By Jules F B Silva

In this article, I critically examine how the counselling profession can confront, wholeheartedly and with an appropriate level of urgency, the ever-increasing mental health impacts of the seemingly inexorable climate and ecological crisis (referred to herein for the most part as ‘climate change’ or ‘climate crisis’) that we, and the planet, face.

My intent is to share some of the findings of research I have conducted (with academic supervision provided by Jennifer Coburn) into therapists’ (psychotherapists, counsellors and psychologists) responses to climate change (Silva & Coburn, 2022). I also provide some suggestions and resources to inform how the counselling and psychotherapy peak bodies (including training institutions) and individual counselling professionals can take action.

For some readers, this will be familiar territory in their ongoing personal and professional journey, and for others it will be relatively new. In any case, the intention here is to stimulate reflection and provide some support for inner processes, outer conversations, and in-awareness trajectories of personal and professional growth in this space, as well as provide some information and leads that might be helpful along the way.

As I write this, I am aware that I do so from multiple perspectives: as a person experiencing much ongoing anxiety and grief related to the climate and ecological crisis, both in the present and in anticipation; as a climate-aware practitioner who sees clients with their own parallel distress and has undertaken training to support this work; as a published researcher on climate psychology; as an advocate for climate awareness in the profession and the development of climate-aware/focused clinical practice methodologies/ interventions and best-practice models; and as a person seeking to act and contribute by pursuing further research in this area with emphasis on clinical practice approaches to eco-anxiety, ecogrief and eco-trauma. I write with a broad philosophical stance, disposition and intentions – to be generous and supportive, and to advocate for a non-siloed approach to the work at hand (with no separations delineated by professional ‘specificities’, and modality ‘centricities’) – and acknowledge my privilege in this context, as a white, educated person, with access to resources that are not readily available to so many others in our respective social, economic, cultural, ecological and political contexts.

I also acknowledge and honour that I sit and write from Wurundjeri Country, which is stolen.

The science regarding the enormity of the challenges before us at this critical time in history is evidence-based and overwhelming, and the anthropogenic (humaninduced) causes of the climate and ecological crisis indisputable (IPBES, 2019; IPCC, 2021; WHO, 2022a, 2022b). It is presumed here that the reader accepts these facts.

The droughts and extreme weather events, including the devastating floods and fires that have occurred across multiple states in Australia (and locations across the globe) over recent years – some of which have re-occurred and then affected populations already displaced and traumatised, resulting in cumulative and compounding mental health impacts (Crandon et al., 2022) – tell a very grim story. These climate crisis escalations and the devastating biodiversity and ecological impacts that are inextricably linked to them (Pörtner et al., 2021) are having increasingly profound, negative impacts on the mental health of both directly affected populations, and those who witness and experience them indirectly.

It is my perspective, both personally and professionally, that we are compelled and morally obligated to face the enormity of the climate crisis. My research (Silva & Coburn, 2022) highlights the importance of getting to work in our profession to address the crisis we are facing. We simply must.

Facing the climate crisis is, indeed, the ‘challenge of our times’ for the profession. To do anything else is an act of profound neglect to ourselves, to our clients, and to all other species that reside on this dear and precious planet, (Mother) Earth, upon which our survival, and that of all other life, depends.

A call to action: reflections on my research findings

This section draws from my recently published research on climate change and the dialectic between its personal and professional dimensions for therapists (Silva & Coburn, 2022). Eight therapists took part in interpretative phenomenological analysis. All eight participants identified that, at the same time as individuals and communities are being everincreasingly impacted by the climate and ecological crisis, the response of the counselling profession in Australia has been minimal. It is this very concerning finding that is the driver behind this article.

What will it take to get the profession really moving, with full force and momentum, right now, in this crisis?

The emotional and psychological impacts of the climate crisis (often referred to using the overly simplistic umbrella term ‘ecoanxiety’) have already escalated and are expected to continue to increase considerably into the future. They include (but are not confined to) anxiety, depression, trauma, panic, dread, grief, loss and mourning, disgust, guilt, shame, terror, helplessness and despair. Other permutations of terminology and meanings that circulate in relation to the crisis are ecological grief, eco-depression, eco-trauma, pre and post-traumatic stress, anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief and solastalgia (Doherty & Clayton, 2011; Weintrobe, 2012, Pihkala, 2018). Most of these terms are suggestive, at least, of their meanings. Solastalgia describes the distress, grief and loss caused by the perception and witnessing of negative changes and degradation occurring to one’s home environment, “the lived experience of the physical desolation of home” (Albrecht et al., 2007, p. 96).

