​We're designed to depend on systems that keep us isolated.

​Your phone. Your productivity apps. The promise that if you just optimize enough, you won't need anyone. Consumer culture tells us that independence is freedom, but what if that story is keeping us from what we actually need to thrive?

​Dependencies by Design: From Isolation to Interdependence is a 90-minute reflective workshop exploring the psychology of dependency to technology, to people, to places, to patterns. What happens when our dependencies are engineered to prevent collective care and mutual aid.

​Drawing from attachment theory, political psychology, and systems of oppression, this gathering examines:

• ​Why certain dependencies feel draining while others feel nourishing

• ​How capitalism and empire shape what (and who) we're tethered to

• ​The difference between codependency, healthy dependency, and interdependence

• ​What our nervous systems need to feel safe enough to rely on others

• ​Practical steps toward building interdependent relationships and communities

​Through guided reflection, somatic exercises, and facilitated discussion, we'll explore what it means to untangle from dependencies that serve extraction and move toward the mutual reliance that makes collective resistance—and collective care—possible.

​This workshop is for anyone feeling exhausted by self-reliance, questioning their relationship to technology, or wanting to understand why community feels so hard to build in a world designed for isolation.

​No prior experience necessary. Come as you are.

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​ABOUT: Aubrey Aust (MA Relational Psychology + Philosophy, NYU) facilitates workshops at the intersection of psychology, somatics, and collective liberation. Her work explores how we can build the internal and relational capacity needed to resist systems designed to keep us alone.

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