For the past four years, I have facilitated workshops on the creative expression and management of climate emotions for environmental activists. I have run workshops and given guest lectures for The Sustainable Events Forum, the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, and The Wilder Institute, among other organizations doing incredible, difficult work in the environmental sector. Your feelings about climate change are a normal reaction to extremely abnormal circumstances. Let me help you build a space for them in your activist practice.
Dr. Jennifer Baker gave an inspiring and powerful talk at our team-building event in 2022. As a group that works primarily in wildlife conservation, her seminar on ecological grief really resonated with many of our team members and provided us with a vocabulary we did not know existed. Dr. Baker is a wonderful and passionate presenter and truly has a gift for speaking, teaching, and empathizing with others. I would recommend her seminar to anyone who worries about climate change and the future.
Jasmine Louste-Filion, Conservation Research Associate at The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo
Workshop Models
Managing Climate Emotion for Activists
This workshop serves as a basic introduction to climate emotion management in activist spaces, and can be done online or in person. We talk about naming emotions, why we must face emotions in activist work, and some of the common avoidant responses to climate emotion. We finish with advice about how to build tools for working through emotion into activist work. Workshops can be offered in person, online, or hybrid (with possible extra fee for travel outside the Ottawa, Ontario area): 1-1.5 hours.
Specialized Workshops
I will happily work with your organization to design a climate emotion management workshop tailored specifically to the work that you do. The basic building blocks of acknowledging, naming, and feeling emotion, and designing healthy creative outlets for working through those emotions, remains the same, with available variations in specific content, activities, and time length. Workshops can be offered in person, online, or hybrid, with possible extra fee for travel outside the Ottawa, Ontario area.
Working Poetics Workshops
As a poet and professor of creative writing, I’ve designed this workshop to focus on the relationship between poetic form and managing climate emotion. This is a workshop for anyone familiar with the basics of climate emotion interested in writing poetry as a creative outlet. Workshops can be offered in person, online, or hybrid (with a possible extra fee for travel outside the Ottawa, Ontario area): 1.5-2 hours
Preferred Pricing
Managing Climate Emotion for Activists: $300
Working Poetics Workshops: $400
Specialized Workshops: Please Inquire
Preferred Pricing covers my planning and preparation time, materials, and workshop time. For in-person workshops outside the Ottawa, Ontario area, travel fees may also apply.
Concession Pricing
Managing Climate Emotion for Activists: $200
Working Poetics Workshops: $300
Specialized Workshops: Sliding Scale, Please Inquire
I offer concession/sliding scale pricing for organizations who do good work on a shoestring budget.
Jennifer Baker, M.A., PhD 