Research and resources, shaped by those doing the work

This UK-based study examines the psychological consequences of flood exposure, finding elevated symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety among affected communities, with women reporting higher distress than men. Detached and rational coping strategies were most commonly reported, with detached coping associated with lower distress, while having to evacuate one's home, prior experience of flooding, and poorer general health were all linked to greater psychological impact. The study underscores that psychological distress following flooding is a significant public health concern warranting sustained attention.

A young South African writer reflects on water scarcity and eco-anxiety: torn between solving the climate issues faced daily and being a young person free of that burden.

This book is an edited collection of essays, largely by Australian Jungian Psychologists dealing with the psychological aspects of Climate Change and its imagining. Seventeen writers explore our reactions largely from the perspective of Jungian Depth Psychology. Topics covered include the relationship between myth and climate change; nature and psychology; the dynamics of prophecy, poetry and science; western and non-western philosophies; nature and gender; problems with common beliefs and our ways of thinking about disorder, and more.

Editorial introducing the special issue 'CBT in a Time of Climate and Biodiversity Crises' (Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 2024): BABCP recognises that 'we can and must take action on climate change... it is within our professional remit to apply our skills and knowledge'. On behalf of all the remarkable contributors to this special issue, we ask you to stand with us at this moment in history and choose to do what really matters. Let our CBT community be bold, and not bystanders to this crisis; let us work together and play our part in determining the future of life on Earth.

This chapter addresses the use of social dreaming to facilitate shared understanding of complex problems, such as coping with a pandemic or understanding climate anxiety. By creating a safe, containing space where unconscious thoughts and feelings are encouraged, a collective refusal to over-simplify complexity emerges. Although not therapy, social dreaming has therapeutic effects, containing anxiety, fear and trauma associated with climate change within the safety of dreams and a shared collage of images and associations.

From The Psychotherapist, Issue 40, Winter 2008-9, pp.31-33: Directly as a result of our influence, the ecosystems of the planet are becoming corrupted (in its original sense of rupture), broken down and disintegrated. It follows that the human psyche is the root origin, cause and catalyst of these changes. It is not so much the physical eco-systemic changes that are the 'problem', as usually presented - these are merely symptomatic of deeper causes rooted in the human unconscious, in unfulfilled desires and strivings, as expressed and acted out through everyday behaviour. These deeper dimensions of eco-systemic 'problems' have been neglected for decades by both the environmental movement and by psychotherapists.