On Saturday 20th November 2021, researchers and practitioners from across climate psychology, the arts, art therapy, and psychosocial research gathered online for an interdisciplinary exploration of key questions in climate psychology. Recordings will be available in the next few weeks.
The summit was free to attend, donations are welcome. Scroll down for pre-conference resources and links shared by speakers during the summit.
The Programme
10.00 - 10.30 Introduction & welcome
10.30 - 11.30 Climate distress
Caroline Hickman with Jennifer Uchendu & Elouise Mayall: Young people - climate anxiety, government betrayal and moral injury
Gareth Morgan & Garrett Barnwell: Power Threat Meaning Framework & institutional betrayal
11.30 - 12.45 Trauma & resilience
Tim Collings (interviewed by Sally Gillespie): Climate trauma - lived experience and community storytelling
Steffi Bednarek: Collective trauma and post-traumatic growth
Jamie Bird: Social action approach to art therapy
Daniela Fernandez-Catherall: Therapeutic work in the community
12.45 - 13.20 BREAK
13.25 - 14.25 Threat responses & organisations
Ching Li & Ally Xiang: Healthcare systems – cultures of uncare and building sustainability
Rebecca Nestor: Trauma and social defences in climate communication organisations
14.30 - 15.40 Ecological grief & nature connection
Hanna Tuulikki: Screening of film 'Under Forest Cover'
Margaret Kerr: Ecopsychology and artistic practice
Malika Virah-Sawmy: Framing climate change - planetary initiation and inter-being
15.40 - 16.15 Plenary & closing
Download the full programme and speaker info from CPA.
Organised in partnership with SCAN, with the support of the BPC, RCPsych, ACP UK, PCSR, the Coaching Alliance, BACP, UKCP, Tavistock & Portman, and the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
Resources
Introduction to the topics
Eco anxiety & managing emotions (18 min video presentation)
CPA Handbook entries: Stress, coping & defences, Eco-anxiety, Trauma, Loss, Grief (short reads)
The power of art in Helping us to 'see' climate change (podcast)
Climate anxiety FAQ
Further learning
Young People's Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon
The Psychological Mental Health Consequences of Climate Change in South Africa
Climate change, fragmentation and collective trauma: Bridging the divided stories we live by
Bayo Akomolafe - The times are urgent, let us slow down
Links shared by speakers in the summit
Ally Xiang & Ching Li: Taking a nature-based history & top ten tips for practicing psychiatry sustainably.
Hanna Tuulikki: Seal singing
Garret Barnwell & Gareth Morgan: The power threat meaning framework & The psychological mental health consequences of climate change in South Africa
The Speakers
Host:
Nadine Andrews is chair of Climate Psychology Alliance Scotland, a visiting researcher at the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, and works as a social researcher in the Scottish Government currently leading the research on Scotland's Climate Citizens' Assembly. Nadine is also a mindfulness and nature-based coach/trainer, and a qualified Mountain Leader. cultureprobe.co.uk, Twitter @cultureprobe
Session 1 Speakers:
Caroline Hickman is a psychotherapist and a teaching fellow at the University of Bath. Currently researching children & young people's feelings about the climate and biodiversity crisis using a Psychosocial free association methodology to uncover and explore different narratives and images around our defences against the 'difficult truth' of the climate and bio-diversity crisis; hidden and 'less conscious' feelings about eco-anxiety, climate change and trauma.
Jennifer Uchendu is an ecofeminist and youth climate activist based in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a sustainability communicator, analyst and founder of SustyVibes – a social enterprise making sustainability actionable for young people in Nigeria. Jennifer's interests lie between the intersects of youth, women and climate action. Recently, she focused her research on intersectional eco-anxiety in youth climate activists.
Elouise Mayall is a Master's student from the University of East Anglia studying the reintroduction of the white stork to the UK. She is also a member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, whose mission is to mobilise and empower young people to take positive action for global climate justice. She is a co-author of the recent study into climate anxiety in children and young people.
Gareth Morgan is a lecturer on the clinical psychology doctorate at Leicester University (UK). He is co-founder of the Association of Clinical Psychologists' Climate Action Network (position statement: https://acpuk.org.uk/climate_change_statement/) and a member of the British Psychological Society's Power Threat Meaning Framework working group (https://www.bps.org.uk/power-threat-meaning-framework).
