Narrative & Community Workers Needed to Story a Life-Sustaining Future
Team of Curators: Jenny Freeman, Merle Conyer & Akansha Vaswani
I used to think that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy…to deal with those, we need a spiritual and cultural transformation –and we scientists don’t know how to do that. Gus Speth
What if WE do? Narrative therapists are ideally placed to engage community and clients in transformational responses to the crises and stunning opportunities of these wild times, which deserve creative courage. We, you and me, and our community can contribute to that transformation, through our circles…those whose lives we touch and are touched by. What counter-stories, what liberative narratives, what visions of possibility can we offer?
Times are urgent, let us slow down….“A postactivist investigation might help us recover a sense of wonder and re-enchantment by pointing to ‘other places of power’. Perhaps this is its greatest gift: hacking through habitual patterns of perception and engagement to reorient attention to other sites of potentialities bubbling from the chemical landscapes of the Anthropocene. Bayo Akomolafe
Can we breathe deep, resist the disconnected extractive culture’s trance of ‘business as usual’ and respond to this call with curiosity and with fierce love and gratitude for our Earth?
Narrative and Community Work Resources: In response to Earth’s Environmental Crisis
“Considering ourselves as ‘citizen therapists,’ as part of a ‘global citizen’s movement’, how do we step outside of the box, beyond ‘business as usual’ practices, to invite awareness and potentials for engagement? What might narrative therapy including collective narrative practice offer? How can we come together in positive community, tuned into our natural surroundings, as we respond to questions about our relationship– personally and professionally–to these wild times. Each of us have stirrings and unique gifts to offer. What are we called to?” Jenny Freeman
- Greed does not have to define our relationship to the land – Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Ally vs. Co-Conspirator: What it means to be an Abolitionist Teacher
- Racism is killing the planet – Sierra Club
- Is Racism the REAL Reason for Our Climate Inaction? -Zhiwa Woodbury
- We Do: Chief Caleen Sisk & the Network of Indigenous Women
- Mary Annaïse Heglar to Join Earth Institute as Writer-in-Residence
- The Seventh Story: Counter-stories to The Big Six (a Francophone gathering of coaches and therapists working with narrative ideas)
- Climate Change, Mental Health and Collective Action: An Interview (Akansha Vaswani with Jennifer Freeman)
- Psychotherapy Networker Blog with Jenny Freeman
- Narrative therapist, writer and activist Merle Conyer interviewed by Nicole Gruel
- Supporting regenerative activism” group with Merle Conyer in Australia (Youtube video and further description are in the EECO Playlist):
- Questions for our Times
- The Rise of Eco-Anxiety by Lauren Docket (P
sychotherapy Networker) - Taking Care to Change Trajectory: Exploring an integrated process of Collective Narrative Practices and Strategic Sustainable Development Masters Thesis
- Eco-Narrative Practices: Re-Storying Our Relationship with the Earth by Ken MacLeod (End of Year Project Paper)
Resources for Our Envisionment and Activism
Related Collabs
-
February 21, 2021 Collab Salon: Community-based Practices as Response to Earth’s Environmental Crisis and Opportunity
The environmental crisis is increasingly showing up in our neighbourhoods through severe weather events, struggling ecosystems, and the coronavirus pandemic.…
View Details -
March 29, 2020 SPECIAL Collab Salon: Together Enduring COVID-19
This FREE Together Enduring Covid-19 Special Collab was a time for people in our community around the world to get…
View Details -
February 16, 2020 Collab Salon: Narrative Ideas for Inspired Responses to Earth’s Environmental Crisis
What do narrative approaches have to offer these wild, uncertain times? How can we contribute? Can ceremonial and community practices…
View Details
Add Your Contributions!
Do you have something to contribute?
We’ve made it easy with an online form where you can provide us with your text and media files including images, video, PDFs, and links. We look forward to hearing from you and doing our best to add as many contributions as we can to this rich resource! Please remember to honor confidentiality and to ensure permission.