Pre-Conference Your Time is Now

This DvT Pre-Conference will be about presence, embodiment, encounter, not knowing, being open, expanding your own play space and increasing your attention to the new in others.

We conclude with an exploration of Intersectionality in DvT and the New in Others. We believe this theme resonates with the times we live in.
We are pleased that Rebecca Davis from Portland is willing to share her knowledge and experience on this topic.
Program Contents 
Morning day 1
Theme: Presence, Not Knowing and Embodiment

By Marjo Baars and Anne-Marie Hamming
We will begin the pre-conference with embodiment, play, and encounter. A warm-up to awakening your joy in playing and expanding your presence.

Imagine that we are not separate beings, but are continually shaped by encounters with others—with nature, with a human, or with an animal. Imagine that we are particles in a shared energetic field, constantly influencing each other energetically because we are not separate from one another. Imagine that this is where real life, connection and the joy of living lie, but that we miss it because we are unaware of it. We miss it because we live in learned structures, in the past, the future, in thoughts and automatic actions. Imagine that we can open the door to pure life through DvT-play, because real-ish play always takes place in the now and is always new.

We will play in de morning with this concept and practice being present, being open to the other, and how to prepare yourself as a player, how to empty yourself and be receptive to the recursive cycle of the players and the felt sense between you and the other.
​A wonderful way to get to know each other so that we can delve deeper together in the coming days.
Imagine that we can open the door to pure life through DvT-play, because play always takes place in the now and is always new.
Afternoon Day 1
'Presence-Encounter Lab'
By Anne-Marie Hamming
Your time is now! What's holding you back? Can you play with it? Are your body, heart, and mind present? Are you doing or listening? Are you giving or receiving? Are you repeating or creating? Or are you mixing it all up? The invitation is to explore with curiosity and willingness. Are you willing to play with your stuff in contact? Or do you prefer to hide it?

We will play with the left and right sides of your body (horizontal line) and with the connection between your belly, heart, and head (vertical line).

We will gently play with inner patterns, beliefs, and protective mechanisms that hold you back from connecting and presence.
Morning day 2
Theme: Expanding Playspace, The New in Others
By Marjo Baars
Now that we are playful and open and aware of what holds us back, can we observe what is new in others?
If you think you have seen the other, can you see something that surprises you? Are those eyes really green? Look closer. What interesting movements do you see that the other is not aware of? What happens if you show this movement to the other. Does it connect or is there no flow in it? 

​Are there things you don’t like to see, because it connects to negative feelings or associations in yourself or your history. How can you be aware of that and still play with the other.
What can a DvT playor do to deal with whatever comes along, in or outside the box or comfort zone of the therapist. And the other way around, how can you give the client these negative feelings and help them to keep it playable and deal with it.
Afternoon Day 2
Theme: Intersectionality in DvT, The New in Others
By Rebecca Davis
As you continue to prepare for the conference, you may come to discover how many parts of the Other there actually are. There is so much to track, so much to know, and so many feelings to notice along the path of embodied encounter!

We will use the theme of intersectionality, a concept created by Kimberlé Crenshaw, to explore our recursive cycles, to encounter all the parts that make up the whole, and ask ourselves, how can we relate? What do we do if we can’t? How do we continue to play with that which is unknown, that which is painful, that which conflicts, or that which we don’t want to see or feel? We’ll ultimately prepare to meet the other through meeting ourselves.​
Thursday, April 30
​
Morning day 1
Theme: Presence, Not Knowing, Embodiment
10:00 AM: Walk-in with tea or coffee
10:30 AM - 1:00 PM: Work and play around the theme with Marjo Baars and Anne-Marie Hamming
​
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Catered lunch

Afternoon Day 1
Theme: Presence-Encounter Lab; Your Time is Now
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Work and play around the theme with Anne-Marie Hamming
5:00 PM: End
Friday, May 1

​Morning day 2
Theme: Expanding Playspace, The New in Others
9:00 AM: Walk-in with tea or coffee
9:30 AM - 12:15 PM Work and play around the theme with Marjo Baars
​
 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM Catered lunch

