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Climate Distress
How to use this page: Resources are organized in response to questions that come up often in my work. You might start with the questions that resonate most with you. Resources are updated regularly.
What am I feeling?
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The Climate Emotions Wheel helps us name what we're feeling
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The Process Model of Eco Anxiety and Eco-Grief helps us visualize the journey
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Ecopsychepedia helps us explore the research
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Francis Weller helps us name grief​
Is this normal?
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Yes. You are having healthy, adaptive responses to real threats and real loss.
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Generation Dread (book) validates this​
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Climate Change and Happiness (podcast) validates this
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We Are The Great Turning (podcast) validates this
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Other people feel it too.
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Attend a Climate Cafe to see for yourself​
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Or explore the Good Grief Network
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It's not only normal, it's an important remembering of our interconnection
But I feel really bad...?
Climate emotions are both healthy reactions to real stress AND a looming mental health crisis. For example:
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Extreme weather events can worsen pre-existing mental health conditions and trigger PTSD.
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Young people might experience pre-traumatic stress and betrayal trauma.
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Increasing ecological and sociopolitical upheaval create public health crises.
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Activists on the frontlines of ecological loss may experience profound burnout and disenfranchised grief.
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Healthy climate emotions are always interacting with our current reality, our history, and our identities.
And all this is happening within a dominant culture that is generally not supportive or helpful.
So, these experiences can usher in transformation and resilience but also trauma, depression, and severe mental illness.
How do I know I need help?
We generally need more support when our healthy climate emotions interact with our "stuff" (personal, intergenerational, and cultural) in a painful and unhelpful way
AND/OR
When living in our individualistic industrial consumer society is making it really hard to sort out that interaction.
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Unthinkable's Dear Climate Therapist column can help us figure out whether we need more support.
So can a Climate Cafe​.
What kind of help?
Self-Help
Books
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General:
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Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety by Britt Wray​
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Eye of the Storm: Facing climate and social chaos with calm and courage by Terry LePage
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A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to keep your cool on a warming planet by Sarah Jaquette Ray
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Earth Emotions: New words for a new world by Glenn Albrecht
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It's Not Just You: How to navigate eco-anxiety and the climate crisis by Tori Tsui
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For Parents (and prospective parents):
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The Conceivable Future: Planning Families and Taking Action in the Age of Climate Change by Meghan Elizabeth Kallman and Ferorelli
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Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for cultivating resilience, taking action, and practicing hope in the face of climate change by Elizabeth Bechard
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Raising Children in the Midst of Global Crisis: A Compassionate Guidebook for New Paradigm Parenting by Jo delAmor
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This Sweet Earth: Walking with Our Children in the Age of Climate Collapse by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
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Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding whether to have children in an uncertain future by Jade Sasser, Ph.D
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For Kids​
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​All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to deal with climate change by Leslie Davenport, Ph.D.​
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What to do When Climate Change Scares You: A kid's guide to dealing with climate change stress by Leslie Davenport, Ph.D.
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Podcasts
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So can learning new ways of thinking about this time.
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​Therapy
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Explore individual support or find a climate-aware therapist near you.
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Community​
Thicket (emotional resilience course)​​
Interested in exploring this material with your organization, team, or community? Explore Consultation and Workshops or contact me.