Charlie Hammond

Sometimes having everything on our phone is a literal nightmare. But as I was attempting to find some lovely snaps of my wilderness therapy training, I was reminded of what a big year it has been. And I wanted to put some gratitute out into the world for this, as well as remind myself (and others) of what I’ve achieved. It also seems fitting as I near the end of this Arts Council Develop Your Creative Practice to recap how I have developed.

August 2024 – Deep Play with Holly Stoppit and Briony Greenhill

I feel like this development process really kicked off with the Deep Play retreat last August in Embercombe. Although I had already had a few 1-1 calls with Holly previous to this, this felt like the week the marked the start of something. For those not in the know, this was a sumptuous week of play and group improvised singing which ended with a glorious cabaret where me and my co-host dressed up as our facilitators (I chose the delightful Briony for her very elegant and floaty dress style). I loved the singing and it is something I wish to spend more time in, but currently I’ve only been able to dip in and out of the improvised singing scene.

October 2024 – Week 1 of Eqe Wilderness Therapy

This was the next benchmark of my development. I didn’t know what to expect with this. I knew that I wanted to do some therapeutic training as part of my development – it felt very important to me personally and professionally to build skills in this. My work as a Giggle Doctor had left me feeling particularly vulnerable as we work in hospitals with some very serious cases, and I felt I needed better therapeutic understanding in order to protect myself in the work. I also was beginning to unpick the ‘need’ as such to be a performer, or what doing that role professionally (and in my personal life) had done to shape me, and was hoping that some reflective work might unlock something for me. Well, that’s how I feel about it in hindsight, at least. Also I had tried previously to run a facilitated course ‘Make Weird, Make Wild’ but I’d struggled with my own stress and workload to make this happen.

So, I found myself on this Wilderness Therapy course, after a conversation with a friend, David Charles, who I’d met through the life-changing fundraising cycles Thighs of Steel. (A brilliant volunteer-run initiative). David had also begun the course earlier on in the year, and was raving about it.

It was quite hard at the outset to work out what the course was going to be about, but I am one for jumping into something and seeing what happens.

Safe to say, the course is amazing. I loved learning outdoor skills, but especially love how Bridget and Robin tied in the therapeutic skills, the self-reflective work, being on the journey as a group.

I’m trying to keep each of these sections brief, but the week was dense. Packed full of learnings and reflections. Really valued being at camp in the woods for a few days, and learning from my fellow course-mates.

November 2024 – 5-day Fools School in Bristol

To Fools school we went. Having done some work with Holly I was excited about the Fooling. This was the next bit of something I had been looking for. A bit of clown but mixed with something else.

I loved this week, but my stand out memory is of my first 20 minutes of Fooling where all the inner parts were voiced in a quick-fire busy brain splurge, ending with my lying on the floor, studying the sky through the window. This was a special week of discovery, and also a very important release valve for my brain.

I’ve wrote a bit more about Fooling here on Holly’s blog, but essential Fooling is a way of investigating and giving voice to internal and external parts, or masks, or archetypes. It’s kind of like getting to play all the parts in a play. I really enjoy giving voice and embodying all the different roles going on inside my head, and finding out about them. Within this week it’s a very improvisation form, which it can also be onstage.

December 2024 – Creative Facilitation with Holly Stoppit

This actually occurred over October – December online. This was another brilliant piece of learning with Holly and others. Very useful ideas and theories about how groups form and how we can create a sense of safety as facilitators. I haven’t facilitated in a while, and really wanted to spend some purposeful time thinking and facilitation and how I want to help groups in sessions.

February 2025

I started going to 1-1 Counselling through Sheffield Talking Therapies after an incident at work earlier in August 24. Feels a bit daunting to add this to this year, but it was really integral. I’d been in a very emotional charged setting whilst Giggle Doctoring and at the time it had massively triggered some childhood trauma and anxiety that I had never even contemplated as being traumatic. Anyway, by the time I got access to therapy, the initial wobblyness and anxiety had been dealt with, but it did make me realise how vulnerable the Giggle Doctoring work can make you (and, in fact, the desire to be a performer). This ended up being excellently timed with my DYCP, as I had spare time to play with and, alongside everything else, it’s helped me to understand myself better. At times I felt bad for not being more depressed/anxious/mentally unstable for my counsellor, but that’s the way the system makes you feel these days. Like you have to be right on the edge to want to talk and self-reflect. Everyone should have the right the access therapy in whatever form suits them!

March 2025 – Finding your Inner Cast with Holly Stoppit.

I absolutely cannot give enough of my money to Holly. This was a process we had spoken about after Fools school in Bristol (and whilst cooking up plans to run one in Sheffield). I wrangled some free space from Sheffield Theatre’s and we were treated to one of the beautiful rehearsal rooms at the Lyceum. We spent two whole days just Holly and I, unpacking some of the many parts inside my noggin and body, getting to know them, putting them into the physical space and finding where each one currently lives. Then we moved them (or tried to in come cases) to see if we could find better places and companions for different parts (do we really want anger next to the critic, for example). It was a delicious deeply interesting process and worth every penny.

