THROUGH THE DOOR: a therapeutic practice for the commons
An online workshop about how we can attend with others to the troubles of Covid-19 and the Climate Emergency
CPA is running a series of workshops aimed at developing a shared practice that draws on therapeutic skills to meet the urgent needs of the climate emergency.
In these experiential workshops we will explore issues such as what happens when:
- collective anxiety leads to dysfunctional activations
- symptoms such as helplessness, grief and resentment are widespread but denied
- the articulation, witnessing and validation of such feelings is difficult
- boundaries and permissions for therapeutic comment are ambiguous
This can happen with chance encounters of those interested in climate and Covid-19 matters or through the intentional convening of climate cafés and other specific groups, whether through Zoom or not. While we may be trained to stay with the client’s difficulties and attend to unconscious process, the very different context of more public events requires an unlearning of expectable therapy transactions and an opening to new opportunities to be with the process.
‘Going through the door’ evokes the liminal space of transiting a cultural threshold, a passage through the uncertainty that requires relinquishing the ‘normal’ and being open to another reality. Our training and practice may have allowed us to tolerate the anxiety that goes with this transition and hence we can be containers and even catalysts for transformation. The workshop intends to give a taste of this and also encourage practical explorations such as with Climate Cafés where such skills can be brought to fruition.
During the day we hope to:
- manage our own anxiety and name underlying dynamics and process
- create an open, fertile space that is contained and safe enough for sharing
- make a place for feelings such as confusion, helplessness, rage and despair
- make links with participants’ experience of being with other-than-human nature
- draw on the creative imagination of the group to face the challenges of deep adaptation to an unknown future
- explore possibilities for the deployment of participants’ therapeutic skills in new and different contexts
Online Workshop 9 January, 10.00am-4.30pm
Facilitators are:
Rebecca Nestor, CPA Board member, facilitator, organisational consultant and doctoral researcher at the Tavistock Clinic on the experience of leaders in climate change organisations
Chris Robertson: Ex. CPA Chair, co-founder of Re-Vision and co-editor of Transformation in Troubled Times. https://www.culture-crisis.net
This is a professional workshop that has continued to be developed since 2018. Fees are:
Non-members: £60; Members: £40
Discounted/Bursary (20% of participants): £25; Student: £15
Places limited to 18 persons.
