Lucy Goodison (born 1945) is a British writer who has combined work as an archaeologist of the prehistoric Aegean, with involvement in the practice and teaching of body psychotherapy and engagement with issues of social justice. She has focused on actively challenging the mind/body split and bridging the divide between thinking and feeling that is basic to the western world view. Her books include: Death, Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion; Moving Heaven and Earth: Sexuality, Spirituality and Social Change; and Holy Trees and Other Ecological Surprises.

Career

Lucy Goodison was educated at Bushey Grammar School and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she graduated in Classics and Modern & Medieval Languages. She obtained a PhD in Classical Archaeology from University College, London. She has been an Honorary Research Fellow of University College, London; a Leverhulme Research Fellow; and a Phyllis and Eileen Gibbs Travelling Research Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. She started work in the media, as staff scriptwriter for the BBC World Service, then as writer and director of historical and archaeological documentaries for ‘Chronicle’ on BBC-TV. She retained an interest in film and the arts, but her subsequent career followed three main concurrent and intertwined trajectories: as an independent scholar specializing in prehistoric Aegean and early Greek religion; as a practitioner, workshop leader and trainer in body therapies; and as an activist in community campaigns, especially around health, mental health and disability. These different strands of activity have informed her writings, which range from academic texts to journalism and books for the lay reader on self-help therapy and on symbolic, somatic and social issues. Her earliest archaeological work, the monograph Death Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion, presented an innovative synthesis of evidence for the importance of the sun in Aegean religion; she is also concerned with investigation of other physical aspects of prehistoric religion, especially in funerary rituals at the Mesara-type tombs of Minoan Crete. She has been an advocate of integrating sensory, spiritual and social awareness in the consideration of ancient lives, and has published numerous academic papers on various aspects of early Aegean religion. From 1990 to 1997, she was an occasional Lecturer for the British Museum (Education Service); from 2001 to 2004, she taught Modern Greek in Adult Education; and she has lectured nationally and internationally on the iconography and embodied/performative ritual practices of prehistoric Crete. Concurrently she trained in, and ran a 25-year private practice in, therapeutic massage; has been a practitioner and teacher of bodywork therapies; and has campaigned around special education, self-help therapy and the National Health Service. Her work in these fields has included (1977–1988) as a Workshop Leader at The Women's Therapy Centre in London; 1988–1991 as Information Worker for Mencap in London; 1997–2001 as a Dance Therapist (currently a Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist) in the Drug Addiction Unit at Holloway Prison, London; and 1979–2003 as occasional tutor of self-help therapy, massage, dance, dreamwork and disability issues in Adult Education, including at the Mary Ward Centre, The Open Centre, Shoreditch Health Centre and Westminster Pastoral Foundation in London, and the Dorset Adult Education Service. In this field, she has authored several books and a number of articles, including for The Guardian, Social Work Today, Open Mind, Psychotherapy and Politics International and Health Service Journal. Her 1981 book In Our Own Hands: A Book of Self-help Therapy (co-authored with Sheila Ernst) clarified the possibilities for choice and autonomy for those undertaking therapy, and became a Time Out and City Limits Alternative Bestseller; her writings on disability and special education were used as teaching materials by the Open University. An ongoing interest in iconography, literature and performance in the field of the contemporary arts has been reflected in occasional work, including at Inter-Action Community Arts Trust, 1970–1972; as co-director and administrator of Reportage Photo Library, 1991–1994; a continuing involvement in writing and performing in community dance and topical street theatre; and work since 2010 as a co-ordinator of the non-profit imprint Just Press, publishing alternative titles ranging from studies of early documentary photographers to histories of radical theatre.

Selected publications

Writings on archaeology and history

Books

Articles and chapters

Writings on psychotherapy, disability, and community issues

Books and booklets

Divide and Rule — Never!, anti-racist booklet for schools, The Newsreel Collective, 1979.

Articles and chapters

Selected documentary films