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Are you looking for help with your climate anxiety? Or perhaps you’d like to find out about some of the individuals or organisations working in this area? We hope this list of resources is useful.

For Young People

 

Organisations to Connect With

Climate Journal Project - A space, practice and community to help alleviate eco-anxiety. Through guided reflections and challenges, empower yourself and others to transition away from planetary grief and climate change paralysis.

Force of Nature - founded by youth activist, Clover Hogan, Force of Nature empowers young people to turn their eco-anxiety into agency, and work with leaders across business and education to drive intergenerational solutions.

The Resilience Project - An organisation whose mission is to build communities of support across the UK, with mental health at heart. The belief is that facing difficult truths is easier in community, and that stepping forward can result in empowerment and flourishing, rather than exhaustion and despair.

 

Books & Articles

Eco Distress for Young People - a web page produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists which aims to help you understand the distress you might be feeling and provide you with tools to help you feel better and take action.

GenDread Newsletter - a weekly newsletter by science communicator, Britt Wray, on how to stay sane in the climate crisis. Britt is “gathering the ingredients for good mental and emotional health in the climate and wider ecological crisis - and sharing the recipes.”

Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis - a book by Britt Wray on how to stay sane amid climate disruption.

Youth Activists of Colour - a detailed list of prominent young people of colour who are active in the UK environmental movement.

 

 

How to Change Everything: the young person’s guide to protecting the planet and each other - a book by Naomi Klein offering readers a comprehensive look at the state of the climate today, how we got here and how to join the fight to protect the planet while looking after each other.

'Older generations can't understand': XR Youth on being heard - a Guardian article about XR Youth members and their frustration with trying to make their voices heard and express the urgency they believe others struggle to fully grasp.

Despite 14 years of formal education it fell to me to teach myself about the climate crisis - an Independent article by Joe Brindle, young founder of Teach the Future, on the lack of climate change education in the curriculum.

 

 

Multi's Gift to Nature - a story for children who are worried about climate change. The story gives children a clear message that their gift is to enjoy nature and it is the adults’ job to solve problems with the help of others. It focuses on a child’s well-being and their relationship with nature. The book is for 7 to 11 year old children. 

 

 

 

Podcasts & Videos

Navigating Youth in a time of Climate Change - a CPA podcast episode in which climate-aware psychotherapist, Caroline Hickman, talks with youth activist, Sophia Thornton.

Climate Change - Finding the Silver Lining - a two part CPA podcast episode featuring youth activist, Martha Stringer, in discussion with Caroline Hickman. Part two is here.

From Anxiety to Agency - a CPA podcast episode in which Force of Nature founder and youth activist, Clover Hogan, chats to Caroline Hickman.

Turning Eco-anxiety into Eco-action - A conversation between Caroline Hickman and Clover Hogan as part of Nature History Museum’s Broken Planet series.

 

For Parents, Educators and Carers

Supporting our young people as they face the climate and ecological crisis can be hard. We’re growing a list of resources and organisations here which we hope may help.

Eco distress: for parents and carers - A Royal College of Psychiatrists web page for parents, carers, teachers and others who support children and young people, to explain what eco distress is, how to recognise if your child is experiencing it, and how to help them cope with their feelings

Guidance on Effective Climate Change Communication with Children - this guide was commissioned by Globe International and prepared by Caroline Hickman for the Schools Summit of London Climate Action Week 2021.

We need to find a way to talk about eco anxiety - a paper by climate-aware psychotherapist and CPA member, Caroline Hickman, which focuses on children and young people’s perspectives on ecoanxiety, drawing on clinical practice examples & research findings and offering conceptual frames to help us broaden and deepen our understanding of this evolving syndrome.

How to talk to Kids about Climate Change - an article and podcast episode including advice from senior psychologist, Susie Burke, of the Australian Psychological Society.

The Kids Are Not Ok - an article by climate scientist J.K Steinberger. 

How to Talk to Your Kids about Climate Change: Turning Angst into Action - a book by “ClimateMama” Harriet Shugarman providing tools and strategies for parents to explain the climate emergency to their children in an age-appropriate way.

All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal with Climate Change - a workbook by climate-aware psychotherapist, Leslie Davenport, for younger readers to help them work through their feelings of anxiety about climate change.

Teaching Climate Change - a free & comprehensive curriculum from ThoughtBox Education to empower the climate strike generation and help teachers around the world invite climate conversations into the classroom. Requires sign up.

