Climate Aware Practice
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"When clients turn to therapy for help in dealing with one of the biggest existential crises humanity has faced, they may be failed, missed, let down or diverted. In can seem that therapists's response to this potentially overwhelming and engulfing reality has been inadequate, even damaging." (p4)
"Staying present to the climate and biodiversity crisis requires us to continue to face our own vulnerabilities and struggle with the changing ecological landscape. ... Just as 'every fraction of a degree matters' in the movement towards a livable future (CARE 2021), so too does every fraction of conversation and connection matter when it comes to the re-telling of our story and the re-making of our future." (p9) Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown, edited by Judith Anderson, Tree Staunton, Jenny O'Gorman & Caroline Hickman, 2024 |
Towards a NZ networkI am working with others to form an interdisciplinary network of climate aware therapists and researchers.
Would you like to be part of a climate psychology network in Aotearoa? If so, email me: [email protected] |
Resources and Networks
Psychology for a Safe Climate (Australia)
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Excerpts
Britt Wray on Decolonising Climate Therapy
Jennifer Mullan is a clinical psychologist who focuses on decolonizing therapy, which means using alternatives to the mainstream mental health model that can further emotional wellness on a larger collective scale for communities of colour. I wanted to know what she thought the climate-aware therapy field can do to make its services more accessible to the most vulnerable communities, so I gave her a call. Her own clinical practice is centred around the fact that the standard for therapy that’s widely in use today, which happens one-on-one and at high cost, was built from a colonial and individualistic individualistic biomedical perspective. “The mental health industrial complex, the way that it is set up, continues to serve the elite, or at least the middle-class white person,” she said.
Front-line communities may be better served in group therapy in community centres, or in one-on-one therapy at low cost. Honouring ancestors and spirit—as Mullan puts it, “We’re going to need to hang on to something outside ourselves,” whatever that may be—is a meaningful practice in various cultural contexts. Religion and spirituality may factor strongly into one’s world view and coping strategy—anchors that “mainstream” therapy isn’t always comfortable addressing. However, climate-conscious therapy is in a good position to dismantle the traditional clinical model—it’s already doing so in some ways—and to lead towards a more equitable, multi-dimensional approach to mental health. De-pathologizing eco-distress and treating it as a collective experience are major facets of this shift, alongside an interest in uplifting community support. The Climate Psychology Alliance, for instance, hosts Climate Cafés—human-centric, emotions-friendly group meetings where people can safely express what they’re sensing about what the climate crisis means, not in some far-out future way, but for their own lives and loved ones. They are relational and permission-giving spaces that help people work through their fears and frustrations together.
Wray, Britt. Generation Dread (pp. 116-117). Knopf Canada. Kindle Edition.
Jennifer Mullan is a clinical psychologist who focuses on decolonizing therapy, which means using alternatives to the mainstream mental health model that can further emotional wellness on a larger collective scale for communities of colour. I wanted to know what she thought the climate-aware therapy field can do to make its services more accessible to the most vulnerable communities, so I gave her a call. Her own clinical practice is centred around the fact that the standard for therapy that’s widely in use today, which happens one-on-one and at high cost, was built from a colonial and individualistic individualistic biomedical perspective. “The mental health industrial complex, the way that it is set up, continues to serve the elite, or at least the middle-class white person,” she said.
Front-line communities may be better served in group therapy in community centres, or in one-on-one therapy at low cost. Honouring ancestors and spirit—as Mullan puts it, “We’re going to need to hang on to something outside ourselves,” whatever that may be—is a meaningful practice in various cultural contexts. Religion and spirituality may factor strongly into one’s world view and coping strategy—anchors that “mainstream” therapy isn’t always comfortable addressing. However, climate-conscious therapy is in a good position to dismantle the traditional clinical model—it’s already doing so in some ways—and to lead towards a more equitable, multi-dimensional approach to mental health. De-pathologizing eco-distress and treating it as a collective experience are major facets of this shift, alongside an interest in uplifting community support. The Climate Psychology Alliance, for instance, hosts Climate Cafés—human-centric, emotions-friendly group meetings where people can safely express what they’re sensing about what the climate crisis means, not in some far-out future way, but for their own lives and loved ones. They are relational and permission-giving spaces that help people work through their fears and frustrations together.
Wray, Britt. Generation Dread (pp. 116-117). Knopf Canada. Kindle Edition.