Join renowned international guest speakers Bayo Akomolafe, Mary Jayne Rust, and Phoenix Smith for an Ecosystemic Psychotherapy workshop, facilitated by Professor Hannah Sherbersky and Roger Duncan on 22nd October 2026.

It is now impossible to ignore the fact, that the world is rapidly awakening to the full systemic impact of the emerging global ecological crisis, which is having a devastating effect on the ecosystems of the earth as well as human mental health and social stability.

The ecological crisis has coincided with a painful awakening to the legacy of the social and environmental destruction resulting from a colonial world view of nature and culture. These events now demand a radical and deep adaption of our world view. It is clear we are now facing not only an ecological break down, but also a narrative collapse, a breakdown in how to make sense of this process.

This course is an invitation to explore a radically reimagined ecological approach to psychotherapy for the task of supporting future generations to become generative, altruist, ecologically and socially integrated adults, in a world that’s lost its mind.

Bayo Akomolafe will be leading a workshop on Reimagining Nature and Mental Health. Mary-Jayne Rust will be leading a workshop on moving Towards an Ecopsychotherapy.

Phoenix Smith will be leading a workshop on When Systems Fall Apart: A Liberation Ecotherapy™ Framework to support Collective Action. As our social, health, and environmental systems face increasing challenges, what helps communities thrive? This talk introduces Liberation Ecotherapy™ as a framework for collective healing, resilience, and ecological connection, grounded in decades of public health and community care practice.

Mary-Jayne Rust is a psychotherapist with 40 years’ experience, trained in art therapy, feminist psychotherapy, and Jungian analysis. Inspired by journeys to Ladakh in the 1990s, she became a pioneer in ecopsychology, exploring its cultural, economic, and spiritual roots. Her books include Towards an Ecopsychotherapy (2019) and Vital Signs (2011). Passionate about wild swimming, she now lives in North London, working beside ancient woodland in her indoor and outdoor practice.

Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.), rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea and Kyah, the grateful life-partner to EJ, son and brother. He is a widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, self-styled ‘trans-public’ intellectual, essayist, and currently the Hubert Humphrey Distinguished Professor of American Studies in Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA (August 2025). Bayo is the host teacher at Dancing with Mountains, an educational consultation and the visionary founder of The Emergence Network, a planet-wide networking project and inquiry at the edges of the Anthropocene.

Phoenix Smith is a diviner and Elder Initiated in the Earth-honouring Lucumí Afro-Cuban tradition. They offer eco-spiritual mentorship grounded in 20+ years of community practice. She holds an MSW from Howard University, an Ecotherapy graduate certificate, and is training in EMDR. With 20+ years in U.S. public health managing HIV clinics and advancing health equity, she has practiced Ecotherapy since 2012 with a focus on collective care for BIPOC, LGBTQ, immigrant, and underserved communities. She created Liberation Ecotherapy®, rooted in healing justice, and founded the Alliance for Ecotherapy & Social Justice in 2020. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, NPR, and Harvard Medical School.

This workshop will be held online via Zoom on 22nd October 2026 from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

Places cost £125 per person. We also offer a concessionary rate of £100 for students and alumni.

You can book a place on this workshop by following this link.