Afternoon Day 2
Theme: Intersectionality in DvT, The New in Others,
1.15 PM Work and play around the theme with Rebecca Davis
​4.15 PM Joint closure
4:30 PM End

About

The DvT trainers during the DvT Pre-Conference

Anne-Marie Hamming

Anne-Marie Hamming (from the Netherlands) is always curious about how she can inspire clients and others to live life to the fullest, despite their trauma and attachment issues. Her work is characterized by an eye for resilience, individuality, and respect for protective patterns.
She continually explores what can truly help people. Knowledge from neurobiology about stress, trauma, and attachment issues helps her. Play is a fantastic way to challenge others to step into the river of life, step by step, with all its inherent dangers. To learn to swim and discover that swimming can be wonderful.
From personal experience, she knows how frightening swimming can be when you're raised by parents who are themselves wounded and stepped back.
Anne-Marie is a drama therapist (since 1999) and a certified DvT therapist (since 2018). She is trained as a supervisor and supervises therapists. She is trained by Janina Fisher in working with inner parts and trauma, and recently, she became a Mind Eye Power therapist and discovered how gently working with the eyes can help disconnect from what is old and obstructive. She has been a trainer at Developmental Transformation Netherlands from the beginning.
She looks forward to sharing her inspiration and love for DvT at the pre-conference in the Netherlands.

Marjo Baars

Marjo Baars (The Netherlands) is the co-founder of DvT in Holland and a very playful person.
Marjo has always been a gender fluid person; confronted with the role of what a female should be she decided in early childhood, not to accept that specific role. This gave her an outcast position in life and encouraged her to become an out-of-the-box thinker.
Her specialty is confrontation, but always with a wink. She is the master of the essence of humor (a smile and a tear) and a good faithful renderer. Complex problems make her engine start. She is trained in complex Personality Disorders.
Currently she is integrating Scheme Therapy into her treatment, because it fits with what she was already doing. It adds a nice theoretical model to her backpack of possibilities. Next to that she is exploring how to be in the center of the group as a Playor and Play object, just to
find out more about the effect of that.
Marjo Baars has been a drama therapist since 1996, started her DvT road from 2002 and is certified since 2019, which makes her fully mastered in this way of working (and living).
She works as a freelancer in an institute (CITB, Amsterdam) for multi-disciplinary treatment.
There people can mix verbal with non-verbal treatment and get where they need to be to continue their lives more smoothly.
In the pre-conference, she would like to take you on a short trip to how you feel about difference and varialation in human presence.

Rebecca Davis

Rebecca Davis (she/her) is a United States based therapist, consultant, and educator. She is a psychodynamic psychotherapist, with a clinical focus on building transformative relationships with clients through building a mental and embodied understanding of themselves. She primarily uses psychodynamic psychotherapy, trauma-centered psychotherapy (TCP), Developmental Transformations (DvT), and Somatic Experiencing(™). She has experience working with individuals, couples, and families holding significant trauma and marginalization in their lived experience and lineage. Her research interests focus on cultural embodiment of trauma, cultural dissociation, negotiating racism in the treatment room, and a historical analysis of Black Americans on the long walk to freedom.
 
Rebecca is on faculty in the School of Social Work at Portland State University, which you can learn more about here and she is pursuing a doctoral degree from Smith College. Rebecca is an anti-racist activist, which you can learn more about here, and is the co-founder and co-director of DvTPDX, linked here. Rebecca also provides clinical/organizational consultation and supervision, and is active within the Portland theater community. If you are interested in contacting her about other forms of work, please visit the appropriate and best related website, or www.rebeccalynndavis.com.
Practical information

Dates: Thursday, April 30th and Friday, May 1st
Information or questions: [email protected]
Address:
Stichting Theaterschool Utrecht
Domplein 4
3512JC Utrecht​

Registration:
You must register the pre-conference at the same time as the conference.
​You can read more about the practical information and buy a ticket at the bottom of the conference page.
Contact
Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions about the conference or pre-conference: 
[email protected]
About
​Your host is DvT Netherland and the conference is organized by the conference committee.