Ecopsychology at Re-Vision 2013/2014

Introductory days and 7-month course

“The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.” Thomas Berry  (author of The Dream of the Earth’

This course aims to help counsellors, psychotherapists and those in the helping professions face into the awesome challenge of our planetary crisis, including both its inspiring and soul-destroying possibilities.

We will explore questions such as:

•    How do ecological issues come into our therapy practice?
•    What place do we give our wild animal nature in our domesticated culture?
•    How does the more-than-human affect our collective psyche?
•    What is the role of the therapist in the community?

We will start with confronting our ambivalent attitude to the Earth: our longing to reconnect and our fears of losing control.  Recognising this ambivalence in ourselves is a first step to opening a new story and finding a sense of meaning and purpose within a wider community. We aim to develop the skills to respond to crisis such as:

•    learning to manage anxiety and think through our hearts
•    using play and imagination to develop kinship with the more-than-human-world
•    developing resilience in relation to collective grief and despair
•    developing an ecosystemic perspective on social and psychological problems

As a fertile learning community we hope to engender a vibrant trust in the hidden resources of the Earth that frees us, at least a little, from our collusion with the dissociated consumer culture that destroys the web of life.

There are three introductory Saturdays:
Taking Heart in Dark Times   12 October 2013  with Mary-Jayne Rust
For details click here
Reciprocal Affinity   23 November 2013  with Chris Robertson
For details click here
Therapy in a Vacuum   22 February 2014  with Joan Crawford
For details click here

To be accepted into the full course, applicants will be expected to have participated in two of these three days.

The next full course is planned to start with a residential weekend (venue tbc) in April 2014.  This will be followed by three monthly Fridays 2 – 7.30pm / Saturdays 10am-5pm Dates: 9/10 May;  6/7 June;  18/19 July (Venue London)
There will be a further residential in September, followed by a final Friday / Sat 17/18 October.

“Only in reciprocity with what is Other do we begin to heal ourselves.”
David Abram (author of ‘Becoming Animal’ and ‘The Spell of the Sensuous’)