Working through the arts to provide spaces that are:
Enjoyable, Safe, Open, Educative, Empowering, Creative

Safe:
Creating contracts with clearly set boundaries
Beginning and ending with circle-time
Being authentic, compassionate, transparent and straightforward
Working in ways that encourage a non-judgemental approach, unconditional positive regard, equality, acceptance and respect
Having integrity.

"Humility by example" Paulo Friere

Open:
Creating open and spacious environments that are investigative, expansive, and inclusive
Being responsive and flexible
Encouraging personal responsibility
Creating a sense of community
Working with the model that

"truth is therapeutic" Augusto Boal

Educative:
Working holistically with body, mind and spirit
Respecting the innate wisdom of participants
Valuing the power of the arts as a tool for informal, experiential learning (do, review, learn and apply) and also as a tool for personal development and transformation
Valuing process
Taking account of different learning styles and multiple intelligences
Encouraging and modelling personal/professional reflection
Developing emotional literacy by highlighting the interaction between thinking, feeling and behaviour
Being able to be emotionally responsive rather than reactive

"The end outcome of education should not be "I know", the outcome of education must be, "I am" Alfred-Steir Yonis

Empowering and Enabling:
Co-creating a working environment that values everyones contribution.
Enabling people to find their authentic voice
Modeling active listening.
Working with the model of "the power to love rather than the love of power"
Nurturing dialogue:

"All answers are in dialogue, everyone has part of the answer" Paulo Freire

Creative:
Drawing on a range of art forms and other creative approaches including
Forum theatre/Theatre of the Oppressed, Games, Circle-time, Open-Space Technology, Transactional Analysis, Mindfulness

"Theatre is a form of knowledge: it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it." Augusto Boal Games for Actors and Non-Actors.

"Theatre ... the human property which allows man to observe himself in action, in activity... It allows him to imagine variations of his action, to study alternatives. Man can see himself in the act of seeing, in the act of acting, in the act of feeling, the act of thinking. Feel himself feeling, think himself thinking." Augusto Boal (The Rainbow of Desires)

"Mindfulness is about being fully awake and alive, by paying attention to the experience of the present moment, deliberately, without judgement." Jon-Kabat-Zinn.