Garrett Barnwell is a clinical psychologist, community psychology practitioner, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. His work centres land and environmental defenders' experiences of epistemic (in)justice from a decolonial lens. His recent reports contest power, highlighting institutional betrayal and call for climate and epistemic justice. https://bit.ly/3Cc0hGX
Session 2 Speakers:
Tim Collings is founder and CEO of 4i Leadership and has been helping leaders and organisations enhance their capability and fulfil their potential since 2003. Over this time, Tim has delivered specific talent projects and programs, leadership coaching and organisational design guidance to businesses across a dozen sectors in Asia Pacific & Europe. www.4ileadership.com
Steffi Bednarek is a Psychotherapist, Trauma Therapist and Climate Psychologist. She studied systems thinking with Fritjof Capra and has published internationally on a wide range of aspects of climate psychology and trauma. Steffi works with organisations and professionals to provide information on climate psychology and to support ripened responses to the challenges we collectively face. LinkedIn, steffibednarek.com/inter-twined
Dr Jamie Bird is based at the University of Derby. Dr Bird is involved in research around issues related to domestic abuse, and the benefits of art therapy and arts in health. They are interested in the role of imagination and creativity in responding to the climate crisis. They are an associate editor for the International Journal of Art Therapy. Twitter, ResearchGate
Dr Daniela Fernandez-Catherall is a clinical psychologist who works for the NHS. In 2019, she joined 6 other therapists from a diverse range of specialisms to found Cambridge Climate Therapists. Together they develop and deliver activities in their local community focusing on managing the distress caused by the climate and ecological emergency. Their work is based on psycho-social and community psychology principles. cambridgeclimatetherapists.org
Session 3 Speakers:
Dr Ching Li is a Sustainability Scholar for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist who has experience in critical theory, psychoanalysis, systemic and group analysis. She works in the Fostering and Adoption team at the Tavistock and Portman, as well as with a charitable organisation that promotes the mental health wellbeing of young people within Camden. rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/working-sustainably/sustainability-scholars, Twitter @RCPsychGree
Dr Ally Xiang is a specialist registrar in general adult psychiatry and medical psychotherapy majoring in psychodynamic psychotherapy, and clinical experience in cognitive behavioural, systemic and group psychotherapies, as well as research methodology having completed a MSc in Psychotherapeutic approaches in mental health. Ching and Ally are Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) Sustainability Scholars and part of the RCPsych Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee.
Rebecca Nestor is a facilitator and organisational consultant who supports those facing the climate crisis. She is a board member of the Climate Psychology Alliance and a visiting lecturer and doctoral researcher at the Tavistock Clinic, where she has recently completed a thesis on the experience of leaders in climate communications. Twitter @RebeccaClimate, Facebook @rebeccanestorclimate, website rebeccanestor.co.uk
Session 4 Speakers:
Hanna Tuulikki is an artist-composer-performer working across performance and audiovisual installation. Blending vocal music, choreography and drawing, her work investigates how bodies communicate beyond and before words to offer alternative approaches to making kin across multi-species entanglements. Her recent work engages with what it means to live on a damaged planet and meet the trauma that comes with ecological awareness. hannatuulikki.org, Twitter @HannaTuulikki, Facebook: hanna.tuulikki
Margaret Kerr holds an MFA in Art and Humanities from DJCAD, Dundee. She is now engaged in a part time practice-led PhD there, investigating history and sense of place in Scotland through the lens of Indigenous and Non-Western ontologies. Alongside her PhD she works as a psychotherapist and mountain leader. She runs outdoor retreats which focus on deepening a sense of connection with the rest of nature. Research profile, Instagram @megkerr245, Masters showcase
Dr Malika Virah-Sawmy is an activist, facilitator, researcher and previously a conservation manager. Her work is concerned with transforming sustainability with generative facilitation and systems science. She has been engaged in social transformation within and at the fringes of institutions, and works on systems change with companies, institutions such as the UN, NGOs, and with social movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Deep Adaptation Network. sensemakerscollective.com
