TC GreenSoul!
From the 18th to the 24th of July, our Ecopsychology training course took place in the beautiful mountainous area of Armenia, in the spa and ski village of Tsaghkadzor.
The training course was focused mainly on youth workers and educators, aiming to strengthen our competencies in sustainable and mental health education. We gained access to interactive and engaging tools that help us create activities more effectively, while also exploring how mental health and environmental education are interconnected.
Throughout the whole week, we got the chance to explore various resources, such as a plogging manual, which provided general guidelines on how to organize plogging events designed around different themes so we could choose the most suitable option for our target group. We also connected theory with practice and tried plogging ourselves on a hike in the beautiful mountain range of Tsaghkadzor.
The second resource was the Ecopsychology educational curriculum, which is composed of 8 modules designed to further explore the connection between well-being and our natural environment. The workshops were led by a psychologist, so we got the chance to dive deeper into the theoretical level of ecopsychology. We had the opportunity to lead a workshop too, which made us the first test group for the Ecopsychology curriculum, a truly engaging and nicely written tool beneficial for future youth work. The workshops consisted of self-care and reflective activities, teamwork, and peer-to-peer sharing.
Last but not least was a Human-Nature Relations comic book, whose main goal is to present key ecopsychology concepts in an engaging way. We provided extensive feedback on the creative process, design, and storyline of the comics to bring the book as close to perfection as possible.
We spent the whole week in a really open and friendly atmosphere, getting to know inspirational people from various countries. The training course had an unofficial extra theme, the World Cup and we got to watch the finals together in the town and meet local people. We had various cultural evenings where participants presented their countries, allowing us to peek into their daily lives and cultures in a playful way through activities, games, dances, songs, and food. One evening was filled with an amazing trip to Yerevan, where we could get in touch with the atmosphere and history of Armenia a bit more all while supporting the match of Ararat Armenia. We also took advantage of our free day to explore Lake Sevan and its beautiful surroundings.
Overall, we bring home not only valuable knowledge in ecopsychology, plogging, and well-being, but also numerous experiences, memories, and new friends.
