Climate Change on the Couch: How Psychotherapy Can Respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency – and Why It Should (Part 1)

ABSTRACT: This paper considers the position of the counselling and psychotherapy profession within the context of the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) and the profession's responsibility in addressing it. The paper frames the CEE as a social justice issue driven by power structures such as colonialism, oppression and capitalism, which has its roots in intersubjective dynamics that must be addressed by the profession. The paper takes the view that the profession is part of the social ecosystem and must therefore take an active stance in beginning to question its own position and complicity in the CEE. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), six counsellors and psychotherapists in the United Kingdom concerned about the CEE were interviewed to explore their personal thoughts and feelings and how it manifested in their clinical work. Socio-cultural and political issues in therapy and therapy training, difficulties in clinical work, and the need for sustainable thinking in the profession were identified. In arguing for an ecosystemic approach to counselling and psychotherapy — where the relational space is expanded to include extra-psychic realities — this paper bases its reasoning for new approaches on themes identified in the interviews.