April 2025 – Clown Congress at Bristol

More time with Holly Stoppit (and also with Robyn Hambrook and many others) in Bristol. It was my first time at Clown Congress. They used a very ingenious organising method called Open Space Technology. This is where you bring everyone together at the beginning of the day, have the various spaces and sessions times up on a wall, then open up the space for any one to propose a talk, workshop, event or proposal to be added. I really love it. I ran a session playing with voice, and the most memorable session for me was one I walked into where people were clowning through what the end of the world might look like to a bunch of clowns. It actually gave me a lot of hope, and connecting with the ongoing sense I have the play can be a way to process difficult and uncomfortable feelings and scenarios, and there is something particularly cathartic about doing that as an adult.

The Clown Congress was shortly followed by Northern Fools – a gathering of six Fools/ Clowns brought together by myself and the mischievous Saskia Solomons. It was a beautiful 2 and a bit days of connecting with some talented Northern funny folk. It was deeply soulful and has led to some on going chats with plans for the future. Good to know there are foolish folk in the North.

May 2025 – Week 2 of Eqe Wilderness Therapy

Back in the woods! The course reveals itself as we were told it would. And now comes the realisation that there is a whole portfolio and a sample programme to run. Ah. I’m not just spending two weeks in the woods with some lovely people. But it is amazing to see how far I have come, and that I have been able to learn some skills between the two weeks. I can identify some actual trees, and some edible plants, I can start fires with only a spark, I can use a saw, a knife, and an axe. Wilderness here I come.

5 Day Fools School in Sheffield

This time I got to look behind the curtain, being one of Holly’s assistants on the course, alongside Saskia Solomons. It’s been a lovely year of close collaborations. Being an assistant to Holly was so rewarding and insightful, and it was lovely having Saskia there who was brilliant at holding space for Holly and checking in with her. It is very easy to forget around wonderful space holders that they too will need time for check-ins and expressing themselves.

It was also amazing to have some Fools in the North! So beautiful to get glimpses into the minds and hearts and souls of these lovely companions for the week. And also to realise that I think this was only the 2nd time the course had been run outside of Bristol.

June-July 2025

Coming back to Giggle Doctoring and Street Theatre.

To begin with I came back to work with a spring in my step. I had spent the last few months delving into embodied, present work, and felt sensitive and able to work with the people around me. I was interested to see how this would play out in the busy and emotional hospital environment.

And it certainly has brought new elements to my Giggle Doctoring. I noticed that I was using a lot less props. That I was able to use what was going on with my emotions and nervous systems and bring that into the work in a safe and fun way. I felt more grounded, and able to find new avenues in the work.

But by the time I got to the end of July, which was a pretty packed month of Giggle Doctoring for me, I was spent. Groggy on my days off, self-critical of my lack of ability to concentrate on admin tasks, back in the hard place.

I find it frustrating because the actual work, being in the hospitals, is great. Love it, rarely now do I find a day truly difficult to get through, and when I do I work with my tiredness, not against it. I get to play with it as part of the day, which is a rare thing to do. You’d struggle to play with how tired you are in a corporate office, working with the slumping of the shoulders, whereas in Giggle Doctoring I can legitimately pretend to sleep as part of my day.

But it is exhausting work, and the last part of the day can be a real struggle to connect authentically with kids. And the days after work, I’m a bit of a shell. It needs a lot of recovery, and the more I work alongside and talk to those who are therapeutically trained, the more I can see how much you take on as a Giggle Doctor, and the need for support and recovery from the work.

So here I am, nearing the end of a journey. I’ve got 5 more days of Fooling with Holly Stoppit in August and a report to write up and I’ll be well and truly at the end of my DYCP.

And what next? Well I’d love to enter into a new phase of work. I’m tinkering away at the idea of making a new show, I’d also gathering my facilitator tools and would love to stretch my legs gathering groups, and frankly I’d like to get paid to do some semi-regular work, without breaking my soul, my body, or my future finances.

Let me know if you’ve got projects in mind.

Outdoor Cooking Course with Howl Bushcraft

Now this wasn’t part of my DYCP funding but a lovely birthday present from my partner and friends. I spent the day in North Yorkshire on the Harewood House estate and it was delicious. We cooked and prepared so much food and I was furiously making notes. I’m not a massively meaty eaty person but it was so interesting getting to learn things like boning a fish, making sardine-flatbreads, and cooking a lamb wrapped in burdock underneath a fire. We did also make berry donuts and onion rings so it wasn’t all meat meat meat. Did I mention it was delicious?

They also have some very interesting other courses, including one when you spend a year learning how to make things from natural resources and then travel to Sweden for 10 days to be in the wilderness and you can only take things you have made yourself – including clothes.