This talk will be set against the context of how the UK is viewed from within and abroad, and what the realities are for people seeking asylum today's UK, who are living with ongoing powerlessness, poverty and fear of being returned to countries at war or in violent chaos. My talk will cover what is therapeutically possible in terms of work with asylum seekers within the limits imposed by the rules in today's UK. It will also consider how we can work safely and effectively with people from cultures other than our own, or who are suffering complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Follow-up discussion for attendees on 25th February

OPS members will be sent zoom details to attend the talk; non-members should contact Ruth McCalman at secretary@oxfordpsychotherapysociety.org.uk for details.

Climate-anxiety is increasingly being recognised as an understandable human response to the worrying news about the environment, both at home and from around the world. As our fears grow about environmental and climate change related problems it is sometimes overwhelming; what with the fires in Australia and the Amazon devastating the landscape and wildlife, flooding in Indonesia, melting glacial ice and in the Arctic ocean, as well as warming seas, rising sea levels, insect apocalypse and warnings of escalating extinction rates, it is hard to know how to respond emotionally to these unprecedented and unpredictable global catastrophes.

Perhaps, however, we should consider calling eco-anxiety something else - maybe eco-awareness or even eco-empathy - as feeling anxious may be the consequence of humanity increasingly waking up to the frightening changes to our world. The complex feelings evoked by increasing awareness are not just anxiety, though: people report feeling existential and planetary grief, hope and hopelessness, nihilism and despair. Conversations about climate change and climate-anxiety bring us face to face with our own feelings of vulnerability, fragility, hope and resilience; as well, of course, as our concerns about the planet. Navigating these complex times is perhaps the greatest challenge that humanity has yet faced, and psychology and psychotherapy undoubtedly have a central role to play in this.

This talk will explore the role that we need to take professionally in supporting ourselves, colleagues and our clients in navigating these unprecedented times. It will examine the part that uncertainty, ambivalence and attachment, inner and external relational worlds, the threat of collapse internally into despair, or a flight to hope, plays in our lives. We will look at the shadow of eco-anxiety and the archetypal images and dreams that clients are now bringing to the therapy room. We will examine how to create a safe enough container for unbearable feelings linked to the threats we see to the planet, other species and humanity, and we will look at the therapeutic opportunities and challenges we need to face in bringing our practice into the anthropocene.

Follow-up discussion for attendees on Monday 22nd March

OPS members will be sent zoom details to attend the talk; non-members should contact Ruth McCalman at secretary@oxfordpsychotherapysociety.org.uk for details.