Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown
This open-access book examines the psychological and emotional impacts of the climate crisis on both therapists and their clients. It explores how therapists can navigate eco-anxiety, grief, and trauma in their practice, and discusses the role of psychotherapy in addressing collective climate breakdown.
Background
- An open-access academic book (Routledge, 2024) edited by UK therapists Tree Staunton, Jenny Gorman, Caroline Hickman, and Judith Anderson, examining the emerging field of "climate-aware therapy" or "eco-therapy."
- It explores how climate breakdown affects psychotherapy practice: therapists face rising eco-anxiety, grief, and existential despair in clients, while most clinical training still treats the environment as irrelevant background.
- The book combines case studies, personal reflections, and theoretical chapters adapting existing models (Jungian, psychodynamic, somatic) to the ecological crisis.
- Caroline Hickman is a University of Bath researcher whose 2021 global survey of 10,000 young people found 59% were "very or extremely worried" about climate change and 45% said it negatively affects their daily functioning.