Exploring human and societal connection to the climate crisis through the lens of systemic
theory Beki Brain
An individual personal connection – my own story
2016 was quite the year for me; I turned 30, qualifi ed as a systemic psychotherapist, got married, embarked on a year-long global honeymoon, and broke my leg seven weeks into the trip for good measure! A whirlwind of a year fi lled with deadlines, planning and stress alongside the momentous milestones. In contrast, 2017 was very diff erent. With
nine months of it spent exploring, there was much more time available to me to take stock, refl ect and connect with the world around me in a way I realised I hadn’t done for many years. I wrote both a handwritten personal journal and an online blog during the trip, initially just to document and share the journey. These soon became therapeutic tools – a way to come to understand and make meaning from my experiences. As I have told people since returning to
‘reality’, I set off on the “Honey Year” with a huge amount of expectation. As regards experience, it didn’t disappoint, but the experience was very diff erent to what I’d initially hoped for and envisioned. The trip transpired, in so many ways, to be both the best thing I’d ever done, and in so many other ways completely break my heart; callously stripping me of everything I thought I knew, everything that made me safe. In twelve months, we experienced
awe, beauty and devastation in equal measure. The systemic psychotherapy MSc had certainly been an eye (and a mind) opener, but the year of travel became the steepest learning curve of my life to date. My relationship with a travel bucket list changed from ticking off places to see before I die, to a longing to see and appreciate places before they’re gone. To leave home with dreams so big that they’re scary is one thing. To return not knowing
Context 170, August 2020
what our dreams of the future even looked like anymore was scarier.
When the personal and professional meet
In truth, the journey has continued long
past the honey year itself, and has included disillusionment and depression, alongside adaptation and transformation. When I noticed the UKCP were holding a conference in October 2019 (Sleepwalking into the Anthropocene; the New Age of Anxiety), I knew I needed to attend. My personal experience had not yet crossed paths with my professional life, but I had a strong sense that systemic psychotherapy in particular has much to off er our current predicament.
What next? And, as seems to be the way of things,
one thing has led to another. Enthused and energised by the conference, I thought “what next?” Next, I presented to the West
Midlands AFT branch at the beginning of the year; providing context about the climate crisis, feeding back from the conference, and initiating discussion about what the climate crisis means for us as systemic psychotherapists (both personally and professionally), discussion about how we wish to position ourselves in relation to ‘eco-anxiety’, how we may be able to non-violently resist climate crisis inaction as a profession, as well as thinking about what we may wish to implement at branch level from a sustainability perspective. Soon after delivering the presentation
and provoking such enthusing discussions, I noticed the front cover of the February issue of Context featured the plight of the koala bear caught in the Australian bush fi res, alongside Brian Cade’s editorial. I wondered what might follow my presentation to the West Midlands branch, and this appears to be it! The presentation was feedback and discussion heavy and theory light. This time,
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Exploring human and societal connection to the climate crisis through the lens of systemic theory
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