Request for Presentations at Holos Ecopsychology Conference

[Jan Edl]

Holos Institute will be hosting the Ecopsychology Conference next April 6 & 7, 2019 at Earthrise Retreat Center in Petaluma.

This 2- day event has become a popular gathering for like-minded eco-oriented people.

The theme is "Cultivating Truth in Troubled Times":  How may we find a voice of deep authenticity to  re-present the truth/situation of the earth, address the anxiety and despair of the current environmental crisis while maintaining hope and psychological balance?

Confirmed invited speakers include Clare DuBois, Mutima Imani, and McHugh… with a strong possibility of Michael Meade and Joanna Macy.

We are seeking proposals for presentations of 50 minutes, 25 minutes, and 2 hour long (mostly) outdoor workshops.

Accepted presenters may attend free of charge both conference days, including Saturday dinner.

This is a wonderful gathering and lovely networking/bridge-building opportunity.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal please click on the following link for the online proposal.  Deadline for submissions is midnight, December 17, 2018.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe7OWUsEQ6-PQXm9v-eqdB16xLETzvPZtgQrbLWzluFPraNJg/viewform?usp=sf_link

If you would like to keep informed of our offerings including the conference, kindly visit the Holos website and sign up for our newsletter.

Thanks!

Jan Edl Stein, MFT 25863

Director, Holos Institute

http://www.holosinstitute.net

415-751-1307

 

[Deborah Punton]

Hi ya all. This sounds wonderful and I’d love to be involved however I have one thing preventing me immediately completing the farm and wonder how others deal with this... I am feeling I am not being my authentic truth if I fly in an aeroplane. I live in Australia. Flying is one of the worse individual actions we can take as it increases my ecological footprint so much that I can’t find a way to offset enough for my actions. Please how do others reconcile the balance and recoprocal planetary relationships within and out during this time of critical planetary disruption? I do planting, environmental actions and activism but feel if I stay local it is more my real truth. But I miss out. (Ego?) 

Interested in your thoughts, Deb 

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Kind regards,
Deb 
T: 0431 838 382
W: www.greensong.info
E: greenso...@gmail.com
FB: www.facebook.com/GreensongGallery

[Mary-Jayne Rust]

Dear Deb,

Several thoughts:

 

Personally I wouldn’t fly for a two day event on the other side of the world unless I thought it would have something to teach me to bring home which would have a huge impact on sustainability at home.

 

There must be similar events on your side of the world? If not, maybe they need to be created?

 

Will the Holos Ecopsychology conference provide online access for those far away?

 

I think you’ve answered your own question in this sentence: “I feel if I stay local it is more my real truth”. I think ‘missing out’ usually turns out to be an illusion, and sadly is what our dominant culture is built on. Recently I was sorely tempted to attend a Jungian conference in Santa Barbara on Art and Psyche: The Illuminated Imagination’. It looks so exciting. Nothing similar here in UK. Then I sat and thought through what it would actually be like - what would I really gain? All the hassle of airports, flying, jet lag, not to mention great expense. Probably a few great talks (which I can probably access online) meeting some great people, but hey lots of great people here; all that - when I could be here in my studio concentrating on painting!

 

And yes, I don’t want to deny there is some real missing out at times, but then the gains for the earth and for inner authenticity are much greater I feel.

 

Mary-Jayne

www.mjrust.net

www.ecopsychologyuk.ning.com

www.ecospychology.org.uk

[Deborah Punton]

Thanks Mary-Jayne,

I appreciate your understanding as so often this is a difficult subject to approach within many circles here. 

A while ago I had thought to create some type of group and conferences here... great idea. I should re-visit that.   

Thank you also for the perspective and I am thinking of doing a study tour at some point and lining up events and opportunities to learn and share.

