Summer Newsletter 2021

As the days lengthened, as trousers were swapped for shorts, and as many of us set off to find coasts and fields to spend long weekends beside, one euphoric truth parted from the lips of everyone in Ireland: Summer was here. The transition between Spring and Summer is a difficult one to mark. Can it be measured in the amount of daily rainfall, or perhaps by the hours of the day? Maybe by the verdance of the landscapes, as hungry plant life devours the plentiful sunlight and celebrates the warmth with growth. Or perhaps by the plentitude of the animals, the new broods and litters enriching the soundscape of the wilderness, that we might have been lucky enough to encounter during our expeditions to their homes. Whenever it began, Summer is a time to celebrate in the natural world. On warm nights, bats take to the darkened skies and sing their soprano melodies during their hunts. Owls, silent and graceful, watch the still grasses for signs of a meal. Foxes, shrews, and hedgehogs all bask in the heat of the day and wait for evening for their feast. And everywhere, local birds form a chorus beside their migratory counterparts and proclaim their joy.

Every ecosystem is an artwork, and yet in summer they find time for expression. Flowers open and enchant a legion of insects into playing their part in pollination. The seas brim with blooms of seaweed and schools of fish. And we, too, are called to take a part in the world as we bask in the light.

This year, summer took on an additional meaning. As restrictions eased, we found each other again. As all life on our island began to flourish, so too did we find our social lives once again enriched by the company of familiar faces aged by an uncertain year. We were welcomed back into old encounters made novel: the clammer of pubtalk, the sight of herds of us congregating in parks and beside the water, and that fond feeling of being a part of the world after so long feeling apart from it. We at EEAI hope that you all have found time to celebrate and rejuvenate this summer.

And yet, this summer has followed a trend so often outlined in articles and in news stories. Although the days never seem to end, they have brought with them dangerous heat waves. All over the northern hemisphere, these have presented a threat to both human life and wildlife. Wildfires that darken the skies with smoke and turn dried landscapes into charred places have become all too common. And intense storms have induced severe flooding with their deluges. All this, alongside the continued degradation of ecosystems, have endeared summer with a new urgency.

In an era of climate crisis, the work of EEAI members is more important than ever. As we take time to return to our roots between the Oaks and Beech trees, we find renewed vigor, and commit ourselves to mending the chasm between urban and natural. As we visit the meeting between the sea and the land, we find in the azure vastness of the ocean a calmness, and in its waves a reminder that fluidity is a powerful and healing force. In blue skies we find space to take a breath, and even in campfires we find energy to go forth and continue our work. Just as the world gives us life and the will to act, so too do our members at EEAI allow us to connect practitioners and use our knowledge of ecopsychology and ecotherapy to connect people with nature. It is work we do, and will continue to do, with pride.

Yours sincerely and respectfully,
The EEAI Team. 

Throughout the past few months, the EEAI has been engaging in a listening process with a small group comprising members and professional members. As described in the original call out, the aim is to look at the structure and aims of EEAI and to work together to shape an organisation that fits our desired purpose. This is being done by creating a listening process with a view towards answering the following questions:

o   What are our desired outcomes as a group?

o   How will we achieve these?

o   Who will benefit from these outcomes?

o   Where will the benefits be felt?

o   What is success for us and how do we know we are heading in that direction?

Building sustainable communities has never been more urgent and we warmly welcome a spirit of listening, dialogue and openness to our living world and to each over the Summer period. As this process is still unfolding and will continue into September, we are also still warmly welcoming input from our members and professional members on the above questions; we want this organisation to represent all of you, our members, as well as it possibly can!

We are delighted to announce Joanne Hanrahan’s latest CPD training dates.  Joanne’s courses have proven very popular over the last year.  Thrilled to be meeting groups in person again, Joanne will run her outdoor Experiential Process and Skills workshop for the third time on Sunday August 29^th.  This full day workshop will be held outdoors in The Glen, Ennistymon Co. Clare.  Participants will have time to explore their own process in the natural world, regulate their nervous systems, enjoy a self-care day, meet like mindedothers and experience something of potentially working outdoors with clients.  With a max of 10 participants early booking is recommended.

