held a webinar on the topic of Persistent Pain: Movement and (Mis)Communication on 5th of May 2021, 10 am – 12 noon BST.
The main topics included:
- (Mis)communication between people living with pain, healthcare professionals and family members
- How body and movement are part of this process
- The role of dance and somatic practices in articulating pain
- How to communicate experiences on moving with pain for future research/practice
The event included short presentations, writing prompts for participants, an optional practice shared in advance, and discussion with panel/ participants.
Recording available below.
Panel members:
Bernie Carter, Professor of Children’s Nursing, Edge Hill University
Anna Macdonald, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Performance, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University
Ceri Morgan, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing, Keele University.
Toshio Nomura, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University.
Rob Young, Faculty Associate, NHS Research & Development; writer and artist
Rough Schedule
Introduction: Aims, theme and format + Film/writing prompt by Rob Young (15 mins)
Presentations: Anna Macdonald & Ceri Morgan; Bernie Carter; Toshio Nomura (55 mins)
Pacing break (10 mins)
Panel discussion: Discussion of webinar themes with participants /panel (35 mins)
Closing: Final film prompt by Rob Young (5 mins)
Full biographies
Bernie Carter, Professor of Children’s Nursing at Edge Hill University. Bernie’s research focuses on children and young people whose lives are disrupted by pain, illness, disability, complex health care needs and disadvantage, and the ways in which this affects their parents, brothers and sisters and family life.
Anna Macdonald, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Performance, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. She is an artist scholar whose work spans dance, somatic practices, moving image, screendance, performance and installation and is exhibited in galleries and festivals. The Circling project forms part of an Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences Fellowship awarded to Anna Macdonald by Keele University to explore chronic pain.
Ceri Morgan, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing, Keele University. She works increasingly on participatory projects, and runs geopoetics (walking and creative practice) workshops. Recently, she worked with Anna Macdonald to re-imagine individuals’ embodied experience of the journeys associated with chronic pain conditions, focusing on the act of walking. She has lived experience of persistent pain.
Toshio Nomura, Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University. He is also Director of Nomura Dimensions Ltd, UK and a visiting professor of Yamaguchi University, Japan. His expertise is in innovations in technology, science and health projects and he also has lived experience of persistent pain.
Rob Young, writer and artist. He is Faculty Associate at NHS Research & Development, where he helps NHS Leaders to communicate complex conditions in a way that is warm, welcoming and accessible to all. Rob is part of the Wellcome Trust / Heart n Soul team who won the Calouste Gulbenkian Award in March 2021. Rob has written a play about pain and has close friends and family who live with persistent pain. http://robyoung.info/
With thanks to Olga Baker, Sarah Charles, Anjum Ismail, Lily Hayward Smith, and Kauser Husain.
