Climate Community

At this time, most people have acknowledged the reality that we are currently experiencing a climate emergency. Perhaps you have similar experiences to us in navigating and being confronted by the fear, grief, rage, numbness and despair surrounding the lack of climate action by our global leaders on almost a daily basis.

We all need spaces to hold and be held in our emotional experience of our prolonged climate emergency. Listening to our own and others’ dynamic emotional experiences allows us to realise the adaptiveness and the transformational power of our fear, helplessness, frustration and hope, on this ever evolving journey. These spaces are a much needed medicine that can support us through this complex time and move us from disconnection to deep connection with ourselves and the reality of the times we live in. As facilitators, we have experienced the power and potency of  being held within this work through climate community groups, including the Work that Reconnects, Deep Ecology and Psychology for a Safe Climate. 

Climate Community:

The purpose of our Climate Community workshops is to offer continuity of care for physical, emotional and spiritual support in relation to the climate emergency, a few times a year, for people living in Geelong and the Surf Coast.

We believe that moving and supporting the body is an integral but too commonly overlooked component of integrating our experiences of climate distress. Alongside the emotional support of connecting verbally with others, we use various yoga and embodiment practices  in maintaining our own emotional health during this time of global reckoning and feel able to share these with others.

Whether you are immobilised by the terror of the climate emergency, or burnt out by years of frontline activism, we invite you to this workshop to connect and be held by other people that care about our world and our collective future as much as you do.

We are co-facilitating a three hour Climate Community workshop on the 21st of January from 10:30AM. This will include an orientation to our time together, trauma-sensitive yoga, a chance to express your current emotional experience of the climate emergency and have it witnessed, then another embodiment practice before laying down and allowing time to integrate our personal and collective experience of "the work that reconnects".

The benefits of being in spaces such as this and doing this work:

• Being witnessed in your emotional experience of the climate emergency
• Have the opportunity to voice and embody the emotions that come up for you around the climate emergency
• Build strategies to manage and move through these emotions
• Experience a felt sense of our innate ecological connectedness
• Move through embodiment practices and integrate emotions in body
• Be around like minded people and community

Many of the participants that have attended similar workshops to this one with us have reflected that they leave feeling lighter and more grounded, having not been aware of how much unconscious grief or other emotions about the climate emergency they were holding in their bodies. We have received deep gratitude from past participants who said these spaces were much needed for them and have woken up a part of them that was asleep or numbed for some time. We are deeply passionate about this work and are so excited about sharing this with our community.

Some of the most renowned Deep Ecology teachers believe that if we numb the grief we feel for the world and do not allow space for it in our world then we also numb our ability to love the world and life in its fullest. For grief and love are different sides of the same coin. This workshop is a space where you can open up and express whatever is alive in you around the climate crisis and perhaps in turn will breathe life back into parts of the magic of life that is waiting on the other side.

“The sorrow, grief and rage you feel is a measure of your humanity and your evolutionary maturity. As your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal” ~ Joanna Macy

About the facilitators:

Karina Donkers - Karina is a social worker, specialising in green social work focusing on the inequitable impacts of climate change, building climate resilient communities, creating communities of change and the impacts climate change has on our mental health and wellbeing.  Karina has gone on to do various training in deep ecology and nature connection, including being trained by Joanna Macy herself in the Work that Reconnects. Karina is a yoga teacher, meditation teacher, trained in massage and various embodiment modalities and loves bringing modalities together to support people through the climate emergency. Karina is a passionate activist who has been active in the field for over 16 years and has found this work incredibly supportive in her own personal growth and ability to stay active and engaged in this world.

Meg Odgers - Meg is a Clinical Psychologist and Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Teacher, who is focused on the healing and recovery from trauma through somatic modalities. Meg is currently completing her Somatic Experiencing training and recently became certified as a Climate Aware Practitioner with Psychology for a Safe Climate. Meg loves working at the intersection of somatic psychology, yoga and activism in all its forms; social, political, animal, climate and spiritual. For Meg, offering regular Climate Community workshops is an expression of yoga-off-the-mat. These workshops are offered with the intention of contributing in some way to the happiness and freedom of all.

About the workshop:

In the spirit of trauma-sensitive yoga and practice, great diligence is given to ensuring the safest possible environment. Physically, this means the workshop will start on time (so aim to arrive around 5-10 minutes early), the door will be locked from the inside (so no one can come into the studio but you can get out if you wish to leave early) and you will not be touched during any of the practices. Emotionally, this means we allow ample time to get oriented to the space and people we are sharing it with, as well as clear emotional boundaries on how to support each other including withholding advice and the urge to "fix" other people’s “problems” for them.

We have made this offering available on a sliding scale:

Concession - $80

Standard - $100

Supporter - $120

*No formal concession needed to purchase course at the concession rate

If you are feeling the call to be a part of this, book now as we only have 10 spots available for this workshop. To register, enter how much you would like to pay below, complete your payment via bank transfer and then click "place order" to complete your registration.

Those who attend will need a mat, a bolster and a blanket. You are welcome to bring all of these from home or borrow ours at the studio. You do not need to wear "yoga clothes", just wear whatever you will be most comfortable in.

There will not be a formal break during this three hour workshop but you will be able to take as many breaks as you need. There is filtered water and herbal tea available at the studio, but please feel free to bring your own.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

From our hearts to yours,

Karina and Meg