This work needs you

Whether you have time, skills, money, professional networks, or simply the willingness to show up, your involvement makes this work possible. CPA is a community of practitioners, researchers, students, activists, artists, and supporters who together hold space for the psychological dimensions of the climate crisis. None of it happens without people like you.

Field gate at dusk, with rolling countryside beyond

Why this work needs more than good will

Person with an umbrella walking down a rainy street at night

The climate crisis is reshaping every part of human life, and the emotional and psychological weight of it is reshaping the people who care most. Climate-aware therapists are seeing it in their consulting rooms. Activists are burning out. Young people are growing up under the weight of an inheritance no one prepared them for. Parents are trying to raise children honestly in a world that feels unstable. Researchers are tracking grief, anxiety, and despair at scales we have never measured before.

CPA exists to meet that weight with care, with rigour, and with community. We hold listening circles, train facilitators, support practitioners, publish research, and bring climate psychology into the conversations where decisions are being made. We do all of it on the smallest of budgets, sustained by member contributions, grant funding, and the generosity of people who believe this work has to exist.

Two women talking on a sofa
One person passing a notebook to another across a table

When you donate, partner, volunteer, or become a member, you're not just supporting an organisation. You're helping protect the spaces where people are doing some of the hardest emotional work of this generation. You're helping a young person find their first community of climate-aware peers. You're helping a therapist sit more steadily with a client who can't sleep for fear of what's coming. You're helping a researcher publish work that shifts the field. The difference is concrete.

What involvement looks like, from people who've stepped in

"What's amazing and wonderful about being part of a research community in CPA is the way that community is always able to give attention to the process, the relationships, what the researcher themselves is feeling, alongside and informing what it is we're researching. And that combination makes it much deeper and more meaningful".

Rebecca Nestor, CPA co-chair

"I just wanted to feedback that the CPA event last week at York was fantastic and my inbox is full of praise for Gareth and Laura. They did a phenomenal job and folks were so grateful for the time and space to explore the topic. Many thanks for your help in arranging the session - huge appreciation from us at York."

Dr Kelli Kennedy

"For me, CPA is an intellectual and emotional community. It's a space of care. It's also a space of resistance to the crazy strictures of late capitalism. A space for my grief."

Rebecca Nestor, CPA co-chair

"Whenever we have a meeting we have a check in, and that can be sometimes a bit longer or just one word about how we’re feeling as we come into this meeting but it just reminds us that our emotions are coming with us."

Gillian Broad, CPA co-chair

"I really enjoy the creativity of CPA's structures and relationships - it gives me a little leap of joy is when something is done differently. I really like these alternative approaches, sociocracies, working with the notion of circles rather than hierarchies. That really excites me. Whenever you come into a CPA space, something slightly different will happen which is just energising”

Gillian Broad, CPA co-chair

“I really enjoy being able to connect with other young people who also experience complex climate emotions in a safe space where I feel seen and heard.”

Young member

"Really appreciate the easy and broad access to opportunities, resources and networks - thank you!"

Young member

“I really enjoyed the collective creativity during the workshop and it has stayed with me since.”

Through the Door participant, 2024

“I am learning to live with a new sense of vulnerability without answers.”

Through the Door participant

“There was always a warm welcome in each session. I enjoyed the openness to explore real challenges and the shared experience of the leaders, who lead from a space of caring within the guiding principles. Time was managed effectively with space to reflect and consider diverse use of language and perspective.”

CCLC training participant

“I was inspired by how the co-facilitators worked and ‘danced’ together. This role modelled how I would like to work and frames some of the contributions I would seek out in a co-facilitator.”

CCLC training participant

“Hearing others speak about concerns that I struggle with normalised my experience and made me feel less alone. It also felt significant that we were a cross-cultural group, having common experiences despite living in different countries.”

Parent and Carer Circle participant

“[The most positive aspect for me was] being seen and listened to without judgement and with mutual understanding and care.”

Parent and Carer Circle participant

“The facilitators held the space gently and with care.”

Parent and Carer Circle participant

“It was wonderful to feel like we were able to build a safe space and mini-community based on common perspectives and experiences in such a short time frame. It helped so much to have my feelings validated, knowing that other mamas are experiencing similar things.”

Parent and Carer Circle participant

“[I felt] calmer, connected (not lonely as usual), supported by a net of people as worried as me.”

Parent and Carer Circle participant

"I feel that I have connected to deeply held emotions and whilst that makes me feel vulnerable, I also feel more authentic. ."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"It was the first time I felt able to cry about nature, the loss. I hadn’t realised how upset I was until then."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I found it comforting to hear from others, to find that other people have similar thoughts, feelings and struggles. It made me feel connected and less alone in it all."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I feel that I have connected to deeply held emotions and whilst that makes me feel vulnerable, I also feel more authentic."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"Listening and feeling heard helped me to connect much more deeply to my own emotions than I had expected."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I found it comforting to hear from others, to find that other people have similar thoughts, feelings and struggles in the face of climate breakdown. It made me feel connected and less alone in it all."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I loved the gentleness and the care"

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I came away feeling like I was being accompanied and well-held... It was such a gift to self."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I felt a sense of connection and sharing of emotional states"

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I felt validated, witnessed, seen and soothed."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"CPA ran a session for us focused on supporting team resilience and wellbeing while working on the challenging topic of climate change. Linda and Louise designed and delivered an extremely thoughtful session, tailored to exactly what we wanted to achieve. The team got a lot from the session and appreciated the supportive space created by the CPA team. This helped us build both our individual and team resilience, and the skills we developed are highly valuable in the work we do. I personally wouldn't hesitate to recommend CPA!"

