Silja McNamara is a Doctoral researcher at Tampere University, Finland researching dance movement therapy and grief. Silja is a co-founder of Arts, Culture & Health Research group: https://research.tuni.fi/centre-for-hiap-and-sdh/networks/ She has an MA in Dance movement psychotherapy (specialised in bereavement), Roehampton University, London and BA Hons in Performing Arts (dance theatre) London Metropolitan University.
She works in the field of dance art, dance movement therapy and mental health.
Silja is a part of the Finnish Dance Therapy Association Committee and EADMT Delegate of Finland.
Abstract of workshop:
Dancing grief: embodied narratives of loss
Grief has a tremendous effect on the whole embodied sense of self and may cause many physical symptoms. The physical effects of grief are well established in science, yet there is not much research done on therapeutic interventions that explore grief through dance and movement. The aim of this workshop is to discuss grief and dance movement therapy and explore this in movement. The theoretic content is derived from McNamara's PhD research. In this experimental workshop we will find ways of how through DMT we can express our loss in movement, drawing and writing.