I am working on this Eco-Art project currently which some members may find interesting. It has been illuminating for me and my partner in the creation. https://eco-artgallery.weebly.com/gasworks-2018---karen-hopkins.html

Kind regards, Deb

Greensong  Website | LinkedIn | Facebook  

Kind regards,   

   Deborah Punton

 

   Greensong - Co-creating a Sustainable Future

   Website | LinkedIn | Facebook  

   Telephone (+61) 0431 838 382

[Jan Edl]

Hi Deb et al,

I am glad to hear that our program is of interest but I too would not recommend such a long trip unless you were combining it with other business/visits.  In the San Francisco bay area of California we are blessed with a vibrant ecopsych community and most of the participants are in the area.  I must say that it is really helpful to meet people in person.  There are online experiences but you just can't quite get the same degree of connection.

We will record and post the main sessions publicly.

The center that hosts the retreat does not have the technical capability nor a high enough internet bandwidth to support live video conferencing.  At least they did not last year.  I will look into it to see if we might be offer that next year.

Thanks for your interest!

Warm regards,

Jan Edl Stein

[Smith, Tawnya]

Hi Jan,

 

I attended the conference last year because I was already on the west coast (from Boston). I would love to be able to view video recordings of this year’s event, and would be happy to pay to attend virtually either by streaming or video archive.

 

I found the conference to be a wonderful event and will very much miss being able to attend in person (sad also to miss the community, food, and beautiful retreat center).

 

With appreciation,

Tawnya

 

 

From: <ecotherapy-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jan Edl <jan.ed...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <ecotherapy-...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 12:39 PM
To: <ecotherapy-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Ecotherapy Assn] Request for Presentations at Holos Ecopsychology Conference

 

Hi Deb et al,

[Deborah Punton]

Hi Jan. I’ll be watching out for links to watch and listen online. Thank you so much for your integrity with me. With gratitude, Deb 

ps I love the eco-community! 

[Mary-Jayne Rust]

Dear Deb,

Love the eco-art project. Thanks for sharing.

 

Just to add: several years ago I flew to Taiwan/NZ to give a series of talks and workshops over two months. I agonised over this decision but in the end decided it would do more good to go rather than stay at home. I still don’t know if that was the ‘right’ decision, I know that arguments backwards! A close ecopsychology colleague literally shouted at me for doing that. Yet: I don’t have children, I don’t eat meat, we gave up our car in 1995 because of climate change and I cycle or use public transport……and so on. (And still my footprint is way more than it should be, which is true for most of us unless we live in a yurt or super new eco home - but I’m doing my best!) My friends anger really hurt.

 

I feel it’s important not to judge oneself too harshly, nor others, for their decisions. It seems this is a tricky and complex area to discuss and while there are no adequate policies in place it is up to each of us to find our own integrity on this. I know many who are fully aware of the situation and feel it makes no difference for individuals not to fly, given the situation as a whole, and others who get very angry with people for flying at all …. and lots of people at various points on that spectrum.

 

Best wishes

Mary-Jayne

[Deborah Punton]

Thanks Mary-Jayne. 

I’m sorry to hear your friends anger hurt you around your decision. I wonder if you’ve approached the subject again together?

Your comments helped me as I know the type of trip I want to do now. (If I do one in couple of years) It was to be mostly around ecopsychology but I’ll add my other aspect of creating a restorative agriculture project. It will give me fuel for future action and collaboration. 

I am so glad I opened up the conversation to everyone because it’s been on my mind often but not yet spoke to people about it. I thought I wanted to mull it around in my mind and body first to feel the integration of my peace with a decision. Now i realise we are all here to learn from each other so this has been great sharing experience. 

I see everyone as having their own process and timing, doing what they can, with skills, life-styles, experiences and knowledge to do. I have no jurisdiction on others choices and actions. 

I am feeling personal pressure,  I feel time running out to choose actions to adapt to CC especially since the last IPCC report. Being forced is a different feeling, choice is still available now (with the best-case scenario) but needs more urgent action which will be a transition for us all. I can choose my own actions but not those of others and it feels good to have control of some small things as the big picture is out of my control. 

