As the world confronts one existential crisis after another, we need to adapt to the changes happening all around us. How can we become more resilient and adaptable in order to future proof our lives with the necessary strength, buoyancy and flexibility in dealing with difficulties and challenges to come?
To move forward from a place of perplexity, chaos and paralysis towards a place of hope, confidence and engagement, requires us to find a clear and steady path and a strong sense of direction and purpose. How can we find the necessary inspiration to reaffirm our human freedom when all seems doom laden and difficult? And how can we not just repair but improve the structures of our broken world? What does a better world look like?
This talk will propose a philosophical perspective to help us think more creatively about the challenges we are facing together.
This event is included in a series of seminars organised in collaboration with the Therapy and Social Change Network.
Course Content
Presenter
Emmy van Deurzen is a professor of Psychology and Psychotherapy with 18 books to her name, several of which have been translated into a dozen languages. She is the Co-Founder and Principal of the Existential Academy, where she also runs post graduate courses through the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in partnership with Middlesex University and her private practice.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, she lived, studied, and worked in France before settling in the UK in 1977. Emmy has been instrumental in founding or cofounding numerous organizations, including the Society for Existential Analysis, the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe and the World Confederation of Existential Therapy. She has helped people in facing their life problems and suffering for nearly half a century.
Amongst her books are the bestsellers Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice (3d edition 2012), Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness (Sage, 2009), Everyday Mysteries (2nd edition Routledge, 2010) and Paradox and Passion (2nd edition, Wiley, 2015). Her book Rising from Existential Crisis was published with PCCS books in 2021. She is currently writing a book on Existential Freedom for Penguin.
The Therapy and Social Change (TaSC) Network is a broad affiliation of people interested in exploring the interface between therapeutic ideas and practices and social justice perspectives and actions. We are interested both in the ways that counselling and psychotherapy can be practiced with social justice concerns in mind (for instance, tackling unconscious biases in the consulting room), and also in the ways that therapeutic principles and practices can be extended out to the wider social realm (for instance, developing social and emotional literacy in schools).
