Let's Talk Eco-Anxiety - Day 1

From Eco-Grief to Building Community

7 - 8:30 PM ADT on June 17, 2026 (online via Zoom)

In a world where global warming and multiple crises have an impact on our general mental health, how can we move from eco-grief to having meaningful conversations and build community?

The Warm Data Lab proposes a framework for engaging in such conversations. Rooted in storytelling and systems theory, it is based on the principle that human beings are an intrinsic part of land, nature and planet. The Warm Data Lab and its on-line version of People Need People were developed by the International Bateson Institute and Nora Bateson, who continued the work of her father, the anthropologist and systems theorist Gregory Bateson.

In this workshop, Clinical Therapist, Ivan Drouin will lead us through a presentation and break out rooms where we will be invited to share stories and discuss the contexts of our ever-changing world.

Guest Speaker

Ivan Drouin
Clinical Therapist at the Health & Counselling Service of St-Francis Xavier University

Ivan Drouin is originally from Montreal where he worked as a community psychologist. He moved to Truro in 2003 and worked in the field of Mental Health & Addiction Services. In those years, he developed an interest in mindfulness-based stress reduction and environmental activism.  He was a founding member of the non-for-profit environmental organization Living Earth Council in Truro and served as a Board member of the Nova Scotia Environmental Network.

Ivan now works as Clinical Therapist at the Health & Counselling Service of St-Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. He has recently been studying how global warming and so-called polycrises affect our general mental health. This has led him to be involved in community resilience projects and train as a Warm Data Lab host with the International Bateson Institute.

Ivan has two daughters and one grandson.