can performance cure?

Are our psychological issues to be explored through years of soul-searching psychoanalysis or ‘cured’ with short-term, solution-focused, cognitive behaviour tactics?

Do live artists act against self-inhibiting irrational beliefs or is their work the expression of a symptom, neurosis or pathology? How can performance serve therapeutic ends? Join Oriana, guest artists and psychologists and find out all the answers!This special edition of The O Show features Oriana’s real-life therapist, Bernadette Ainsworth who taught our host how to unconditionally accept her self and others. Perhaps more importantly, Bernadette made Oriana aware that by performing in front of a live audience, she was practicing what rational emotive behaviour therapists call ‘shame attacking’. We will explore this phenomenon further, asking Bernadette to clarify exactly how performance, the R.E.B.T. way, can be used to change our emotional responses to whatever life throws at us.

Our second guest Liz Bentley, who is a psychotherapist by day and performer/comedienne by night, does a lot of self-disclosing for someone whose day job requires a high level of anonymity. Liz will share how therapy helped her to overcome her struggles with drugs, relationships, abuse and the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and how, these days, performing ‘keeps her out of trouble’.

Also joining us is the acting coach Sam Rumbelow who feels equally strongly about the therapeutic potential of performance, but comes at it from a completely different angle. As a fierce proponent of The Method and having worked on himself through 12 years of Jungian analysis, Sam believes that our unconscious mind holds the key to our creativity and psychological wellbeing and that by experiencing the full range of our emotions we come closer to knowing what we truly desire.

▶ Part 1: Oriana’s Introduction / Interview with her therapist Bernadette Ainsworth

▶ Part 2: Interview with Liz Bentley

▶ Part 3: Interview with Sam Rumbelow

▶ Part 4: Panel Discussion  

  • Produced, hosted and edited by
    Oriana Fox

    Guests
    Bernadette Ainsworth, Liz Bentley & Sam Rumbelow

    Camera Operators
    Lu Lyndon, Joao Florencio, Klara Roglova, Catherine Pritchard

    Camera Direction
    Jon Whitehall

    Sound Mixing
    Ruddhi Abhyankar

    Camera Mixing
    Neeraj Shrivastava

    Still Photographers
    Laura Nardelli, A. Banu Cansever Schmid

    Set Dressers
    Vikki Chalklin, Annalaura Alifuoco, Joao Florencio, Sophia Lee


    Headshot Photography
    Monti Fox Photography

    Filmed at Goldsmiths, University of London TV Studio

    Sponsors
    Performance Matters and the Arts & Humanities Research Council


    Special Thanks
    Janak Patel, Vikki Chalklin, Katie Beeson, Althea Greenan, Catherine Grant, Owen Parry, Charlotte Troy, David Rose, Angela Monti Fox, Michael Fox, Vilia Hayes, Alex M. Fox, Josh Fox, Kevin Hayes, Jon Whitehall, Mark Edmondson, Gavin Butt, Adrian Heathfield, Lois Keidan and The Live Art Development Agency, Visual Cultures and Media & Communications Departments at Goldsmiths, University of London

GUESTS

  • Bernadette Ainsworth

    Bernadette Ainsworth is a psychotherapist. She holds an MSc. in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and CBT. She is an accredited member of the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP) with an extensive background in treating Anxiety, Depression, Eating Distress, Bulimia, Bipolar Disorder and in helping people effectively manage their emotional, personal and workplace stresses.

  • Liz Bentley

    Liz Bentley is a writer, poet, comedian, host, programmer, musician and psychotherapist. She has worked extensively as a psychotherapist, supervisor and facilitator in NHS, Goldsmiths College, Lewisham College and in private practice. Armed with Casio keyboard and ukulele, she also is one of the quirkiest acts on the UK’s spoken word and live art scenes. Bentley has performed in ecclectic venues including The Freud Museum in London; Liberty Festival; and The National Theatre, London, among others.

  • Sam Rumbelow

    Sam Rumbelow is a prominanet method acting coach with 40 years of experience in the industry. He has been reviewed and written about in the national TV, Radio, and Press as well as in the international press in regard to his teaching and collaboration with Gillian Wearing on the feature film Self Made, which also reflected his work as a director and creative practitioner outside of his teaching.