Materials, Tactility and Physical Wellbeing

This lecture explores the connection between materials, touch and the body's wellbeing. Drawing on a psychomotor approach, it examines how different materials not only feel on the skin but also affect the nervous system, attention and inner state. Knitting and handicraft are understood here as embodied practice - not merely technique and aesthetics - where rhythm, repetition and tactile contact can support calm, presence and concentration.

The lecture offers insight into how the skin and nervous system register materials, why some fibres feel soothing while others feel unsettling, and how rhythm and repetition in handicraft can have a regulating effect. Throughout, the audience is invited to reflect briefly on their own sensations and experiences.

The speaker is Sheila Simonsen, a psychomotor therapist and co-founder of Psykomotoriske Terapeuter København. She is also behind Samværk - a knitting community and yarn shop on Vesterbro - together with psychologists Anja G Brems and Marlene Schmidt, and she works with Simonsen & Gøtzsche - Psychiatry and Treatment, where she works with therapeutic programmes and psychoeducation in areas including stress, anxiety and neurodiversity.

This event is part of Pakhusstrik 2026, and entry to the festival requires a festival pass. Read more at nordatlantens.dk/pakhusstrik. Members of Nordatlantens Friends receive a 25% discount; tickets purchased with this discount must be presented together with a valid membership card at the entrance. Nordatlantens Brygge does not refund purchased event tickets.