What is your relationship with virtual reality?
Welcome to our October Newsletter.
I hope this email finds you safe and well. As the days shorten, our clients report spending more time online and thus reach out to us to explore the benefits and challenges of virtual reality. We have hosted two events on the topic (more below) for the counselling profession and will continue with the subject in November as well.
The main observation that stood out for me is that many people still deny having any relationship with virtual realities or in virtual realities. It is a Europatriarchal concept to separate the environment we live in from our individual human experience, so we find it more helpful to look at the complexities of human interactions in cyberspace in a systemic way – we all have a relationship with the static world around us: the chair we sit on, the room we work in, the coffee machine in the morning…thus we also have a relationship with the digital innovation and with virtual spaces. That relationship – like with anything else around us – will be influenced by our upbringing, tech competence but also life events, past experiences and current mental health.
This month, I encourage you to reflect on your relationship with virtual reality landscapes and technologies. How do you feel when you transition from grounded reality into any virtual space? How do you experience it when rested and when exhausted or deeply upset? How do you feel when a virtual interaction supports you or distracts you? And finally, how do you really feel when you come back to the grounded reality? What is the quality of those transitions? Can you practice aware, regulated, and controlled moving into and from virtual spaces?
All those questions are here to serve as an opportunity to widen our perspectives on how we interact with those relatively new landscapes for our presence. I hope that with the additional time in the evenings, we can slow down and reflect on what habits, choices and skills can help us navigate those integral parts of our lives smoother, with more agency, for better wellbeing.
At Voxel Hub, we are focussing on education this autumn and preparing for a busy year ahead, too. We listen to your generous feedback and hope to come back with new offerings in 2024. Thank you for all your authentic and honest voices. We so appreciate you all.
Wishing you a soft few weeks ahead!
My favourite topic this month
This month, I am exploring the intersections of Nature, feminism and indigenous wisdom:
- Tree of Life – Understanding our Co-Evolution with Trees and Forests – Advaya course Let’s Become Fungal!: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts: Based on Conversations with Indigenous Wisdom Keepers, Artists, Curators, Feminists and Mycologists by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez and Rommy González
- Slavic Kitchen Alchemy: Nourishing Herbal Remedies, Magical Recipes & Folk Wisdom by Zuza Zak
- Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature Hardcover – by Miles Richardson
- The Healing Fields: Working with Psychotherapy and Nature to Rebuild Shattered Lives by Sonja Linden and Jenny Grut
If you have any recommendations on the topic, please let me know! Thank you!
Resources & Offerings
We now have three recorded events you can watch here:
- Introduction to Liberation Psychologies for Social Justice (open access)
- Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies (small fee)
- Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies: Virtual Reality Experience (small fee)
We also have two more events coming up this winter:
- 2023.11.25 12-2 PM – Iron Mill – Virtual Reality Therapies (online) – https://www.ironmill.co.uk/introduction-to-virtual-reality-therapies
- 2025.02.02. 12- 2 PM – Iron Mill – Digital SelfCare (online) – https://www.ironmill.co.uk/introduction-to-digital-self-care
Thank you for reading our Newsletter. Talk to us online, check out our blog and let us know what else you want to see here in the upcoming months.
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Photo by Denis Degioanni on Unsplash