Spanning across some of the cognitive-behavioural (Gifford, 2011), existential (Dickinson, 2009), psychoanalytic and psychosocial (Adams, 2016; Hoggett, 2019; Weintrobe, 2021) literature on the subject of climate change-induced distress, is the view that powerful feelings and experiences can evoke responses that are either ecologically adaptive (helpful) or maladaptive (unhelpful). There is agreement across the literature explored that maladaptive responses such as denial and disavowal act as psychological impediments to pro-environment behaviours that would otherwise be helpful in this time of planet Earth’s crisis. It is therefore imperative that those in the counselling profession learn ways to not only support themselves and clients emotionally and psychologically, but that this in turn reduces maladaptive psychological responses that result in behaviours that are harmful to the environment.

Silva and Coburn (2022) found that therapists, alongside their clients, experience powerful psychological and emotional impacts as a consequence of the existential threat that the climate crisis presents. The therapists who participated in this research noted that this was a crisis that involved not only their clients, but themselves and all of humanity. Experiencing the enormity of the crisis presented complex experiences for them, personally, including:

■ inner conflicts with self-identity and values held with respect to the uncomfortable awareness of being ‘forced’ into complicity with the problem, in their day-today lives, due to the world and its systems being ‘as they are’;

■ meaningful, and at times unsettling, resonances with personal histories and experiences, and with history (for example, the echoes of intergenerational trauma such as from wars and population displacements, loss of ‘home’, alienation from culture and country);

■ disconnects with ‘truth’ and knowledge as they occupy a world of increasing unreliability and lack of ‘grounded-ness’; and

■ interpersonally complex reverberations found in conversations with others on the subject.

A sense of disorientation in an ‘unreal’ world was felt by participants, inviting contemplation of existential concerns around death, meaning and the future, and a sense of losing trust in the experience of ‘being’ in the ‘day-today’ while enveloped by alienating and unsettling social discourse.

A core theme (and its subthemes) that emerged strongly in the research pertained to participants’ experience of pervasive professional uncertainties in the context of this crisis.

Participants noted that, increasingly, clients were bringing their anxieties related to climate crisis into sessions. This reality challenges counselling professionals to reflect on how they might work with clients experiencing these anxieties.

In particular, we must attend to the question, how do our own responses to the climate crisis influence our work with clients? Are there times, for example, when our own unconscious defences respond to the horror of it all, and then constellate in the work at hand in ways that lead to inadvertent avoidances? One participant spoke of a client’s relief in finding a therapist willing to listen to her experience without pathologising it.

“I was speaking with a client who expressed profound relief. She said she went to another therapist and said she was feeling, ‘All this despair’. And the therapist pathologised it. So it became an internalised, individualised pathology … of … ‘this person is depressed’, and, ‘how do we fix your depression?’ And she said she found it such a great relief that she could sit with somebody now, who understood that she was carrying despair about the state of our world … and a fear about what the future would hold [Clara].” (Silva & Coburn, 2022, p. 11).

Participants unanimously reported the view that therapists are ethically bound to face their own experience of the climate crisis and to bring into conscious awareness their own processes around it.

“But actually, the psychological intent was … to allow myself to come to a point where I could imagine the possibility of the collapse of the generative world … Now the fact that I could imagine it … not just be afraid of it or react against it … That’s my point. The fact that I could try and imagine what it would be like … to feel it … that was my personal job … And the principle of that … which goes back to Jung and Freud and others … is the therapist has to know, as it were, him or herself, as much as they possibly can. And you can only treat … you can only be useful, therapeutically, to someone else, if you have done your ‘homework’ [Charles].” (Silva & Coburn, 2022, p. 12).

Participants also reflected on how varying counselling/ therapeutic approaches and modalities might frame the client’s experience, and how these may be more, or less, helpful; and by what degrees. As well as warning against pathologisation, another participant advised that therapists should avoid individualising the client’s experiences.

“I’m not someone who practices [cognitive behavioural therapy] … but something of what I understand is that you need to reality-test what’s going on for you, and where you [pause], through this reality testing, discover that you’re making a thinking error and you need to put that aside and … I suppose … it just seems to me that people who are learning about climate change in a university setting … you’d imagine that they’ve got a lot of that realitytesting covered … on a big enough level that the emotional responses you are getting is probably going to be accurate enough that it’s not going to be classified as a ‘thinking error’ [Callum].” (Silva & Coburn, 2022, p. 12).

Participants consistently call for therapists to situate and conceptualise clients within the social, economic, cultural, ecological and political contexts of their lives, as distinct from the conventions of otherwise individualising and pathologising models.

“Most of my clients … and the groups of people here … are in a really fragile environment that could shift very easily. If it doesn’t rain in another year ... it has very serious effect” [Charles].

