My personal reflection piece about the 2022 floods was published in the Climate Psychology Alliance e-journal: The River Wants to Move.
CALDERA PSYCHOLOGY is a small counselling practice located on Bundjalung Country in Murwillumbah, NSW. My name is Catherine Falco and I am a registered psychologist and clinical family therapist. I have been counselling for 26 years and after specialising in child and adolescent mental health, I trained in systemic practice and family therapy.
The expansiveness of a caldera holds space and time. The Tweed is one of the largest natural erosion calderas in the world. Twenty-three million years ago a volcano erupted causing the land around the volcanic vent to collapse inward, creating a bowl-shaped landscape. The ancient Wollumbin stands at its centre. Just as this fertile land holds and nourishes plants and wildlife, a safe therapeutic space can do the same for us, and help us to grow.
We live and work on the stolen lands of the Moorang-Moobar people of the Tweed Bundjalung Nation, whose knowledge and care have stewarded this country for centuries. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, acknowledging their unceded sovereignty. We are grateful for their unbroken connection with Country, and appreciate First Nations peoples knowledge holding about health and healing that has been practiced for thousands of years and continues today.
