Climate Change on the Couch: How Psychotherapy Can Respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency – and Why It Should (Part 2)

2023-4
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ABSTRACT: This is Part 2 of 'Climate Change on the Couch' (Mowat, 2022). It considers how the counselling and psychotherapy profession could be preparing trainees to support clients presenting climate-related issues such as distress or trauma. The paper expands on the theme of framing the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) as a social-justice issue by looking at it through an environmental intersectional lens, whereby our relationship with each other and the environment is seen as an intersectional emergency. Applying an interpretive phenomenological (IPA) approach, six counsellors and psychotherapists concerned about the CEE were interviewed to explore their personal thoughts and feelings, and how the CEE manifests in their clinical work. This paper offers a theoretical underpinning for two domains identified in the interviews: (1) Perception of past, present and future in relation to life on the planet; and (2) Why it is difficult to think and talk about the CEE.

ABSTRACT: This is Part 2 of 'Climate Change on the Couch' (Mowat, 2022). It considers how the counselling and psychotherapy profession could be preparing trainees to support clients presenting climate-related issues such as distress or trauma. The paper expands on the theme of framing the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) as a social-justice issue by looking at it through an environmental intersectional lens, whereby our relationship with each other and the environment is seen as an intersectional emergency. Applying an interpretive phenomenological (IPA) approach, six counsellors and psychotherapists concerned about the CEE were interviewed to explore their personal thoughts and feelings, and how the CEE manifests in their clinical work. This paper offers a theoretical underpinning for two domains identified in the interviews: (1) Perception of past, present and future in relation to life on the planet; and (2) Why it is difficult to think and talk about the CEE.

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