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Join us on October 15th from 12-1:15pm ET for a Climate News Support Circle for a space to process recent climate news and explore feelings that arise about it.
The United Nations recently released a report sharing that within the next few years Earth will cross the 1.5 degree safe temperature threshold agreed upon by the world in the 2015 Paris climate accord. Rather than throwing our hands up in despair, the recommendation is to get busy with ways to bring the global temperature back down below 1.5 degrees. That will require a monumental mobilization of humanity.
Passing this dangerous threshold and the implications for the needed mobilization can bring up a lot of feelings. We invite you to read this article (or another article of your choosing) in advance and join us for a Climate News Support Circle to process what this news brings up for you.
This session will draw upon tools and practices from the Work That Reconnects and also Parts Work* and will be facilitated by Aravinda Ananda and Joanna Mallary.
*Parts Work is a therapeutic approach based on the idea that all people have different “parts” of their psyches - for example, an inner critic, a worried part, a part that numbs or distracts from intense feelings, a part that wants to work as hard as it can to eliminate injustice or save the world from climate catastrophe, etc. Rather than seeing these feelings as problems to get rid of, Parts Work helps people relate to their parts with curiosity and compassion. It invites us to dialogue with our parts and learn how they are trying to protect us from pain. In the context of activism and the metacrisis, parts work can help people sit with intense emotions like grief, fear, helplessness, guilt or burnout without becoming consumed by them. By approaching them with curiosity, we gain clarity and new perspectives and can engage with climate issues or our daily lives in a more grounded, sustainable way.
About the facilitators:
Aravinda Ananda (she or they) is a social ecologist living and working on Massachusett land. She is passionate about supporting humans to heal their relationship with the web of life and contribute in more life affirming and life-sustaining ways. She has been facilitating the Work That Reconnects since 2011 and deeply appreciates the tools and support this body of work offers for supporting people to face the crises of these times and move forward in empowered action. She recently co-authored the book Coming Together in The Great Turning: Collective Liberation and Work That Reconnects.
Joanna Mallary is a postdoctoral therapist specializing in climate psychology and nature-based therapy. She was trained as a Climate Cafe facilitator by the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America and attended Interhelp’s 6th Earth Leadership Cohort to learn to incorporate Joanna Macy’s teachings into her work. She uses Parts Work and somatic approaches to help people find new ways of experiencing and relating to their emotions about the climate and metacrises.