March 7th – 25th, 2011
Dave Key, Mary-Jayne Rust, Jerome Bernstein (via video-link), Jules Cashford, Alida Gersie, and Sophy Banks
This course has finished – for details of our latest Ecopsychology course: Ecopsychology: A Revolution at Home please click here.*
Ecopsychology – psychology in service to the earth – has a fundamentally important role to play in responding to current social and ecological challenges. This three-week course explores the many layers of this role. From denial to inspiration for action, our motivations are governed by our emotional responses and what we believe about our place in the web of life.
Masters credits available subject to University approval.
A central theme will be to look at some of the potent myths which underly industrial growth culture. How might these hidden narratives influence our definitions of success, our choices about change – our very identities even? If psychology has been used by the media and advertising industry to tap into such myths and thereby influence our consumer behavior, what might this tell us about ways out of our ‘addiction to consumerism’?
In the past few years, a range of innovative projects and movements have been emerging which draw on this psychological wisdom. What are the advantages and limitations of putting Ecopsychology into practice? This course offers a chance to step back, to delve into our own experience, and to critically learn from Ecopsychology theory and practice.
The first week delves into the meaning and experience of the ecological self, the second week explores the taproots of the ecological crisis in our contemporary culture, and the third week looks at practical examples of Ecopsychology in action.
David Key & Mary-Jayne Rust
The concept of the ecological Self is central to Ecopsychology. This term originates from the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, who argues that through transcending the individual ego we can reach a sense of identification with all other life, and systems of life. In the industrial north we are largely brought up in a culture of individualism, which promotes the idea that humans are separate from, and superior to, the rest of nature. As a result of this cultural conditioning it can be hard to know how to participate consciously in the web of life, how to live and work systemically – how to act from an ecological sense of Self.
Through a series of carefully facilitated outdoor experiences and small group work, we will facilitate an experience of the ecological Self. This challenges the perceived boundaries between self and world, between “I” and “other”, between human and nonhuman. From this perspective, we ask what does it really mean to “reconnect with nature”, a term so often used among those aspiring to live sustainably. How might our identities change in a society that behaves as part of nature? Ultimately, this first week will bring us ‘down to earth’ and ‘back to our senses’ bringing a more earth-centred perspective to our thinking, decisions and actions. In this way we become more resilient to the changes we face and more able to participate in, and lead, change for a sustainable future.
We will begin by mapping the terrain of Ecopsychology, and its close relatives such as Deep Ecology, Transpersonal Ecology, Ecotherapy, Transpersonal Psychology and Human Ecology. Days two, three and four will be spent mostly outdoors in and around Dartington, including solo time on Dartmoor, weather permitting. On the final day we will explore whether, and how, such deep experiences within nature can inform sustainable living, and help bring about the personal, social and cultural transformations that we so urgently need.
Jerome Bernstein (via video-link), Jules Cashford, David Key & Mary-Jayne Rust
Worsening ecological and social crises are the surface symptoms of a much deeper crisis of relationship, both between humans as well as between humans and the rest of Earth’s communities of life. During this week we will explore some of the archetypal myths at the root of our contemporary industrial culture, in particular The Myth of Progress and The Myth of the Fall. We will also learn from some indigenous cosmologies and their ways of knowing and being, including our own ancestral history. How might these stories reveal themselves in our everyday lives – in social structures, politics and power and in the dynamics of oppression? Can we begin to see new stories emerging for a new society – or is it a matter of re-telling and making sense of the old stories? What other stories are available to us?
Further details
Week 2 will begin with Jerome Bernstein, introducing indigenous mind and culture, particularly in relation to Navaho religion and healing. We will explore how indigenous perspectives might help us to find a vision and language for new paradigm ways of seeing.
Day Two will be taught by Jules Cashford. Where did our current story about the way we should live, and the values it implicitly proposes, come from? We will inquire into the unconscious processes which underlie the rise of contemporary industrial culture, and the split that has emerged between people and the rest of Nature. We will also consider the role of Imagination in allowing a new universe story to emerge.
On Day three we will unpack some of the hierarchies of anthropocentrism. What roles do ethnicity, class and gender play in forming our sense of self and our relationships with nature, including human nature? How do these hierarchies of real and perceived power effect our relationships to self, other and the earth? What barriers do such hierarchies create to real, long-term social change?
On Day four we take a look at contemporary consumer culture. We explore the stories we are told to keep our industrial culture growing, and the deeply manipulative and all-consuming power of the mass media, advertising and institutional norms.
Day Five returns to focus on “Nature as Healer” and the psychology of wilderness experiences. We will ask how and why experiences of the wild help us to feel better, and more empowered to act. What are the issues with ‘using’ decreasing wild lands for ‘wilderness work’? Where and what is wilderness anyway?
Throughout the week we invite participants to bring their own stories, and we will explore together how old and new cultural themes live as stories within each of us.
