““Expanding the play-range from everyday reality to cosmic consciousness enriches, nourishes and sustains our capacity for wonder.””
Contemplative, Arts-based Eco-therapy
Online Training Intensives beginning October 2021
with Markus Scott-Alexander, PhD
A Practitioner Certificate Program
From Markus…
In the 1990’s, I began offering nature-based expressive arts workshops and training in such environments as the woodlands of upstate New York, Montana’s Glacier Mountains, Anna Maria Island and at the ocean on Cape Cod. I was combining my love of being in nature with the enjoyment that comes from being in the studio. The synergy of these complimentary arenas for healing has continued to grow in me.
Beginning in October 2021, I will be offering a new online course. It will be a certificate program in eco-therapy for those who are new to my work, as well as for those who have already studied with me in another frame.
This arts-based approach to eco-therapy will have a rhythm. We will meet five hours a day, for three days, once a month for five months. Between monthly intensives, participants will have ‘assignments’ in learning several ways to take a client or community through an experience of exploration, discovery and reconfiguration. Using low skill/high sensitivity methods, participants will employ photography, writing, painting and other modalities, interfacing with their own ways of exploring nature in the woods, the mountains, at the ocean, or wherever they know a peaceful heart.
Inspired by your inquisitive researcher’s mind, I invite you to join me in this time of imagination and focus as we explore how to take others through experiences of arts-based eco-therapy. In this way, we can deepen and enrich whatever work each of us is doing, while we deepen our connection to each other and to this magical planet.
The Course
Introduction: This is a phenomenologically informed eco-therapy training which continually asks the question, “What are you noticing?” It is based on an evolving awareness of what is occurring within us, between us and around us, that in turn sustains well-being and invites full presence.
Philosophy: Awareness is cultivated. The more our senses are awakened, the more we can sustain our capacity to move with conscious awareness. In a resource-oriented approach, we get to access our profound ability to respond creatively to what is occurring. Through extraordinary awareness we can live our everyday lives in an unordinary way, in ongoing heightened awareness.
Theory: Taking risks is part of fulfilling our potential. The chances of stepping into newness increase when our ability to respond to the moment is clear and immediate. This therapy offers useful ways for our clients, individual or groups, to reconfigure their worlds based on new evidence of creative responsiveness. What is key is learning how to deconstruct that which does not nurture. Abandoning false narratives is a start.
Practice: Through discourse and creative practice, online classes will bring participants into a growing sense of how to care for inner and outer development. We will explore how our nature and the nature around us offer us substantial hints for how to return to what precedes our distortions. Participants will cultivate subtlety of thought and action that lead to a greater ability to live with spontaneity and intelligence in the world and more flow in our kind engagement with the planet.
When: We will meet monthly via Zoom for five, three-day intensives, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on:
October 19 to 21, 2021
November 9 to 11, 2021
December 14 to 16, 2021
January 11 to 13, 2022
February 8 to 10, 2022
Each class will be from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM Mountain Standard Time.
Tuition: $1,575 CAN (includes 5% GST) for all five intensives.
Partial scholarships and payment plans are available. Students can receive continuing education credits.
Who: Markus Scott-Alexander, PhD is a pioneer in the field of arts-based phenomenological eco-therapy education. His teaching explores how intimate cultivation of kind engagement with our inner and outer life, increases our ability to intelligently respond to all challenges. The foundation of his education is in the contemplative and expressive arts and has taught internationally for over three decades.
To apply: Email markus@worldartsorg.com and briefly state your background, as well as your current interests, and any questions you may have. All applicants will be interviewed via Zoom.
