British Gestalt Journal welcomes Gestalt psychotherapist Steffi Bednarek in leading the annual BGJ Seminar Day.
With Covid-19 we are experiencing how quickly we can enter uncharted territory and how vulnerable we are despite our technological advances. Climate science predicts that pandemics, extreme weather events and global challenges are going to increase in our lifetime. The collective pull towards ‘business as usual’ is very strong. But maybe the normality we are holding on to has been a toxic one all along.
What does it take to stay with the necessary derangement of the habitual ground that our time seems to be calling for? And what is the role of psychotherapists in a time of death of the collective familiar, a time when we can’t rely on old habits to get us out of trouble?
In order to fully be able to support others on this journey, we may need to attend to our own responses and our perhaps unexamined visions of the future. How do we participate in the collective amnesia and anaesthesia of our time?
This day provides a container for a small journey of exploration on how to do justice to a world that may need us to step into the biggest and largest version of ourselves. We ask what skills and resources we already have and what needs to be fostered in order for us to rise to the enormity that lies ahead. How can we be of service in a time when life around us is dying? Can we attend to something that transcends our own self interest?
Steffi’s work is informed by Gestalt Therapy, climate psychology, soul-centric perspectives, nature connection, deep ritual and grief work.
This gathering will include:
- creative writing in order to loosen the ground
- invitations for the body to inform a fuller knowing
- an engagement with the other-than-human world, listening for what may lie outside of our awareness
- small group work that invites us to learn from each other in inter-connected ways
- poetic imagination that courts the wilder aspects of our inter-being with the world
More Information
This online Seminar Day will take place using Zoom - the video web-conferencing service. Attendees will receive instructions on how to join the gathering upon General Admission ticket purchase and will need a computer/smartphone and internet connection to join.
British Gestalt Journal supports Trees for Life. For this event, we have provided the option to donate to the charity when you purchase your ticket. Please donate generously to help rewild the Scottish Highlands.
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Steffi Bednarek
Gestalt psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor, climate psychologist and somatic trauma therapist.
Steffi is an associate member of the Climate Psychology Alliance and has published on issues of psychotherapy, climate change and pre-traumatic trauma in several countries and contexts, including a BBC documentary and Resurgence Magazine.In her work Steffi draws on her Gestalt roots, her engagement with Climate Psychology and the soul-centric approach of her long-term mentor Francis Weller. Steffi has been involved with the 8 shields approach to nature connection and trained with the Animas Valley Institute. Time spent at Plum Village and Thich Nhat Hanh’s ideas of inter-being provide further grounding in her work and thinking.