Teaching
Cultivating inner, relational and collective wisdom.
I have been teaching for about a decade, at university, in hospitals, in schools and community spaces. The topics include psychology, first-peroson science, community-building, sense-making, political science, regenerative teamwork. I place a high value on experiential, participatory and embodied learning.
University courses
Together with Prof. Dr. Thomas Rixen I design and teach seminars in political economy that deliberately bring experiential and mindfulness-based methods into the curriculum. Students work on polycrisis, post-growth, commons and regeneration as theory, and at the same allow, notice and share bodily, emotionally and relational experiences. Furthermore, the second seminar focussed on having (re)generative dialogues aimed at honest expression, deep listening and having positive impact.
Polykrise und Transformation: Die Politische Ökonomie der Regeneration
Climate crisis, social inequality, disillusionment with democracy, loss of meaning — the simultaneity and mutual reinforcement of these is what gets called the polycrisis. What does it mean to live, learn and act in a time of multiple interwoven crises, individually and collectively, politically and economically? What can political economy contribute to orientation in a period of deep change? And what part is played in that by subjective experience, meaning-making and shared practice?
Across thirteen sessions we put political-economic concepts — polycrisis, post-growth, commons, regeneration — alongside experiential and mindfulness-based methods, and explore participatory formats for understanding current challenges more holistically, making wiser decisions and moving into action. Throughout, we hold our own inner shifts and blocks next to the collective ones and look at how they relate.
- Taught withProf. Dr. Thomas Rixen
- FormatWeekly, Thursdays 10–12, 16 April to 16 July 2026 · 2 SWS · 45 places
- LanguageGerman
- Course entryVorlesungsverzeichnis, FU Berlin
Polykrise und Transformation: Innerer und äußerer Wandel in der Politischen Ökonomie
The first version of the seminar, run as a block course over five days. Alongside the theoretical work on polycrisis, post-growth, commons and sense-making, we drew on Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects for the experiential strand.
Over the semester participants developed their own project ideas — contributions, however small, to the transformation of political economy — and were asked to reflect within those projects on both their individual inner change and its blocks, and on collective possibilities for action and their blocks, and to connect the two. The stated aim was to leave students able to formulate their own research questions and designs, and holding some tools for a more embodied grasp of the present crises and of their own agency within them.
- Taught withProf. Dr. Thomas Rixen
- FormatBlock seminar, five days between October 2025 and February 2026 · 2 SWS · 45 places
- LanguageGerman
- Course entryVorlesungsverzeichnis, FU Berlin
Applying the scientific method directly to the mind – An introduction to the theory and practice of first-person methods
This was a seminar I co-taught with Dr. Vera Ludwig at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University. Here is the official seminar description:
Can we do science within the confines of our own minds? Is it possible to make reliable observations within subjectivity? Can we systematically reproduce mental states? And what are necessary prerequisites for doing subjective science? These and other questions build the foundation of this
course. They will be explored in theory and, importantly, in practice. Each class consists of a lecture, an open discussion and the practice of first-person science.
In the theoretical part we will review the history and theory of first-person science from the perspective of Western psychology and phenomenology as well as from the viewpoint of Eastern philosophical traditions such as Buddhism. Important topics include the scientific method and ideals, introspection, meditation, attention, metacognition, mindfulness and the neuroscience of meditation.
In the practical part we will engage with our own subjective data directly. We will adopt the scientific stance towards our own experience, seeing our own mind as a kind of laboratory which continuously provides us with a stream of observable data (e.g., thoughts and emotions). By practising two secular meditation techniques, we aim to systematically refine our attention, interoception, mindfulness and meta-cognition, with the goal of making richer, more fine-grained and more objective observations of our mental content. To ensure swift progress, students are expected to practice these techniques outside class for 20 min, 5 times a week. During the course, we will continuously gather and evaluate data as well as collect our insights regarding the functioning of the mind.
- Taught withDr. Vera Ludwig
- FormatWinter Semester · 2 SWS · 20 students
- LanguageGerman
- Course entryVorlesungsverzeichnis, HU Berlin
Courses and workshop series
Teaching elsewhere
I am glad to teach a seminar, run a guest session, or design a workshop series for a department, an organisation or a community. If you are curious whether something would work in your context, the fastest way to find out is to ask.