STEFFI BEDNAREK
Climate Psychology Consultant, Educator and Speaker
Nurturing psychological wisdom and complexity thinking
BOOK
My book "Climate, Psychology and Change" will be published in the autumn. Fritjof Capra called it 'an important contribution to the climate debate', Satish Kumar said: "this is more than a book. It is a work of wisdom and radical ideas', Nora Bateson said that 'this beautiful book leaves nothing behind' and by Bill McKibben says 'this book proves that some of the finest minds in the world are thinking through the problems and arriving at powerful answers".
The context of 'hospicing' the familiar is set powerfully by Margaret Wheatley and Thomas Hübl's Forward introduces the idea that we live in a collective trauma field. Proceeds will go towards the support of trauma support in disaster zones.
I prepare leaders, teams and organisations to include the psychological dimension of climate change into their approach to change.
20 years of experience in depth psychology, complexity thinking and climate psychology inform my work. These lenses take us into layers that lie beyond the mere correction of what is visible and measurable on the surface and address the conditions that hold a problem in place.
What looks like change is often the system changing enough in order to be able to stay the same. Depth psychology and complexity thinking bring necessary derangement to habitual patterns of thinking in order for things to come out re-arranged, whilst also nurturing resilient and emotionally mature responses in urgent and uncertain times.
Responsive leadership in complex systems is dependent on our familiarity with our own complexity and our ability to stay with it.
Services
I facilitate collaborative leadership development, give Keynotes, run masterclasses deliver group and individual coaching and facilitate
Warm Data Labs
Fostering Mature Psychological Responses
I support organisations, teams and individuals to understand the complex mental-health impacts of climate change and help them to engage with difficult truths.
My work supports resilience, builds frameworks of care and prepares people and organisations to tolerate anxiety and uncertainty without collapsing into reactivity or numbing.
I advise on climate distress, climate anxiety, organisational trauma, cognitive dissonance and coping strategies that allow a mature response in challenging times.
Regenerative Disturbance
Decentering the purely human perspective and entering an ecological frame of reference, which perceives life as a complex, interconnected web of relationships is not as easy as it sounds.
My work encourages leaders, teams and individuals to explore how our mundane perceptions often hold things in their rigid place. I curate context specific disturbance to habitual patterns of thinking that evolved in adaptation to an individualistic, mechanistic, anthropocentric and colonial paradigm.
Incorporating Psychological Wisdom to prepare the ground for change
I encourage changemakers to incorporate psychological theory and research into their approaches to the need for urgent transformation. The 'Paradoxical Theory of Change' for instance describes the fact that the more invested we are in driving change, the more we will create forces of resistance and stagnation below the surface. If, on the other hand, we nurture the conditions that allow change to emerge freely, we create an environment where the whole becomes so much bigger than the parts. We discern distinction without needing to separate.
Audience at my 'Sleepwalking into the Anthropocene Talk"
WHO BENEFITS?
I work with individuals and organisations who are serious about:
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making a positive impact in the world
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supporting their staff through unprecedented demands for change
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preventing organisational burnout
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addressing cultural obstacles to change
Clients include large multinational companies, government departments, the financial services industry, higher education, the sustainability sector, the NHS, the construction industry and the non-governmental sector.
Clients Say
“Steffi's deep knowledge, and nuanced presentation was instrumental in the event being a huge success, leading to an increase of 43% in our sustainability ambassador membership. Much of the post event feedback specifically mentioned how the ideas that Steffi shared were the key takeaways for the audience.
Christian Hull, BNY Mellon
We need new ways of seeing in order to tell new stories.
PRESS AND MEDIA
GUEST ON ED MILIBAND'S PODCAST
Psychotherapist, Steffi Bednarek explains her work in helping people face the climate crisis and why being out of control has triggered many people to develop anxiety around their future