“Marginalised people … they feel powerless, anyway … and this is just yet another area of their life where they are rendered powerless … that can reinforce trauma” [Helen].

“I was with an Aboriginal woman … she’s part of the clan … the traditional owners of the rivers that are dying, and the fish that are dying … those fish are the totem of that particular clan. And so there is this profound grief ” [Clara]. (Silva & Coburn, 2022, p. 11).

Of key importance here is that all participants yearned for leadership and guidance from professional bodies and training institutions to enable them (and then future therapists), ‘on the ground’, to support both clients and themselves within a world in which we are all potentially facing dire, unprecedented realities.

“I think it would be great to have more of a ‘best practice’ model … or some guidelines … around how, as therapists, we might be able to facilitate a purposeful, ‘therapeutic intervention’ approach … to something that’s currently inevitable [Sally].” (Silva & Coburn, 2022, p. 12).

One of the multiple possibilities for further research that has arisen is further exploration into the role and activities that relevant professional bodies and training institutions might undertake to address the urgent need for leadership, support and training for therapists in the face of the climate crisis, with its implications for clients now and into the future. Are there learnings that can be drawn from the ‘rapid response’ initiatives undertaken by counselling peak bodies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic onset in 2020 (Silva & Coburn, 2022)?

Recent literature on the question of clinical practice

Since I completed the research discussed here, there has been a surge in interdisciplinary research and discussion that begins to explore possibilities for clinical practice with regards to the climate crisis. This ‘thinking space’ is shifting dynamically, and at pace. While the literature is yet to provide any definitive guidance on models and structures for clinical practice, the processes of formulation are well underway.

Some recent literature that stands out to me as worth drawing attention to, by Baudon and Jachens (2021), Crandon et al. (2022), Doherty et al. (2022), Pihkala (2022) and Gillespie (2020), explores and/or informs, in different ways, how clinical practice for therapists might proceed.

Qualitative research by Baudon and Jachens (2021) speaks to the need for clear guidance to mental health professionals on how to make informed choices about treatment planning and interventions when supporting clients presenting with eco-anxiety. In this research, the authors conducted a comprehensive scoping review of interventions and treatment approaches currently being utilised, then subjected these to thematic analysis. An extract from the article offers some salient learnings about what is needed: 

“A thematic analysis of the content of the selected records yielded five major themes across interventions for individual and group treatment of eco-anxiety: practitioners’ inner work and education, fostering clients’ inner resilience, encouraging clients to take action, helping clients find social connection and emotional support by joining groups, and connecting clients with nature. Recommendations for treatment plans are to focus on holistic, multi-pronged, and grief-informed approaches that include ecoanxiety focused group work.” (Baudon & Jachens, 2021, p. 1). 

A recent review article by Crandon et al. (2022) provides ideas on mechanisms for enhancing resilience that practitioners can draw on to help individuals develop helpful cognitions and behaviours that can support wellbeing:

“Mindfulness-based or cognitivebased interventions could be used to evaluate and reframe thoughts in helpful ways, particularly if thought content or processes are maladaptive (for example, reducing catastrophizing, emotional reasoning, uncontrollable worry or rumination). Existential therapies may take cognitive exploration further, allowing individuals to access existential thoughts and concerns arising from climate change (for example, meaning in life or thoughts about death).” (Crandon et al., 2022, p. 1478).

In a recent and richly comprehensive book chapter that considers clinical psychology’s responses to the climate crisis, Doherty et al. (2022) explore directions for research, training and advocacy, and possible steps for conducting a climate-aware psychological assessment. In addition, the authors identify some ways in which various mainstream treatment approaches may be applied in creative ways when working with clients in climate distress, including acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychological first aid/trauma-informed approaches and Worden-informed grief work (Doherty et al., 2022).

Pihkala (2022) has developed an intriguing, innovative model aimed to support researchers, various professionals and the general public. The model offers a philosophically grounded and nuanced frame within which to test and explore the psychological processes of clients presenting with climate distress, informed by multiple disciplines. Pihkala notes, “Special attention was given to the integration of fluctuation/oscillation to the new model. Both individual and group dynamics were given attention, although the focus was more on individuals as parts of collectives. The aim [was] to make the new model both simple enough for communicative purposes and still nuanced” (Pihkala, 2022, p. 43).

Gillespie (2020), based in Australia, writes in an accessible, yet deeply affecting and informative way about how we are to face the challenges, possibilities and opportunities, and the potentially transformative processes, in our engagement with the climate and ecological crisis. Her work is informed and enriched by her experience as a Jungian psychotherapist for over two decades, and earlier doctoral research in climate psychology, among other ‘presences’ that she has in the field. It is an important resource for the counselling professions to hold. On the grieving of losses we face now and into the future, Gillepsie’s words are poignant:

“An engagement with the climate crisis broadens ecological consciousness, it presses hard on the heart. The more we love, the more we feel the loss of what we love. Climate disruption losses can be visceral for those who feel strongly connected to a place or ecosystem.” (Gillespie, 2020, p. 56).

