Summer school: Working with Emotions in Climate Change Education

Bohuslav Binka is a Czech philosopher and Gestalt psychotherapist specializing in ethics and environmental philosophy. He teaches at the Department of Environmental Studies at Masaryk University, where he focuses on topics such as resilience in times of climate crisis and environmental ethics.

He founded and leads the Symbios project, a shared housing project for students and young adults from children’s homes. As of 2025, he is the principal investigator of the Horizon Europe project HARP— Hopeful and resilience perspective in climate change education to inspire (promote) action competence.

Jan Činčera focuses on environmental education theory, research, and instructional strategies. He is the author of more than thirty studies, national guidelines, and several environmental education and interpretation books. He has evaluated over a hundred educational programs. He led the organizational team for the 11th World Environmental Education Congress. He was also involved in an expert group responsible for integrating cross-cutting themes on sustainability into a new national curriculum

Maria Ojala is a senior lecturer and associate professor in psychology, and from August 2024, she will be working as Professor of Socio-Ecological Resilience at the University of Oulu, Finland, within the FRONT program at the Faculty of Education and Psychology.

Her research focuses on how young people engage with global environmental issues—especially climate change—exploring how they think, feel, learn, act, and communicate in the face of these challenges.

Tati Neves is a somatic psychotherapist, author, and international lecturer. She studied psychology and neuropsychology in Lisbon and holds postgraduate degrees in psychosomatics and epigenetics. Tati currently leads the Pedagogical Department at the Portuguese Institute for Somatic Psychotherapy.

With a background shaped by living across cultures, she brings a deep respect for human uniqueness to her work. In Biosynthesis, she values its holistic approach—integrating both mind and body—and its deeply human view of each individual.

Martina Holcová is a humanities-based environmentalist working across diverse areas of education that, while seemingly unrelated, are deeply interconnected. Her work spans multicultural education, the Finnish Forest Mind method—which she discovered while traveling in Finland and has since introduced in the Czech Republic—and creative projects that explore everyday life.

Ulla Pötsönen has a background in humanities, cultural production and education. She splits her time between Joensuu, Eastern Finland, and Prague, Czech Republic. Sje describe herself as a trainer, facilitator and advocate of environmental citizenship. Her aims are to sustain and spred hope and meaning.

Veronika Endrštová is an educator and psychotherapist with a unique interdisciplinary approach. She specializes in teacher training, particularly in methods of teaching about climate change in ways that are engaging, emotionally aware, and grounded in current science. Alongside her work in education, Veronika is also a practicing psychotherapist with a focus on body-oriented psychology (bodypsychotherapy).

Václav is a psychologist and actor. He studied psychology and devised acting, and is now training in biosynthetic psychotherapy. He leads regular improv trainings for actors and teaches or performs at international festivals (Colombia, Atlanta, Bordeaux, Lyon, Budapest, Lviv). He works with Ukrainian refugees at the LOCIKA Centre.