Sunday 11th April 2010 9.30 - 4
VOCAL, 8 Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2PW

Ecopsychology is an emerging discipline which brings together ideas from ecology and psychology, with a core assumption being that our wellbeing is intimately connected to that of the earth.

While approaches such as family systems theory address an individual’s relation with others, ecopsychology takes this further and seeks to also include our relationship to the earth.

As the Earth presents “symptoms” which increasingly cannot be ignored, e.g. climate change, extinction of species, etc. this experiential day workshop seeks to address how therapists can include ideas and practices from ecopsychology into their practice.

Questions we will address include:

• Has western civilisation become “disconnected” from the natural world and, if so, can this split be healed?
• What do we split off and project onto nature?
Where is the cut we make between ourselves and the world?
• Could clients’ “personal problems” sometimes be seen as a microcosm of what is happening globally?
• How does the concept of the “ecological self” extend existing models of self? Early experience and the facilitating environment
• How can we help clients (and ourselves) rediscover the transformative power of nature and wild places and, in doing so, rediscover our “wild selves”?

The workshop will be facilitated by Ada Blair, a BACP-accredited counsellor and manager of a voluntary sector counselling agency in Edinburgh. She trained in both integrative and transpersonal approaches in Edinburgh and London and holds a Certificate in Ecopsychology from the Centre for Human Ecology at Strathclyde University. For over 20 years she has also been a campaigner for a number of local and international environmental organisations.

Workshop cost: £40 per person

N.B. 20% of the cost will go to EVA (Ethical Voice for Animals)
www.ethicalvoiceforanimals.org.uk

For more details, download flyer here