As an accompanying event to Jennifer Abbott’s film The Magnitude of All Things, psychologist and psychotherapist Verena Heidenreich offered a workshop at the Vorkshochschule Freiburg on December 4th as part of the VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY project.

The workshop “Raus aus Ohnmacht und Hilfloskeit – Rein ins Symbiozän” (“Leaving behind powerlessness and helplessness – towards the Symbiocene”) took place with over 20 participants in the theater hall of our cooperation partner, the Volkshochschule Freiburg. The aim of the workshop was to give space to feelings such as powerlessness, fear and helplessness in the face of the climate crisis and to develop new perspectives for action.

The term “Symbiocene” was coined by Australian sustainability researcher and environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht and represents a future era in which life is determined by cooperation and mutual benefit. Through interactive exercises, reflections and creative approaches, ways were shown how to develop emotional competence to better deal with the feelings evoked by the climate crisis, such as fear or sadness. The workshop offered a platform to explore such feelings and options for action and to gain courage for sustainable change.

VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY is an inter- and transdisciplinary research project funded by the Innovation Sustainability Campus (ICN), located at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Non-university cooperation partners include Harmonie Kino, the Volkshochschule Freiburg and Greenmotions. The Freiburg environmental mayor Christine Buchheit has take on the patronage of the project.