Join Professor Emily Zobel Marshall and Imelda McCarthy for an ecosystemic psychotherapy workshop, facilitated by Professor Hannah Sherbersky and Roger Duncan on 23^rd April 2026.

Emily Zobel Marshall will lead a session on Contested Landscapes: Decolonising the Outdoors in Poetry and Motion. It will explore and ask what it means to try and decolonise both the literary and physical landscapes of the UK and examine the vital role that walking groups for people of colour play in the lives of Black and brown hikers. Through poetry exercises it will ask participants to creatively respond to and consider the healing power of the natural world and our complex contemporary relationship with it.

Imelda McCarthy will then lead a session on Ecosystemic Epistemologies: Developing ways of seeing, thinking, and practicing beyond binaries and deconstructing separations while co-constructing connections and communities of love. There will then be an interview-style discussion between Imelda & the programme leads Hannah & Roger with Q&A afterwards.

This workshop is held online via Zoom on 23^rd April 2026 between 09:30am and 16:30pm. A place on the workshop will cost £125 per person. You can book a place on this workshop by following this link

Collaborators and Trainers

Professor Emily Zobel Marshall is a Professor of Postcolonial Literature at Leeds Beckett University and a qualified Mountain Leader. She specialises in African Diaspora folklore, particularly trickster figures, and has authored key works including Anansi’s Journey (2012) and American Trickster (2019). She founded a Caribbean Carnival Cultures research network and consults on decolonial methodologies for arts and education organisations. Emily is Co-Chair of the David Oluwale Memorial Association, advocating against racism and homelessness, and contributes to media discussions on race. A published poet, her collections Bath of Herbs (2023) and Other Wild (2025) explore identity, landscape, and hybridity.

Dr Imelda McCarthy is a retired academic from University College Dublin and an internationally recognised practitioner, teacher and writer in Systemic Family Therapy, spirituality, and Ecosystemic practice. A pioneer of the systemic field in Ireland, she co-developed the Fifth Province Approach and has taught in 29 countries, with work translated into nine languages. She has served on editorial boards of leading journals worldwide, and her 2001 article is widely recognised as highly influential in diversity and social justice. Honoured with an international Festschrift, she continues contributing through Ariadne’s Thread and has led a meditation community for 27 years.

Professor Hannah Sherbersky is Director of the Systemic Portfolio and Deputy Director of Cedar (PGT Clinical Training) within the University of Exeter and past CEO of the UK Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (AFSP). Hannah is a family and systemic psychotherapist, supervisor and academic, and lectures and writes on a range of systemic ideas. She has an extensive background in psychotherapy, research and training, and an international profile as a systemic leader in the field.

Roger Duncan MSc is a Systemic Eco Psychotherapist and Systemic Supervisor, author and writer working in the NHS and in private practice. Roger has been involved in exploring nature-based practice and Eco Psychotherapy for more than 30 years and writes and lectures internationally on Eco Systemic approaches to nature and mental health. Roger and Hannah are co-programme leads for the new Eco-Systemic Psychotherapy Programme at the University.