Charlotte

“Our audience at the BIAZA Conservation Education Conference needed a deeper understanding of how people emotionally process climate and conservation challenges. CPA provided that insight brilliantly. Louise delivered the session with clarity and warmth. The climate psychology perspective completely reframed how we think about engagement and action collectively across zoos and aquariums.”

Chris Ely

"We became more familiar with the capacity to soothe ourselves as we cross the uncertain 'thresholds of cultural crisis"

Through the Door participant

"I learned that through constellating in groups we see a bigger story of what is within and between us"

Through the Door participant

I loved the mixture of sharing and exercises. Felt really connected which is impressive given we’re on Zoom

Youth Support Space participant

"I like the openness of the space not only in terms of being a safe space, or a courageous space, to share what I feel but also with the activities to facilitate expressions of these feelings such as music, journals, movements etc."

Youth Support Space participant

"I felt validated, witnessed, seen and soothed."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"This work is profound and useful. The facilitated structure of two rounds is an unfolding and builds connection gradually. "Silence is a welcome guest" as I learned through exploration. "

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"As a coach working within communities where the impact of climate change are being directly experienced; there is a need for a safe space to share the challenging emotions that are felt. This training enabled me to facilitate a safe container for group participants to share because they care. In sharing Climate related emotions, there is a space created, a stuck-ness that begins to move and a sense of shared experience and even renewed hope. "

CCLC training participant

"Being part of the young members group changed how I see my place in the climate movement. I'm not alone anymore."

Student member

"As a therapist, CPA has been the professional home I didn't realise I needed. It's where I do my deepest thinking."

CPA member

"I came looking for support and found a community. CPA gave me language for feelings I didn't know how to name."

CPA member

"I've been to conferences my whole career. Nothing has felt like CPA. It's rigorous, it's warm, it's honest, and it trusts its members to shape it. I've never quite seen anything like it."

CPA member
Climate researcher

"As a student, I worried I didn't know enough to belong here. Instead, I've been welcomed in, mentored by practitioners with decades of experience, and trusted to bring my own perspective. It changed how I see my place in this field."

CPA young member
Trainee counsellor

"I joined looking for peers who took climate feelings as seriously as I did. I found a community that also took care seriously, justice seriously, and showing up for each other seriously. CPA is the professional home I didn't know I was looking for."

CPA member
psychotherapist

"Yesterday, I was so surprised and energised by the marvellously imaginative and creative event you facilitated. I can't believe I'm saying this of a Zoom event!!! It felt fertile and productive but also, painful and confusing. But, above all I felt energised… The group thinking triggered not just the loss and chaos of the Crisis but also my personal story. I think this was the 'powerful' connection enlivened in me. Playful, creative and imaginative crisis! If this is what is on the other side of the door .....then, count me in."

Participant, 2023

“My own experience of Through the Door was life-changing and I love thinking about how others will experience it. I went to the CPA Through the Door workshop in 2019, and it got me thinking with others about how my work with groups and leadership could enable me to respond to the climate crisis. It was a transformational experience and I credit it with the development of the climate café model.”

Rebecca Nestor

"It's hard to overstate how much it mattered to be in a closed cohort. By the end, I knew the people in my training group, and we still support each other."

CCLC training graduate

"I came in thinking I needed therapeutic credentials to do this work. I left understanding that what I actually needed was warmth, structure, and the willingness to sit with hard feelings. The training gave me all three."

CCLC training graduate

"The training gave me the confidence and the community to start holding spaces in my own town. I'm not doing this alone anymore, I have a network of co-facilitators I trust."

CCLC training graduate

"The CCLC training gave me the confidence and the community to start holding spaces in my own town. I'm not doing this alone anymore."

CCLC training graduate

"Yesterday, I was so surprised and energised by the marvellously imaginative and creative event you facilitated. I can't believe I'm saying this of a Zoom event!!! It felt fertile and productive but also, painful and confusing. But, above all I felt energised… The group thinking triggered not just the loss and chaos of the Crisis but also my personal story. I think this was the 'powerful' connection enlivened in me. Playful, creative and imaginative crisis! If this is what is on the other side of the door .....then, count me in."

Through the Door participant

"My own experience of Through the Door was life-changing and I love thinking about how others will experience it. I went to the CPA Through the Door workshop in 2019, and it got me thinking with others about how my work with groups and leadership could enable me to respond to the climate crisis. It was a transformational experience and I credit it with the development of the climate café model."