Personal and professional development

Some training and professional development that I have undertaken and recommend are:

Psychology for a Safe Climate (Australia-based): Climate Aware Professional Development Program and the Australian Intervision (supervision) Professional Development Program

Psychology for a Safe Climate (PSC) offers the Climate Aware Professional Development Program in a series of three interactive webinars. This programme supports counsellors and therapists in developing awareness of the psychosocial contexts of the climate crisis and its impacts on mental health. Counsellors and therapists also share their emotional responses to the climate crisis and learn how to work appropriately with climaterelated emotions and issues as they present in the clinic space for individuals, couples, groups and with communities. PSC has built a network of Climate Aware Practitioners and also now offers the Australian Intervision (supervision) Professional Development Program so that practitioners can continue developing their climate-aware clinical skills and progressing in their climate journey, which PSC deems to be integral to developing such skills. As well as providing peer support, the programme focuses on refining therapeutic interventions in the emergent field of climate psychology and on adapting counselling skills in a rapidly changing therapeutic field and a climate-disrupted world.

Climate Psychology Alliance (UK-based): Through the Door, Living with the Climate Crisis, climate cafés, support for climateaware therapeutic practitioners. 

The CPA also offers a continuing professional development workshop, Through the Door, that helps psychological professionals to expand their vision of work to include the climate crisis.

In 2023, CPA has begun offering an introductory workshop and supervision for those interested in facilitating Living with the Climate Crisis. This is a new small-group experience, based on the awardwinning Carbon Conversations (Randall & Brown, 2015), that helps people find their place in the collective project of responding to climate change.

Thomas Doherty Psy.D., ‘Sustainable Self’ (US-based): Ecotherapy and Climate Conscious Therapy Training and Consultation for Mental Health Professionals

Dr Thomas Doherty facilitates the Ecotherapy and Climate Conscious Therapy Training and Consultation for Mental Health Professionals, an online group, which is presented in English but open to participants worldwide. The group meets weekly for 80 minutes over 12 weeks, with new cohorts beginning at intervals throughout the year (see selfsustain.com for details). The group is designed for mental health practitioners and other professionals seeking expert guidance and peer support for ecotherapy, climateconscious therapy and related activities (environmental education, coaching, advocacy, support for organisations). The group is suitable for advanced master’s and doctoral students, and interns. Meetings include educational topics, case examples, role-plays, self-care activities and tips for professional development. Dr Doherty also co-hosts the Climate Change and Happiness podcast: https://climatechangeandhappiness.com.

What else can you do?

Some suggestions:

■ Educate yourself on the ‘science fundamentals’ of climate change and the biodiversity/ ecological crisis by signing up to ‘digestible’ feeds from reputable organisations such as the Climate Council, Climate for Change, and the Climate and Health Alliance.

■ Bring your own responses to the crisis into awareness and create space for reflection, connection and self-care. For example, you could consider attending climate cafés, attending the training mentioned above, or tapping into the Work that Reconnects Network or The Good Grief Network.

■ Seek to influence this space in the profession, by advocating for leadership, professional development and training, conferences and workshops with your professional membership bodies and training institutions.

■ Learn ways of being in the world that are positive for the planet; find ways to ‘act’ where you can do so according to your values.

■ Be inquisitive about clinical practice initiatives as they evolve in your preferred modalities (and others).

■ Search for initiatives and linkages provided by the departments of health and other government bodies in your state.

Conclusion

The climate and ecological crisis is escalating with staggeringly rapid momentum, as are its emotional and psychological impacts. This represents an immediate challenge to all of us. There are no exceptions. There is no ‘Planet B’.

And it is the ‘challenge of our times’ for the profession. We are compelled and morally obligated to take stock and rally, both individually and collectively; for ourselves, our clients, and this magnificent but struggling planet Earth and all her life species on whom we rely for life itself.

I offer this article as an invitation for us all, in the spirit of camaraderie, connection and community, to reflect and engage in vitally urgent conversation and professional discourse on ways the counselling profession can respond to the climate and ecological crisis. Let’s put it front and centre on our professional agenda.

ACA has taken the timely initiative of dedicating this issue of the Counselling Australia to this most important topic, and for that we as a profession ought to be most grateful.

References

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About the author

Jules F B Silva is a psychotherapist in private practice in Melbourne, and climate psychology researcher. Her special interests are grief, loss, trauma (and addiction), existential concerns and the climate and ecological crisis.