people

“Whilst my background may seem diverse, every step has led to the work I do now: helping people address complex issues through embodied practices”

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Sophia has an undergraduate degree in Interior Design from the University of South Australia (1992), an MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College (2008), is a qualified shiatsu therapist (2002) and a certified InterPlay leader (2007). She is further trained in the Art of Hosting & Harvesting practices, has done some trainings in Social Presencing Theatre and a course on co-design with Aboriginal communities.

 

Following Sophia's timeline: When she first entered the workforce, it was not long before she sidestepped from interior design into collaborative design processes and went on to work for 10 years in the field of community engagement in Sydney, including working on the award winning Bonnyrigg Living Communities Project. During this time Sophia became a qualified shiatsu therapist and has practiced this sporadically ever since. Whilst she didn't realise it at the time, Sophia considers her shiatsu training to be her first introduction to both 'systems thinking' and 'systems sensing'. After completing her Master Degree in the UK, Sophia founded Animate Arts and ran this business for 12 years in the Netherlands before moving it back to Adelaide, Australia. 

 

Sophia is a life member of Urban Ecology Australia and has also served on their board. She regularly attends conferences and conducts her own research in the fields of complexity, embodiment, playfulness and arts-based practices. You can catch snippets of the fruits of this research on her blog or in the chapter she wrote for the book “The Phenomenology of Grace”.

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Sophia first learned about complex systems science in 2008 when she completed the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College. Her thesis was focused on how to provide appropriate education for a complex, ever-changing world. This topic has now become a primary focus of her work and she has developed a series of workshops to help people navigate complex situations with more ease and confidence. These highly interactive workshops can offer a theoretical overview of complexity and/or a set of embodied practices to help you move from ‘systems thinking’ to ‘systems sensing’.  Sophia uses a lot of InterPlay in these workshops, a playful practice designed to help you access your ‘body wisdom’. 

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"Whilst studying complex systems science I came to realise that improvised arts such as InterPlay were not only helping me understand the theory around complexity (as I was interacting directly in complex, improvised dynamics), but were also helping me to access embodied wisdom that gave me unique insights in complex situations that I was unable to get using reason alone."