Alida Gersie, Sophy Banks, David Key & Mary-Jayne Rust
This third week will focus on practical examples of Ecopsychology in action. The challenge of integrating inner work with outer activism is giving birth to a great diversity of action towards change. What are the success stories and difficulties of bringing psychology into the shift towards sustainable living?
Further details
Day One begins by looking at the ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Transition Movement, Britain’s most widespread grass-roots movement for social change towards sustainability. What is ‘Inner Transition’, how did it begin and what have been the difficulties in integrating the head, heart and hands approach to activism? What are the dangers of ignoring the inner transition, in favour of the more tangible and practical actions that seem to appeal most to our contemporary culture?
Day Two will introduce a case study of WWF’s Natural Change Project for leadership, exploring the ecology of the unconscious. How do experiences of wild nature provide the touchstone for inspiring social and ecological activism?
Day Three will focus on how we bring Ecopsychology into the helping professions in a variety of settings including mainstream institutions. We will explore how our everyday anxieties might be related to the bigger picture of cultural dis-ease. We will ask what practice might support an inner resilience in a world in crisis, and how do we deal with burn-out. We will also discuss the benefits and practicalities of working outdoors with individuals and groups therapeutically.
Day Four will focus on the challenge of bringing Ecopsychology into organisations. Through case studies of storytelling within organisations we explore the role of narrative in forming and shaping organisational culture, across all sectors.
Day Five will give a chance to reflect on, and bring together, the many facets of Ecopsychology. What might support a daily practice of keeping in touch with the ecological Self? Where do we go from here?
David Key teaches on the postgraduate Ecopsychology module at the University of Strathclyde, is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and has developed various independent research interests over the years to support his professional practice. He is the founding Director of Footprint Consulting Ltd., who provide cultural change programmes and strategic support to a wide variety of organisations and communities. Dave’s background is in outdoor education and he’s happiest in wild places – working with groups to facilitate personal and social change for sustainability. His unique programmes and engaging facilitation style have earned him an excellent reputation, in the UK and beyond.
Mary-Jayne Rust is a Jungian analyst and an art therapist. Her many years of working in the area of eating problems has informed a wider interest in the cultural roots of consumerism and the links between gender and culture, soul and the land. Alongside private practice, she lectures and teaches in a variety of settings, as well as contributing to books and journals on the subject of ecopsychology. She has worked for two green NGOs. She grew up by the sea, and living beside water remains a source of great nourishment. See www.mjrust.net
Jerome S. Bernstein, M.A.P.C., NCPsyA, trained as a Clinical Psychologist and is currently a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Santa Fe, NM. He was the founding President of the Jung Institute of Greater Washington, D.C., and Past President of the Jung Institute of New Mexico, where he is a member of the teaching faculty. He is the author of Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma; Power and Politics; Co-Editor of C.G. Jung and the Sioux Traditions; and Guest Editor of the forthcoming 2012 Issue of Spring Journal on the theme of “Native American Culture and the Western Psyche: A Bridge Between,” as well as numerous articles on international conflict, shadow dynamics, and various clinical topics. He has had a forty year relationship with Navajo and Hopi Indian cultures and for the past 15 years has been working with a Navajo medicine man in a collaborative clinical model. http://www.borderlanders.com
Jules Cashford trained as a Jungian Analyst with the Association of Jungian Analysts in London, and is a member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology. She is the co-author, with Anne Baring, of The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image. She is also author of The Moon: Myth and Image, and translated The Homeric Hymns for Penguin Classics. She wrote two books for children, The Myth of Isis and Osiris, and Theseus and the Minotaur. She now writes and lectures widely on Myth and Literature.
Alida Gersie is a London-based dramatherapist and organizational consultant. Her work with deprived individuals and communities inspired her to develop a story-based method that facilitates productive change in seemingly hopeless situations. For several decades she was Principal Lecturer in the Postgraduate Arts Therapies Department of the University of Hertfordshire. She has taught the story-based approach to planned change in many countries, and has authored and edited several books, most recently Storymaking in Education and Therapy.
Sophy Banks first qualified as an engineer and has worked for many years as a freelance trainer in all sectors and with people from all backgrounds and levels, from senior management to women returning to work. Later qualifications and work in psychotherapy, family systems and energy work give a wide range to her skills spanning outer and inner worlds. She has led workshops in family and systems constellations, the Work that Reconnects, and ceremonies to connect with nature and the Earth. In 2006 Sophy co-founded the Heart and Soul group of Transition Town Totnes, looking at the inner aspects of a community transitioning to a sustainable and vibrant future. In October 2007 she co-founded Transition Training, taking the experience of Totnes to communities throughout Britain and abroad. She is deeply committed to exploring the individual and collective journey towards a life-affirming, joyful and healthy future for all.
Any One week £750
Any Two weeks £1,450 (Save £50 over weekly course price)
Three weeks £1,900 (Save £350 over the weekly course price)
All course fees include accommodation, food, field trips and all teaching sessions.
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