Rebecca Nestor

“The session brought us back down to earth to collectively process emotions like rage, guilt, fear, and hope, and reflect on how to channel them towards effective actions for mitigating ecological decline.”

Dr Heather Alberro
Lecturer in Sustainability

“CPA contributed to the production of an audio about climate cafes for a new psychology module. Rebecca and Thulsi provided expert knowledge on a sensitive topic in a really accessible way for our students. They were so easy to work with and the whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable.”

Dr Trudi Macagnino
Senior Lecturer/Staff Tutor, Psychology and Counselling

“Linda has brought a huge amount of knowledge and experience to this work. The training that myself and colleagues received on how to facilitate the Climate Cafés was very thoughtful and thought provoking. I am so grateful to Linda and the CPA for their ongoing support and encouragement.”

Jenny Barrett
Wellbeing Manager

"I've been living with climate grief for years without a word for it. The circle gave me that word, and the room to feel it."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"I've been living with climate grief for years without a word for it. The circle gave me that word, and the room to feel it."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"It's the only place I've found where I can say how terrified I am about what's coming, without someone trying to reassure me or change the subject."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

"It was so amazing and Sarah, Gareth, Pete and Mim all did a great job to organise the weekend. We had a schedule but it was very loose and there was no rush to do anything so it created a really relaxing and supportive environment that allowed me to have beautiful moments of connection with other young people who also care passionately about the environment. I would love to do it again."

Climate Resilience Weekender participant

"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."

Funder
Family foundation

"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."

Retreat participant

“I felt like I was listened to and encouraged to express my feelings, regardless of what they were”

Support Space for Young Adults participant

"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."

Youth Retreat participant

"As a therapist, CPA has been the professional home I didn't realise I needed. It's where I do my deepest thinking."

CPA member and practitioner

"I came looking for support and found a community. CPA gave me language for feelings I didn't know how to name."

Climate Café Listening Circle participant

The work in numbers

A snapshot of CPA's impact, drawn from the last year of work.

900+

members - and membership keeps growing, year on year.

300+

participants in free online support spaces last year. Free, hospitable spaces for anyone navigating climate distress.

60+

trained CCLC facilitators - joining a community of over 200 people now facilitating their own events for participants across the globe.

170+

free therapeutic support sessions delivered through CPA's directory of climate-aware practitioners.

40+ publications

publications by CPA members (including books, chapters, articles and research papers) shaping the public discourse on climate psychology.

3000+

subscribers to the Climate Crisis Digest Monthly reflections on our changing world through a climate psychology lens.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Where does my money go?

CPA is a small charity with a small team and a tight budget. Donations and grant funding go directly to programme costs: facilitating Climate Café Listening Circles, training new facilitators, running youth and parent support, publishing Explorations in Climate Psychology journal, maintaining the One-to-one Support Directory, and keeping our offerings free or low-cost for those who need them. We publish an annual report each year, available here.

Is CPA a registered charity?

Yes. Climate Psychology Alliance Limited is a Registered Company and Charitable Community Benefit Society (no. 8467) registered with the FCA. We are governed by the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, with full charitable tax exemption from HMRC.

Can I make a donation in someone's name or in memory of someone?

Yes. If you'd like to make a donation in honour or memory of someone, get in touch and we'll arrange it. We can send a card to the person or family if helpful.

Can I donate from outside the UK?

Yes. CPA accepts international donations through our online payment platform. If you're a US-based donor, you may also wish to support our sister organisation, Climate Psychology Alliance of North America →, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and may be more tax-efficient for you.

Can my organisation partner with CPA on a project?

Almost certainly yes. CPA partners with charities, NGOs, academic institutions, faith organisations, and businesses across a range of projects, training, joint research, talks, consultancy, and more. The best place to start is a conversation. Get in touch → and we'll help work out whether it’s a fit.

What kind of volunteer roles are available?

Most volunteer roles at CPA happen through our working groups: the Climate Café Listening Circle facilitator network, the Explorations in Climate Psychology journal editorial group, the decolonising and antiracism working group, the youth team, and others. If you have a specific skill you'd like to contribute (writing, editing, design, research, event support, technology), get in touch.

Do I have to be a therapist or psychologist to get involved?

No. CPA welcomes practitioners from many disciplines, and many of our members and supporters are not therapists at all. Researchers, coaches, students, artists, activists, climate scientists, writers, and people drawn to this work for personal reasons are all welcome.

How do I make a one-off vs a recurring donation?

Both are supported. Our donation page lets you choose between a one-off gift or a monthly recurring contribution. Recurring donations help us plan and budget, but every gift, in any form, is welcome.

I'm interested in funding a specific project. Can I do that?

Yes. CPA welcomes both restricted funding (for specific programmes or projects) and unrestricted funding (which gives us flexibility to direct money where it's most needed). We're happy to discuss what you'd like to support and work out the right structure together. Get in touch about funding →.

Ready to get more involved?

Contact our team
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