Hello!
It's been almost three months since the last email I sent, and a lot has happened in the meantime!
With immense care from the organizing team and all participants, we were able to deliver two fantastic Playfight events over the summer! One in France and one in Italy.
n Italy, for the first time, we had three different events: Playfight Immersion, Facilitator Training and Coaching Training. The latter dedicated to Facilitators who want to learn how to offer Intentional Playfight.
Intentional Playfights are special sessions in which the practice of Playfight becomes a catalyst for transformation. A precious space where participants playfight on a specific theme or problem in their life. The intentions that people carry can be very different, some lighter like making a decision about a work project, others more delicate like an old traumatic experience.
Regardless of the type of theme or intention the person brings, what we are focusing on, is the underlying conflict. Some are obvious, others hidden and difficult to understand.
During the Intentional Playfight people have a safe space and the support of the Coach to navigate to the center of the problem and face the underlying conflict.
The goal is not to defeat the conflict but to connect to it and change the way one relates to it. This change is what can trigger a self-healing process that leads to the transformation, weakening or even disappearance of the initial problem.
What makes this work unique is that it is not done on an intellectual level.
Every step, every intuition and change is made by involving the physical and emotional body, experiencing the conflict and its transformation in the first person.
At the same time, the people of the Circle who observe the Intentional Playfight also experience the transformation process. Regardless of whether or not one has a similar problem, the underlying conflict is transcendent, present in the human emotional archetype. For this reason the acting of witnessing an Intentional Playfight (and sometimes even a normal Playfight) can resonate in the heart of the observer, and trigger processes of self-awareness and personal growth in them.
With the right conditions, any difficulty can become the basis for intimacy, vulnerability and connection. This is what happened this summer, in which the tensions and difficulties accumulated during the months of lock-down were present among the participants, who were finally able to find a safe space to process and transform them.
In order to create these conditions and guarantee an environment in which physical contact could take place in a safe and respectful way, we engaged the participants on a path of awareness and connection starting from a few weeks before the event.
We informed the participants about the risks involved and made sure they understood the importance, then we agreed together on the measurements that we would all undergo during the 15 days before, at the event and after it, checking them 3 days before the start. Finally, during the event, we remained vigilant if symptoms had arisen and everyone was free to decide how much physical contact to have.
Thanks to this preparatory work, each participant has become a guardian of their individual safety and that of the entire group. The results were gratifying: safety, trust and connection remained high for the duration of the event and everyone was able to express their needs and desires, feeling respected and satisfied, in full health during and after the event.
Warmly,
Matteo