SACAP (the South African College of Applied Psychology) has announced that the 7th annual Festival of Learning will be held in Johannesburg on 17th and 18th of May, and in Cape Town on 24th and 25th of May 2018.
With this year’s political transformations raising the hopes and expectations of the Nation, the Festival aims to ignite valuable conversations around the theme, ‘The Power to Create Change’. The programme of interactive talks and panel discussions is aimed at exploring how the fields of psychology, counselling and coaching can lead to individual and group transformation for the betterment of society. The Festival of Learning breaks with tradition when it comes to presentation format by focusing on generating dialogues and conversations that directly and meaningfully connect the festival-goers and presenters.
Leading academics and experts, thought leaders and authors will be guiding a variety of dialogues across a wide variety of topics that explore the individual’s power to create change in their own life, family, community, workplace and country. Conversations will range from the latest on single parenting and blended families to new perspectives on human sexuality and gender, as well as pioneering initiatives to handle drug use and addiction. Coaching dialogues will include cutting-edge views on themes such as mindfulness, emotional intelligence, the flow state, leadership, behavior change, virtual coaching, cancer coaching, neuroscience and the roadblocks to change.
For the first time, the 2018 Festival of Learning programme will also include two panel-driven discussions at each event. The focus of the psychology panel will be the fascinating exploration of how psychology and traditional medicine models could co-exist to deliver more healing. The coaching panel will focus on coaching as a powerful tool to enable, facilitate and create change.
In line with the Festival of Learning’s focus on generating significant conversations, a highlight of both the Johannesburg and Cape Town programmes will be the hosting of a Human Library. This innovative concept to inspire challenging, change-driven dialogues involves volunteers serving as books; and ‘reading’ them takes the form of conversations. This will be the first time a Human Library will be staged in Johannesburg. The books represent social groups who face prejudice, stereotyping and stigma, or who have endured experiences that are hard to talk about. The Human Library creates a safe space for their stories to unfold. Difficult questions and commentary from the ‘readers’ are expected, appreciated and encouraged in order for an authentic exploration of the ‘titles’, which can range from social status to sexuality, health to trauma and loss, religion to politics.