For more details check:
https://www.joannehanrahan.ie/outdoor-experiential-training

Joanne’s second offering is her 3 day online (15 hr CPD) Outdoor therapy training.  Over three Sundays in September (from 8:30am to 2:30pm on 12^th, 19^th and 26^th) you can join Joanne for a highly interactive learning experience.  This popular workshop has been run four times previously and has gained a lot of interest from mental health and education professionals who wish to integrate nature more into their work.  The training includes zoom presentation on theory and clinical practice, group discussion, and lots of outdoor exercises completed in participants’ own gardens/outdoor spaces and then processed together.  Again places are limited to 10 and more details can be found on:

https://www.joannehanrahan.ie/outdoor-psychotherapy-training

EEAI member Aidan Ring collaboration with visual artist Letizia Lopreiato: 

We are delighted to give a shout out to the work of one of our longest serving members, Aidan Ring who is an environmental activist and researcher but also a fire performer. He is collaborating on a photo-documentary project with his long-time friend and colleague, the visual-poet artist and film photographer Letizia Lopreiato. Lopreiato’s photo-documentary series Sonia’s Trees explores the journey of Sonia McGuirk, Clare-based organic farmer and mother of two children who moved to Clare from Dublin in 2016 after the birth of her son Charlie (Sonia is a friend of both the artist and EEAI member Aidan). During this multi-location event, Aidan will use his expertise in Ecopsychology and Environmental Psychology to contribute to panel discussions, both online and in-person, and is using his performance experience to deliver an environmentally themed circus and flow show to explore the artists’ material using a different format. An excerpt from the event description, on the – Visual Artists Ireland page, reads –

‘This body of work covers the life-changing series of events that occurred over the past three years in the life of one of the artist’s dearest friends from Dublin, Sonia McGuirk. She is a single mother who, with her two kids, relocated from the city of Dublin to the West of Ireland, and later Waterford, looking for a more sustainable and connected lifestyle for herself and her family. This creative documentary was shot on 35mm film in both BW and colour, and on Super 8 moving image film, between these two locations, over the past three and half years.’

For more information about upcoming events and exhibitions, click here

To continue this arboreal theme, please enjoy this exploration of the magic and value of trees as part of a series, Gifts from the Natural World, written by Aidan Ring (mentioned above in relation to the Sonia’s Trees project).

Nature’s Houses

By Aidan Ring

Gifts from the Natural Word |  This edition’s research contribution is a re-post of an article written in early 2019 by Aidan Ring as part of his series entitled Gifts from the Natural World.  Aidan is our Newsletter and Social Media Coordinator and our Webmaster

Trees are magnificent

A friend of mine once remarked to me that ‘trees are nature’s houses’. As a fact, this is indisputable; the older and larger trees in forests can house thousands of species of plants, animals and insects. As a metaphor, it works perfectly; where we human beings make our homes in buildings made of concrete which will, one day, fall, the animals inhabiting the world’s forests make their homes in trees which will, one day, fall. However, it is well to remember that there was once a time when trees were our homes too. And the difference between our old homes and our new homes? The old ones are alive. This is why they will continue. Buildings are an invention of very recent human history. Before cities, there were trees. And after cities, there will be trees. In fact, the oldest tree in the world, a Bristlecone Pine on the east coast of North America, has been growing for over 5,000 years, since 3000BC. It was around this time that the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities were first being constructed by our ancient forebears. Think of how many generations of human beings have come and gone in the meantime! There are living trees on Earth which pre-date recorded history, pre-date writing itself! Very few human beings will ever have the privilege of watching the entire life cycle of a tree, myself, at 25 years old, included. However, I can imagine few more inspiring privileges.

Indeed we have much to learn from the natural world about growth, patience and the nature of change. Although they are biologically engineered to fulfill one task, (that of growing as high as possible) they pursue this task with a passion! In our modern world of impatience and instantaneous gratification, the idea of engaging in one project for your whole life is so alien. And with trees, the more slowly they grow, the more they win. The really successful ones dedicate their early lives to putting down deep roots and growing outwards rather than upwards. With each year that passes, they grow an extra ring which contributes to the creation of the whole plant; as they grow, they transcend each individual ring but also integrate it. In Human Psychology, there is a similar process of integrating layers of consciousness (first the egocentric, then the ethnocentric and then the world-centric layer) into your psyche as you grow and mature. This is known as Spiral Dynamics (Beck & Cowan, 2014) and this comprehensive framework represents the synthesis of all theories of Developmental Psychology which span across the entire life. It seems that Dendrochronologists and Developmental Psychologists have much to discuss!