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You don’t need to be a therapist or have all the answers. You need warmth, care, and a deep belief that being heard matters. If you’ve been to a Climate Café Listening Circle and thought “I want to do this for others,” this training is for you.
The underlying climate psychology that shapes the CCLC structure
Facilitation skills for holding emotionally difficult conversations
How to create environments of fairness, safety, and belonging
Practical aspects of setting up your own CCLCs, online or in person
How to manage the experience of being a participant first, then a facilitator
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As the climate crisis deepens, demand for these spaces is growing. Many people are looking for somewhere they can speak honestly, without being told to stay positive or take action.
A Climate Café Listening Circle is a facilitated, empathetic space where people can safely share feelings about the climate and ecological crisis. There are no talks, no advice, and no pressure to act. Participants listen and speak from experience. It offers a refuge for emotions often pushed aside in everyday life. Learn more about CCLCs.
By the end of the programme, you’ll be ready to set up and facilitate your own CCLCs and join a growing network of trained facilitators, with ongoing peer support through CPA.
The CPA CCLC Training programme is built for depth, not speed. It's a structured experience that takes a small group through everything they need to facilitate confidently, and builds peer relationships that last beyond the training itself.
The programme is divided into three sessions, totalling 7.5 hours. You'll have the same CPA facilitators throughout, building trust and continuity across the cohort.
Each cohort is closed and capped at 16 participants. This is intentional, the small group size lets relationships form and gives everyone room to participate fully. You're encouraged to attend with a potential co-host if you have one in mind, since CCLCs are always facilitated by two people.
You must have attended a Climate Café Listening Circle as a participant before starting the training. This is essential, you need to know what it feels like to be in the circle before you can hold one for others. CPA-led CCLCs are listed on our events calendar; you can also attend a similar circle elsewhere if it shares CPA's structure and ethos.
This training is open to anyone with the warmth and willingness to hold space. You do not need to be a therapist, counsellor, or psychologist. CCLCs are, in the words of one facilitator, "for citizens, by citizens."
The training is led by Rebecca Nestor, Gillian Broad, Linda Aspey, and the wider CPA CCLC facilitator team. Two lead facilitators run each cohort, supported by additional team members who hold mini Climate Cafés within the workshop itself.
The closed cohort format is designed to help you build a community of trusted peer facilitators for ongoing support, buddying, and potential collaboration. Once trained, you also become part of the wider CPA CCLC facilitator community.
Psychotherapist and trainer since 1978, founding facilitator of Through the Door, ex-CPA Chair, co-founder of Re-Vision, and co-author of Climate Psychology: A Matter of Life and Death (2022).
Tutor, mentor, guide, and ecotherapist, currently researching archaeotherapy for her PhD.
"We funded CPA's youth programme through our family foundation because we believe young people deserve spaces where their climate feelings are taken seriously. The work CPA is doing is irreplaceable, and we're proud to support it."
"Thank you so much for facilitating this space. It is very deeply appreciated and has nourished a space for processing the tucked-away pain of traumatic experiences from different points of my climate activism journey, as well as nurtured a sense of social connection to comrades and fellow human beings; from strangers to friends."
“I felt like I was listened to and encouraged to express my feelings, regardless of what they were”
"It was a good balance of information, practical tools, advice & reflection/sharing space. I liked having the wellbeing exercises to do in the session, as I often struggle to get myself to do them on my own, and to have someone guide with that. - Deep Resilience for a World in Crisis workshop participant "
"I'm extremely grateful for the weekend. This..held space for grief and healing is exactly what is needed in activism, and I wish for a world where everyone has access to beautiful support like this. Thank you for a wonderful and restorative experience."
"As a therapist, CPA has been the professional home I didn't realise I needed. It's where I do my deepest thinking."
"I came looking for support and found a community. CPA gave me language for feelings I didn't know how to name."
