The Embodied Experience of the PhD with Stella Duffy

Stella Duffy is completing a doctorate training in Existential Psychotherapy and her research is in the embodied experience of postmenopause.  Alongside her therapy work, Stella is an award-winning writer of seventeen novels, over seventy short stories and fifteen plays and worked in theatre for over thirty-five years as an actor, director, facilitator and improvisor. She has been active in equalities and inclusion work in the arts, LGBTQ+ and feminist communities for many decades, and was the co-founder and co-director of the UK-wide Fun Palaces campaign for cultural democracy. She is also a yoga teacher, leading regular workshops in yoga for writing and offers creative mentoring support. 

 

Stella has been postmenopausal since chemotherapy for her first cancer in her mid-30s, and has a special interest in life after menopause – a conversation sadly lacking in the prevalent current discourse.

 

In this episode we talk about Stella’s journey to the PhD from a working-class background in South East London as the youngest of seven children.

 

Stella also talks about her experience of cancer and the therapeutic intervention that changed her perspective.

 

We reflect on the embodied nature of the PhD that Stella is engaged with both as a researcher and through her own lived experience of her body.

 

We finish with encouragement to check-in with your senses.

 

You can find out more about Stella’s work here: stelladuffytherapy.co.uk

If you would like a useful weekly email to support you on your PhD journey you can sign up for ‘Notes from the Life Raft’ here:  https://mailchi.mp/f2dce91955c6/notes-from-the-life-raft