LifeKind - CPA member Jo McAndrew's website is a rich resource for information, practical tools and training to help parents and educators support children and young people as they face the climate crisis. Don’t miss her blog, including this moving post A Letter to My Daughter.

Parenting in a Changing Climate - Elizabeth Bechard offers practical tools, resources, and inspiration for parents who are worried about the planet future generations will inherit and who want to find a way to cultivate resilience and take action on behalf of the children they love.

Kids Climate Action Network (Kids CAN) - a coalition of Oxford-based organisations and individuals working to create safe, fact-based and empowering climate change resources and information for children, and to support the adults around them.

Climate & Mind - A US based organisation run by psychotherapist, Andrew Bryant. Their website features a wealth of resources on the climate crisis and mental health generally including a fantastic section dedicated to parents and teachers.

Radical Geographer Paul - website of teacher, climate crisis campaigner, radical curriculum author & activist with extensive resources for teachers and schools.

Teach the Future - an inclusive, well organised and persistent campaign by secondary and tertiary education students to greatly improve education on the climate emergency and ecological crisis in the UK.

The Conceivable Future - a guide exploring the ways in which the climate crisis affects our personal decisions about family planning, parenting, and political action. 

Authors Meghan Elizabeth Kallman and Josephine Ferorelli offer fresh, timely answers to questions such as: How do I decide to have a baby when there's the threat of environmental collapse? How do I parent a child in the middle of the climate crisis? What can I actually do to help stop global warming?

 

 

 

General

Tips for activists' welfare - Climate Trauma Survival Tips from climate aware psychiatrist, Lise Van Susteren, taken from a 2009 article by climate activist Gillian Caldwell.

Project Inside Out - Renée Lertzman’s work with Project Inside Out applies the latest research and best practices in psychology to help people on the journey from despair, passivity, and denial toward courageous, more impactful environmental action.

Climate Change & Happiness Podcast - Panu Pihkala & Thomas Doherty aim to give language to what you feel about the climate crisis—and also what you might want to feel, feelings you can grow and cultivate.

Climate Psychology Conversations- This podcast by CPA North America captures the heart of what’s emerging in the fields of climate psychology and climate-aware mental health care.

We are offering a new monthly space for young people for warm care, deep listening and tools for resilience. You are welcome to come as a one-off or every month if you would like to. 

Adapted from the Death Café model, a climate café is a simple, hospitable, empathetic space where fears & uncertainties about our climate & ecological crisis can be safely expressed.

 

Why do we need Climate Cafés?

As it becomes more evident that climate and ecological breakdown are a clear and present danger to our safety and wellbeing, we increasingly need to talk about what our changing world means for us in terms of impacts at personal, family and societal level. We need to imagine it in some detail so as to be able to think about it clearly and constructively, and to explore some complex feelings and thoughts which may often be taboo and hard to talk about.

With sturdy enough support structures in place, most people can sustain challenging feelings without either dissociating and numbing or going into blind panic. They can engage with difficult truths whilst staying connected and grounded.

A climate café aims to be such a structure - a container that is strong enough to allow the exploration of fear, anxiety, and other emotions such as anger, helplessness, sadness, grief or depression.

 

What happens during a Climate Café?

The focus of discussion is participants’ thoughts and feelings about the climate and ecological crisis. There are no guest speakers and no talks, and it is an advice-free zone. Whilst the climate and ecological crisis is usually the main focus of the café we realise that other related preoccupations need a space to be explored. This can happen here too.

Our cafés are open to anyone aged 18 or over who is worried about the climate and ecological crisis.

If you are under 18 and need support please follow this link for resources that we hope may help, including access to our list of practitioners offering three free sessions of therapeutic support to those who feel they would benefit from it. We have also been developing programmes of support for young people which have recently been piloted. You can find out more about those here.

If you are a parent/carer of a child or young person, you may wish to check out our Parent/Carer/Guardian Climate Circles which are currently running twice per month.

 

Who will be leading the Climate Café?

Two people facilitate each climate café - they come from a pool of more than forty facilitators from within our membership.

Training and ongoing supervision for our facilitators is provided by a small, experienced team headed by Rebecca Nestor and Gillian Broad who lead our organisation’s Climate Café offering.

 

How do I book a place?

Our climate cafés are held online three times per month. Follow this link to our Eventbrite page to find a date that suits you or check our events calendar which also lists climate cafés held by CPA Scotland and other independent offerings from our trained members,  If the date of your choice is fully booked please join the waiting list as places do become available at short notice and we endeavour to hold additional cafés simultaneously when we can. The waiting list also helps us understand the level of demand.

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to get in touch.