My instinct is to continue environmental mitigating and adapting actions as often as I can (including in the ecopsychology/sacred ecology vein which is building resilience, community, relationships and wellbeing) and of being a good example by contemplating something which is on the luxury scale not a necessity. I do need to give myself a break also... 

I’m grateful for your help working though healing my pain about the topic and integrating this process. 

Deb 

[Dave Cohen]

Hi all,

I actually think that this is a very important discussion. I could go at great length about these decisions, but what always strikes me and what I also bring up in my therapy practice is how language often short circuits our awareness and intelligence. Like how I am using this "computer" and "sending off this email", there are so many other things that are part of the "email happening." 

We often say we will "fly" somewhere or "drive" to a location, but that leaves out so much information about what is happening. Cars and planes are multi-tech mobility devices that include a shell impervious to the environment, engines, fossil fuels, environmental controls, computerized navigation instruments, entertainment and communication systems, a vast infrastructure to support them and so much more. Our language is so deeply coded that perhaps we quite literally don't understand what we are saying or doing.  Our shortcuts words or phrases to describe what we do and how we use and access these technologies makes it so that we are incredibly challenged to appreciate the complexity of the choices because our language conceals so much information.

And then there are the implications of how these modes of travel insert themselves into our experience and worldview. The automobile actually means "automatic mobility" which implies a whole range of things that are happening to our bodily connection to the world as well as our sensory and emotional connections to the ecological and social terrain that we pass through. With our sensory awareness subverted by our confinement within the auto-mobile (or a jet plane for that matter), the places we pass through become dead zones as far as our awareness of those locales. Yes, we often can see things out the window and sometimes will roll down a window, but this limited perceptual awareness is a massively shrunken version of our broadband human sensorial capacities to experience the world. And then there is our inability to know the impact we are having on the world in real time because these transportation technologies deeply subvert our sensory awareness to the violence being done to the world outside of the machine. Our senses and limbic resonance to the world operate weakly or not at all beyond our technological confinement. Again, we don't know what we are doing.

I believe that all this has largely become normalized through our coded language.

And I hope this doesn't sound like babble or angry in any way. I know that you all have likely given these issues great thought. I just really like exploring how our technologies colonize us and how our shortcut language accelerates the techno takeover of our sensory, emotional, body-oriented rootedness in the world. So yes, I say stay home and I'd like to add in that let's all learn more about what we mean by what we say.

On Mon, Nov 5, 2018 at 11:08 PM Deborah Punton <dpgre...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Dave Cohen, LCMHC, MA
down to earth counseling
Solar Hill | 229 Western Ave, Brattleboro, VT
www.davecohencounseling.com
802-258-7013

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Email is not a secure means of communication; therefore, confidentiality cannot be assured. Please do not use e-mail to communicate regarding any protected mental health or medical concerns. This message is intended for use solely by the person or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain privileged and confidential information that is protected under state and federal law, and any unauthorized disclosure may result in legal penalties. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying or dissemination of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately to arrange for return or destruction of these documents.

[Molly Brown]

Thanks for your perspective, Dave.  Your words ring true.  And stimulate me to think even more deeply about where and how I live.  

I avoid flying as much as possible, and usually take the train when I do need to travel (which I understand is one of the most energy efficient ways to travel a distance and which allows me to at least look at the land passing by).  I am lucky enough to live close to an Amtrak line.  However, we live over 275 miles away from both our sons and our grandchildren, so staying home would mean never seeing them!  We are considering moving to Sonoma County where one son and the grandchildren live, closer to Oakland where the other son lives.  But the housing costs there are astronomical right now and we haven't figured out how to afford to live there. And it's a high population area, so different from the very small town we live in now. Our choices come to traveling there every few months by car or train, or having them do the same in the other direction, or never seeing our family!

