Author Archives: sarahsutcliffe

July 2021 – Face to face facilitation

Brilliant to finally be back facilitating a live face to face immersion with The Oceantree at Inchigo. Really appreciating being in a room together and all that brings, and loving the vibe of our location – the New Forest; watching the donkeys, ponies, and cattle roaming freely and feeling the expansive freedom of the heathland. Telling the story of Jumping Mouse on the top of the heath with the midges buzzing round our heads, the ponies curiously munching their way ever closer, and with a view over a valley towards the woodland brings another magical dimension to the work.

July 2021 – Filming WHO project

We have found a fantastic warehouse location to film this project – in Bermondsey, London. It used to be a victorian tannery and is full of atmosphere. Its great to see everything coming together and particularly exciting to hear the fantastic music filling the spaces as we work from Tunde Jegede and Renu, and to have the youngest member of the team – our actress Ulrika’s 4 month old baby girl Maitreya – on set with us today. What an honour!

June 2021 – Film for WHO; writing, casting, rehearsing.

Having interviewed health care workers from all around the world we transcribed all the interviews, and then set about doing a thematic analysis. Once we had established the key themes that came through, we began to write a script. This was a long process! The first script was over half an hour long, and after numerous discussions and a lot of soul searching we have managed to cut the script down to 15 minutes. Its heartbreaking to lose some of the stories but we hope to be able to honour these in other ways. The script is now approved by WHO so we have cast 3 fantastic actors, found a brilliant musician – Tunde Jegede – to collaborate with, and begun rehearsals….

March 2021 – Online Immersion

A year ago I would never have believed that we could work so successfully online. But this week I feel lucky to be on retreat on my own in Norfolk, working online with colleagues and a client with The Oceantree at Inchigo. Each of us on retreat on our own around the world….rather than together… but working via zoom, audio connection etc! Its amazing what you can do… We have had a fulfilling and powerful week.

Welcome to my news and updates….

I have a busy month ahead…. Finishing the final touches – sound and grading – on our film for the WHO; about change makers in the heath system – its looking really beautiful and should all be finished soon (see more about it below in my blogs). My sincere hope is that it will add to, and deepen, the essential debate about what changes are needed in our global health systems and whose voices need to be heard. After a year of no live performances I am so excited to be back on stage as Narrator in The Blue Notebooks with Max Richter in the awesome Cavea – auditorium park della musica in Rome as part of the RomaEuropa festival, on 20th September. And I’m really looking forward to some live facilitation work with The Oceantree at Inchigo towards the end of the month…

March 2021 – Academic response to psoriasis film…

An article I co-authored – Psoriasis: The Skin I’m In – Development of a behaviour change tool to improve the care and lives of people with psoriasis – has been published in the CED (Clinical & Experimental Dermatology). It can be accessed from the Wiley online library here. It is an academic response to the research we conducted for our film Psoriasis; The Skin I’m In.

January 2021 – Film for World Health Organisation

We are very excited to be collaborating with The WHO and The Presencing Institute to listen to the stories of change makers at all levels in the health sector worldwide and to create another storytelling film. We will take the key themes from these conversations and weave a narrative from their stories to shed light on what it means to be a change maker. Through the power of storytelling this film will inspire other potential change makers and provide inspiration for change.

August – December 2020 – Work goes online

My coaching work with Inchigo has made a very successful transition online, as have the immersions with TheOceanTree. Using and telling stories online has been surprisingly powerful. I’ve been using some new stories from one of my favourite storytellers Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and have enjoyed re-discovering some of the fantastic stories in the compilation “Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart” by Feldman and Kornfield. Even vocal work has made a good transition into the online world (who would have thought it!), and I’ve been having a lot of fun with clients as well as some really profound moments discovering what our voices have to tell us!