MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Climate touches everything. Supporting the well-being and psychological needs of children, youth, and families in the climate era necessitates that mental health practitioners be climate aware. This includes recognition of climate change as a global crises with mental health impacts on individuals and communities, the ability to recognize and respond to climate-related distress in clinical practice, and advocating for climate action within our profession.
"We live in an interconnected world, in an interconnected time, and we need holistic solutions. We have a crisis of inequalities and we need climate solutions that solve that crisis." -Naomi Klein
Climate Justice Organizations
Climate Awakening and Climate Mobilization organized by psychologist turned activist engaging "whole-society mobilization to prevent climate catastrophe"
Climate Psychiatry Alliance membership of psychiatrists engaging in climate education, psychiatric best practices in the face of climate change, and advocacy and policy
Climate Psychology Alliance membership of professionals and the general public engaging in the psychological aspects of climate and ecological emergency
Psychologists for Future membership of psychologists and therapists engaging in advocacy focused on promotion of climate resilience
Psychologists for Social Responsibility membership of psychologists and supporters "advancing peace and social justice through the ethical use of psychological knowledge, research, and practice"
Physicians for Social Responsibility membership of physicians and health professionals "contributing public health solutions for climate change and nuclear weapons abolition"
Websites
Mental health focused websites and toolkits for climate education and action
Climate Psychology Alliance Handbook
Emotional Resilience Toolkit for Climate Work
Nature and Health (University of Washington)
Climate change statements by mental health professional organizations
American Counseling Association (ACA)
American Psychiatric Association (APA)
Articles
Articles from professional organizations, mental health providers, and media sources to inform practitioners and the general public on climate health impacts and ways to take action:
Climate and Mental Health Articles
Mental Health and Our Changing Climate, 2021 Edition (ecoAmerica, 2021)
Climate Anxiety is an overwhelmingly white problem (Scientific American, 2021)
Mental health and climate change: Tackling invisible injustice (The Lancet, 2020)
People of color experience climate grief more deeply than white people do (Vice, 2020)
Noah’s Arkism 21st century style (British Psychoanalytic Council, 2020)
Stanford researchers explore the effect of climate change on suicide rates (Stanford News, 2019)
Climate grief (Kaiser Health News, 2019)
Counseling Articles
Therapists are reckoning with climate change and eco-anxiety (Earther, 2021)
Climate-aware therapy must be decolonized to serve BIPOC communities (Well+Good, 2020)
Mental health support can’t keep up with wildfires or hurricanes (Crosscut, 2020)
Mental health coordinators help people recover from disasters (Yale Climate Connections, 2020)
Climate change fact sheet (American Counseling Association Task Force, 2020)
Climate in crisis: Counselors needed (American Counseling Association, 2020)
Preparing for the mental health impact of climate change (American Counseling Association, 2017)
The role of systemic therapists in an era of environmental crisis (Family Therapy Magazine, 2019)
Psychiatry Articles
Climate change and mental health connections (American Psychiatry Association, 2019)
How extreme weather events affect mental health (American Psychiatry Association, 2019)
Climate change and mental health (Psychiatric Times, 2015)
Psychology Articles
Majority of US adults believe climate change is most important issue today (American Psychological Association, 2020)
Mental health and our changing climate - PDF (American Psychological Association, 2017)
Climate change is threatening mental health (American Psychological Association, 2016)
Children and Youth Articles
Half of child psychiatrists surveyed say patients have environmental anxiety (Guardian, 2020)
The impact of climate change on youth depression and mental health (The Lancet, 2017)
Collective Action Articles
Pandemic and climate solutions will fail without a major focus on mental health (The Hill, 2021)
The surprising reasons why people ignore the facts about climate change (Grist, 2020)
Climate change in the American mind (Climate Change Communication, 2020)
Nature & Well-being Articles
How to awaken our ecological psyche (Yes! Solutions Journalism, 2021)
A tree-filled street can positively influence depression, study finds (Guardian, 2021)
Biological diversity evokes happiness (Science Daily, 2020)
Books
While climate change is just starting to be incorporated into core curriculum within the mental health field, a growing number of authors are filling in the gaps. Visit Climate and Mind website for a more extensive list.
Academic Books
Trauma and the Discourse of Climate Change: Literature, Psychoanalysis and Denial (2020)
The Psychology of Climate Change Adaptation (2019)
Gaia, Psychology, and Deep Ecology: Navigating Climate Change in the Anthropocene (2019)
Earth, Climate, Dreams: Dialogues with Depth Psychologists in the Age of the Anthropocene (2019)
The psychology of climate change (2018)
Emotional resiliency in the era of climate change: a clinician's guide (2017)
Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis, and Radical Ethics (2016)
Psychology & Counseling Books
Facing Up to Climate Reality: Honesty, Disaster and Hope (2019)
The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival (2017)
Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (2017)
Self Help Books
Climate Cure: Heal Yourself to Heal the Planet (2020)
A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet (2020)
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. One World (2020)
Active hope: How to face the mess we're in without going crazy (2012)
Radical Acceptance (Tara Brach, 2004)
Podcasts
Climate change as a public health crisis, often overlooks mental health impacts. Mental health professionals play an important role in educating the general public, providing guidance for responding to related distress, and in creating behavioral and cultural shifts.
Full Podcast Series
Facing It (Dr. Jennifer Atkinson)
Counseling and Mental Health Podcasts
Dr. Joanne Halverson (How to Save the Planet, 2021)
Talking Climate Change in the Therapy Room (Climate Psychology Alliance, 2021)
Mental health crisis amongst the most vulnerable needs cooperation (Shaping the Future, 2021)
Dr. Britt Wray on her new book “Generation Dread” (Flipping the Table, 2020)
Trauma stewardship (Behavioral Health Today, 2020)
Social justice and ecopsychology in the therapy room (The Mind of a Therapist, 2020)
Inside Out: The Grief, Trauma and Anxiety of Climate Change (America Adapts, 2020)
Heavy weatherL Balancing Joy and Despair (Climate One, 2019)
Mind over chatter (Climate One, 2018)
Behavioral Change Podcasts
Principles for attuned thinking in a time of climate crisis (Shaping the Future, 2020)
Dragons of climate inaction (Elephant, 2020)
The psychology of learning to change (Climate Conversations, 2018)
The psychology of influencing change and facing climate emergency (Green Dreamer)
Using peer pressure toward material enoughness (Green Dreamer)
Seeing past socially constructed normalcy to find health and happiness (Green Dreamer)
Moving into emergency mode to address ecological breakdown (Green Dreamer)
What arthropods teach about Social-Emotional Learning (Green Dreamer)
What behavioral ecology teaches us (Green Dreamer)
Earth's ongoing transformations/power to enact change (Green Dreamer)
The psychology of what shapes public opinion on climate science (Green Dreamer)
Healing Podcasts
Healing through storytelling (Raíces Verdes, 2020)
In the fire: The medicine for tragedy is community (Raíces Verdes, 2020)
Slowing down to the beat of the earth (Raíces Verdes, 2020)