I got back home yesterday, after spending just over a week in Sydney. The first few days were a holiday, the last five were attending a conference...namely the World Conference for the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science - possibly the first time I have attended a conference with 'science' in the title...ACBS is the organisation which promotes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and the take home message seemed to be, go home and tell everyone about this...
And yes it actually was great, if I can get over the effect of it causing lots of neurons to start firing explosively, a bit like the image below, which is actually the view from Centrepoint tower, at sunset. Over 20 years since I was last here...
(Brief touristy interlude).
We stayed in (near) Surrey Hills, which had this letterbox outside a church, possibly a re-purposed one.
and this was on a house front...a good thing to be reminded of, every time you go home.
This was a fabulous course in a fabulous meal, at Marque, also in Surrey Hills. I am not a big food photographer, but the $45 (molecular gastronomy) lunch was truly amazing. This is trout, lentils and cucumber puree, I think...
And this bird cage with sinister imagery is overlooking the harbour.
The exciting thing about this conference was the sense of potential to make bigger changes, and that means, not just in individuals, but in communities. We heard for example about the Good Behaviour Game, which can help promote prosocial behaviour in school children. Epigenetics, which show how the environment can change genetics, for both good and bad...(will have to consult philosophical son on this one, ha ha)...Child therapy, Italian style, using Harry Potter as main source material...and developing ACT networking and training for social workers, which makes total sense, as ACT is all about values, context and process, all very social workerish!
And then there is mindful meditation, which Michael Mosley has been investigating...
feeling very inspired. more later.
