This years HAN University of Applied Sciences 9th International Week – Connecting localism to globalism: Critical perspectives on allied health professions – will feature a host of interesting workshops, lectures and seminars. Two of these are highly relevant to environmental physiotherapy and will be delivered by two of our EPA executive committee members. You can join all parts of the program as a participant (inner circle) or just follow along on youtube (outer circle) and both options are entirely for free. Register here: https://interds2021.wordpress.com/ 

Wednesday 3 February 14:00- 14:45, youtube link:  
Thies Bundtzen “Connecting with nature as homework” 
Being in touch with the nature, collaborating with the environment as a therapeutic agent. Follow on youtube here: https://youtu.be/ISvwBnm3-m4

What role does nature play in your life? I just finished studying physiotherapy and I often questioned myself, why we need to be in a building when the sun is shining. It felt like my body knew intuitively that there are environments that support our wellbeing and therefore also support our capacity to study and reflect much more than the rooms we had to be in. I questioned myself, why we learn so much about the human body and so less about a healthy environment. I will talk about my path to be able to send patients into forest environments for homework in physiotherapy. We will also be exploring topics like creative thinking and environmental awareness.

Thursday 4 February 19:00-20.30
David Nicholls “Using activities to think critical about ourselves as health professionals – a hands on workshop”
Follow on youtube here: https://youtu.be/mp203PLprAg 

For the last three years, I’ve been teaching a large postgraduate course at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand using activity-based learning. We use activities to explore health professionals’ beliefs about themselves, their professions, and the others they work with, in ways that are often deeper and more individual than ‘traditional’ ways of reflecting or thinking critically. The course has shown me that words can sometimes be too literal, and using activities often open up critical meanings that can otherwise lie hidden. In this workshop we will explore some of the activities the students find most interesting and talk about the power of thinking critically through metaphors.