The Paradox of Connection and Boundaries
in Rewilding the Human Psyche:
Insights from Nature Connectedness, Ecofluency and a Former Crisis Response Operator

PANEL

Saskia Von Diest, PhD, Matthew J. Zylstra, PhD & Fergus Turner

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In this session, our panel speakers share about:

  • Barriers people have to feeling more connected with Nature and how these barriers can be dropped in facilitated Nature connectedness work

  • The role that maintaining and strengthening boundaries plays in Nature connectedness work

  • Working with communication to help people feel more connected to Nature

  • The need for energetic safety and psychic hygiene in Nature communication

  • What the situational discipline of maintaining clarity, boundaries and exit options looks like when engaging non-ordinary states or intelligences

  • Why it’s important to understand our own vulnerabilities and do self-assessment, and how this applies in psychic work or Nature communication

  • Eco-grief and possible overwhelm or feeling less supported in Nature connection, rather than more supported, and how this is managed in facilitation

  • The main message received from Nature for humanity about rewilding our collective psyche

Matthew J. Zylstra, PhD, is an integral ecologist and outdoor facilitator passionate about rewilding our relationship with nature for human wellbeing and planetary health. He has over 20 years of international experience in transdisciplinary social-ecological research and education. His PhD (2014) explored how meaningful nature experiences promote transformative learning and leadership. The role of “human-nature connectedness” was central to this research and has been at the heart of Matthew’s focus since - as he continues to explore how qualities of attention, somatic experience, diverse worldviews and traditional knowledge systems can promote relational healing and harmony. He is currently curious about how a “Rights of Nature” approach might also be allied to this endeavour and serve as a leverage point for systemic change.

Matthew is Programme Coordinator at the Organisation for Noetic Ecology (ONE) and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) at Stellenbosch University, as well as a specialist nature guide and accredited TRE® Provider. ve.

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Fergus Turner is a systems change specialist, facilitator and team performance coach, currently with Climate+Impact, an advisory firm working at the intersection of nature-based finance, and climate entrepreneurship.

He most recently served as programme lead for the Systems Justice & Innovation portfolio at the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship, University of Cape Town's (UCT) Graduate School of Business. There, he specialised in applying systems change and social innovation techniques and tools to support entrepreneurship ecosystems, convene collective impact processes across sectors, train and mentor entrepreneurs in emerging economies and design innovative processes to help organisations navigate complexity and untangle wicked problem sets. He convened the Systems Change & Social Impact Executive Education course at UCT’s Graduate School of Business.

Previously, Fergus worked as a crisis response operator and strategic intelligence associate at a crisis response contractor and global veteran-owned private security firm respectively. His duties included: Tracking, locating and on-going monitoring of global assets; in-country incident response management & client coordination; in-country recovery and crisis response; and advisory support for geo-political and security risks in support of global direct operations and crisis response. He is certified (currently inactive) with the Private Security Industry Regulating Agency, and has contributed to Hostile Environment & Awareness Training modules for various clients. Fergus holds a Masters in Inclusive Innovation Studies from UCT's GSB, along with an academic background specialising in Political Science, Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Speaker Links:

  • CLICK HERE to visit Fergus Turner’s LinkedIn page

Saskia Von Diest, PhD, is the founder of Ecofluency, an award-winning organisation that offers education and consulting in the field of Nature communication. She is also involved in research and activism within this field.

An animal communication workshop during her PhD in Plant Pathology (2012) sparked her interest in how farmers use intuitive communication with Nature to inform practical management decisions. From 2014-2020, she held two postdoctoral fellowships, at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and at Coventry University, UK, to investigate intuitive farming as part of a wider new field of subtle agroecology. Throughout her postdoctoral years, she further developed her own understanding and practice in communicating with trees, animals, landscape intelligence, nature spirits and ancestors. She’s also trained as a Family Constellations facilitator, in Jikiden (Usui) Reiki, and in the Way of the Warrior Healer for psychic surgery.

In 2021, she founded Ecofluency, to offer consulting, teaching and coaching in Nature communication to individuals and organisations internationally, and to promote other human voices in this field. She is also a co-founder of the Organisation for Noetic Ecology, and founding member of Nature’s Council.

With 15 years of experience in teaching and facilitating through various forms and in many countries, her passion now is creating opportunities for others to have their own experience of dialogue with more-than-human Nature. Through online and in-person programmes, her aim is to support people and organisations in reclaiming the power of these ancestral skills, for individual and collective transformation.

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