SPACESHIP: A Game of Relating & Freedom

Spaceship is a relational game that uses sentence stems to blast a group off into outer space (i.e. strange and mysterious zones of connection). The game begins with a simple sentence stem “I want ____” as we go around in a circle and each person speaks aloud this sentence filling in the blank of what they want. Very quickly more sentence stems are added and you are invited to go into personas or speak with “honesty” to anyone in the circle. Eventually we find ourselves in a social setting where the rules of connection afford radical creativity and authenticity.
The workshop will begin with check ins and agreements. We’ll then warmup using a few authentic relating games, and proceed to a full group spaceship. Afterwards we will break off into smaller groups to play the game again, and finally close with reflection and integration.
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Price: Price is tiered based on an sliding scales of income/subsistence and ranges from $20-40
Maximum Participants: 13
Covid Policy: We will follow CDC protocol regarding covid isolation and engagement. If any participant has symptoms of covid (i.e. cold symptoms), we ask you to please take a home-test and if you test positive you cannot attend the workshop. If you test negative, and you are sick, we ask you to still wear a mask (as tests can deliver false negatives). For everyone else, masks are optional.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20 processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event. Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
Partial Attendance: All participants are required to attend the Opening on Day 1 of the Intensive. Given the intimacy and trust building inherent to the program, we highly recommend that all participants plan to stay for the entire weekend.
Out of Town Participants: The Deep Play Institute is not able to provide accommodations for out-of-town participants. DPI is also not able to refund any travel or housing costs in the unlikely event of cancellation.
About the Deep Play Institute The Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators – therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers – aim to use play to bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist. Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential games, and various schools of meditation.

Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, artist and pedagogue. He is the co-founder of The School of Making Thinking (SMT) and the founder & director of The Deep Play Institute (DPI). His practice involves expanding transformative inquiry through games, performance art and structured play. With training in Circling, Authentic Relating, and Psychodrama, he also facilitates experimental individual and group sessions inspired by these practices. Finbloom has presented works internationally at venues which include: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Gallery 151 (New York), Maschinenhaus Kulturbrauerei (Berlin), UNAM (Mexico City), and MainLine Theatre (Montreal). He holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities & Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently teaching Philosophy at the City College of New York and The University of Portland. finblooming.com

Ilana Simons is a psychologist in NYC. With PhDs in both literature and psychology, she has taught literature and writing at New York University and The New School. She is the founder of Tin House Reels, a home for videopoems on the web, writes a blog for Psychology Today, and is the author of A Life of One’s Own: A Guide to Better Living through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Penguin). She makes movies; and is trained in Voice Dialogue, a form of parts work, licensed in NY, CA and NM.

Host or Publisher The Deep Play Institute