Yes, as individuals, we need to be as conscious as we can about modes of transportation and their effects on the environment and our own sensory-motor well-being.  At the same time, we need to work together to change the social-economic-political systems that colonize us all--and limit our choices. We can't just act as individuals!  That kind of thinking is a big part of the problem.  

I thank you all for this thoughtful conversation.  Let's keep it going!

Blessings,

Molly Brown

Molly Young Brown, M.A., M.Div.

722 Meadow Ave

Mt Shasta CA 96067
530-926-0986
MollyYoungBrown.com
PsychosynthesisPress.com

[Amy Sugeno]

Hi Dave and all,

I'm really grateful you shared your thoughts and perspectives. What you say makes a lot of sense to me. It makes intuitive sense to me that we, like all animals, can be good at adapting to our circumstances, including new ways of speaking, thinking, and living. However, we don't always know where this will lead us, and we can't always anticipate the impacts. Who could have anticipated (back in the days these first were introduced) the incredibly significant effects of trains, cattle, fences, large-scale farming, pesticide use, etc. on our society today? So we start by adapting our language to whatever changes and adaptations are happening, without necessarily considering or understanding the implications. Step by step, we become more disconnected until we don't even know the scale of the impacts. 

I don't know how to manage all of this, other than to keep talking about it - keep using more accurate language - so that it's less normalized and hidden. Every time a problem is clearly explained, so that it's not hidden behind language, then we have a chance to contemplate, learn, and respond.

Thank you again for sharing your wonderful insights,

Amy

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Kind regards,
Deb 
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Dave Cohen, LCMHC, MA
down to earth counseling
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www.davecohencounseling.com
802-258-7013

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Email is not a secure means of communication; therefore, confidentiality cannot be assured. Please do not use e-mail to communicate regarding any protected mental health or medical concerns. This message is intended for use solely by the person or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain privileged and confidential information that is protected under state and federal law, and any unauthorized disclosure may result in legal penalties. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying or dissemination of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately to arrange for return or destruction of these documents.

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[Dave Cohen]

I'm totally with you on that Molly. The big picture solutions are vital. Part of my work in Vermont is to make bike transportation far more viable through advocacy and by introducing new bike technologies and designs like e-assist and cargo bikes. Check out vbikesolutions.org. I also work on better public transit options.

I guess what I wrote was not to say what any of us should or should not do individually, but more to recognize how what we do has a profound impact on us. And seen from a larger communal and sociological stance, the ways in which we move our bodies on this earth has a vast psychological (and ecopsychological) impact on how we collectively understand our landscape and our place in the world. I see this in the people I work with in my practice and certainly in myself and my family and friends. I believe the extreme power of automobility (jet travel included) colonizes parts of us in a very similar process to how it colonizes our land, air, water, sound and scentscapes, and our towns and cities. Sometimes it's very obvious, but in many ways it goes entirely unrecognized and this is what I've largely devoted myself to within our field. 

One interesting connection to this that I found is that the word "metaphor" is derived from the Greek metapherō which means "to carry over." Coincidentally, that's the exact root meaning of the word "transportation." I think there's a little riddle there that I think is an essential piece to our work in ecopsychology and ecotherapy.Love to hear any thoughts about that. 

BTW, the Holos Ecopsychology Conference sounds terrific. Love to see something like that happen in my neck o' the woods.

[Molly Brown]

Well said, Amy!  Thanks!

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Kind regards,
Deb 
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E: greenso...@gmail.com
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Dave Cohen, LCMHC, MA
down to earth counseling
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www.davecohencounseling.com
802-258-7013

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Email is not a secure means of communication; therefore, confidentiality cannot be assured. Please do not use e-mail to communicate regarding any protected mental health or medical concerns. This message is intended for use solely by the person or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain privileged and confidential information that is protected under state and federal law, and any unauthorized disclosure may result in legal penalties. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying or dissemination of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately to arrange for return or destruction of these documents.

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[Deborah Punton]

Thanks for replies, many thoughts around what you have all said. 

Regards, Deb