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Keynote speakers included Steve Chase, Ph.D., Sarah Conn, Ph.D., and Allen Kanner, Ph.D.
 

Friday

Sarah Conn, Ph.D.
As psychologists in these times, we are called to expand our view, to look at both individual and ecological distress within the context of distorted relationships not just at the intrapersonal level (within humans) or the interpersonal level (among humans) but also at the level of "interbeing" (between humans and the non-human world).  The perspective of ecopsychology offers a view of sustainable relations at all levels through the development of ecological consciousness.

Sarah Conn, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a private practice in Arlington, MA.  Dr. Conn and her husband, Lane K. Conn, Ph.D., are founders of the Ecopsychology Institute.  For twenty years, Dr. Conn was a Lecturer on Psychology at the Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital.  The Conns currently teach "Sustainable Design as a Way of Thinking," at The Boston Architectural College.   Dr. Conn has written "When the Earth Hurts, Who Responds?: Self, Responsibility and Psychotherapy," in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind; "Living in the Earth: Ecopsychology, Health and Psychotherapy," Journal of Humanistic Psychology; and appears in the 1996 video Ecopsychology.  Drs. Sarah and Lane Conn have co-authored "Ecopsychology and Psychotherapy Within the Larger Context," Gestalt Review.

Saturday:

Allen Kanner, Ph.D.
Marketing to children has grown to such an extent in recent decades that it is now redefining childhood, harming children in an astounding number of ways, and subtly but effectively preparing children to be whole-hearted supporters of global capitalism. In response to these major cultural developments, psychology has been mostly silent, not daring to criticize America’s economic system. If the silence was broken, what might psychologists find themselves saying – and doing?

Allen D. Kanner, Ph.D., is an activist, author, and child and family psychologist who has been fighting the commercialization of childhood since the early 1990s.  He is co-editor of Psychology and Consumer Psychology: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World and Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, and is a founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.  In 1997, Utne Reader recognized him as one of the nations leading psychotherapist activists.  He also acted as a consultant to the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Advertising and Children.

Creative Maladjustment: Activism as a Way to Heal Self, Society, and Planet (12:00-1:30 p.m.)
Steve Chase, Ph.D.
What if creating an ecologically sustainable society will require the growth of social movements even more powerful than Gandhi’s Independence Movement in India or the US Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s? If so, we will have to find ways to overcome the learned helplessness that afflicts large segments of the world’s people. What can psychology and mental health professionals bring to this task? How can we foster creative activism that can help heal self, society, and the planet?

Steve Chase, Ph.D. is the founder and director of the Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program at Antioch University New England.  He teaches courses in environmental activism, organizing social movements and campaigns, organizational leadership, and environmental justice.  Chase is the editor of Defending the Earth: A Dialogue Between Murray Bookchin and Dave Foreman and has published several articles, including "Changing the Nature of Environmental Studies: Teaching Environmental Justice to 'Mainstream' Students."  He also edits "The Well-Trained Activist" blog and hosts a community radio series called "Make Your Vote Count."

About the Conference   |   Program & Presenters   |   Brochure