Tracy Breathnach PhD
Tracy is a performance artist, researcher and writer based in south Wales, UK. Originally from Ireland, she has worked extensively in communities in the UK and abroad for over 20 years.
She has developed her own approach to embodied performance and living, which she shares through her teaching courses and creative projects. This is inspired by integral philosophy, which includes all aspects of our human Being-ness: physical, emotional. mental, psychic (soul) and spiritual, and informed by a range of trauma-informed healing practices. Tracy has worked across arts, wellbeing, health and education fields for 20 years and is passionate about inclusive cultural provision.
Tracy holds a PhD and a MA with distinction from Aberystwyth University, both in Performance Studies. She worked closely with supervisor Jill Greenhalgh, founder of the Magdalena Project, an international network for women in theatre.
Tracy’s research is practice-based and explores embodied storytelling. Her PhD focused on autobiographical birth story-telling. From this she has developed a trauma-informed programme called Birth Cafe for women in the community to find new ways of telling their experiences in partnership with People Speak Up. She is working on her first book Sacred Birth – Opening to the Erotic Body. In 2020, Tracy gave a Tedx talk on her approach to embodied birth-storytelling – see link below.
Tracy has undertaken a 3 year post-graduate somatic training course with Joan Davis and Julia Gombos in Gorsehill, Ireland Original Nature – A Practice in Presence (2018-21). This included the foundations of the ground form of Authentic Movement, moving it into Embodied Spiritual Practice and further deeply cultivating the practice of entering into Direct Embodied Experience of the here and now with oneself and others. This is practiced both indoors and out in nature. She has undertaken training with a range of other teachers including Jules Heavens, Nick Twilley, Kim Rosen, Phillip Zarrilli, Oguri, Tracy visits and delivers teacher training in Auroville.