People have been communicating with me about other Play Specialists and what they're doing.

It's confirming what my own reseach had shown. No one else seems to be working in quite the way I do.

There are people who specialise in games, theatre games and dance games, who use art and painting and who encourage participants to enter a childlike (as opposed to childish) state.

I use the developmental theory (Embodiment, Projection and Role) described by Dr Sue Jennings, since it's very clear and concise along with Donald Winnicott's Containment Theory, since that too is clear and practical.

I'm a practitioner not an academic and to me and I need my theory to directly benefit my own thinking and the quality of my work and also I need to be able to explain it clearly to clients and participants (and I will, in another post).

In my work playing with adults I take participants into the Embodiment stage of development. This stage precedes language but also overlaps its development and continues on. It is often interferred with by adults need for their children not to be messy.

Embodiment is the stage when children are focussed solely on developing to their full potential whatever that may be.

They have no concept of failure, so a baby will fall on average 11.000 times before it succeeds in standing. It does not percieve the 10.999 times before it finally succeeds and stands as failures, they are simply what is.

In the Embodiment stage of development, children are focussed on pure exploration: of their own bodies, what they can do, how they recieve information, what their external world is like, even, what is external and what is internal.

This is the stage you will be operating in by joining my play sessions. In this state, failure is impossible, by not expecting anything, you will be allowing yourself simply to experience and to immerse yourself fully in that.

This is very different from Role Plays and Theatre Games, the singing, dancing and even painting offered by other Play Specialists. These operate from later developmental stages, mainly Role, which occurs after children have experienced failure which is why we can be filled with anxiety when asked to participate in this way.

Children in the Embodiment stage are absolutely driven to access and develop to their full potential. When adults play from here, without judgement of ourselves (or anyone else), without expecting any particular result the experience is utterly transformational.

Children in the Embodiment stage live in a world of magic where everything is new. By joining my play sessions you can experience this magic and boost your own ability to access your potential, expand your possibilities and live, much more fully.

This is life in the NOW