Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:52:01.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - Therapists’ Perspectives

Psychotherapeutic Techniques with Applicability to Climate Distress

from Part II - Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Youth Climate Distress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2024

By
Elizabeth Allured  and
Barbara Easterlin
Edited by
Elizabeth Haase  and
Kelsey Hudson
Elizabeth Haase
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Reno
Kelsey Hudson
Affiliation:
Climate Psychology Alliance North America
Get access

Summary

Clinical work with climate-distressed youth using a developmental framework is described, from two theoretical perspectives: acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy. General principles of climate-informed therapy are delineated, and case examples illustrate the use of theory in practice. Interventions involving the family, psychoeducation, resilience-building skills, developing a conscious relationship to nature, engaging in environmentally beneficial actions, increasing the tolerance for uncertainty, and developing career goals around the needs of a changing environment and society are described. The authors discuss the need for the clinician to prepare themselves for the challenges of this work, which include one’s own reactions of emotional distress when youth bring this topic up. Ways the clinician can model responses to climate distress are discussed, including staying informed about the multiple unfolding, intersecting crises, and tolerating a multitude of emotional reactions attendant to this urgent situation. The clinician is encouraged to have and use play materials that can be adapted to environmental themes. The importance of providing a secure attachment relationship to use as a base in “weathering the storms” of the climate crisis is emphasized.

Keywords

youthclinicaldevelopmentalclimate distressenvironmentinterventionspsychotherapyintergenerational conflictclimate-informed therapyeco-anxiety
Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change and Youth Mental Health
Multidisciplinary Perspectives
 , pp. 189 - 209
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albano, A. M., & Kendall, P. C. (2002). Cognitive behavioural therapy for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders: Clinical research advances. International Review of Psychiatry, 14, 129–134. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/09540260220132644CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allured, E. (2014). Blind spot in the analytic lens: Our failure to address environmental uncertainty. In Willock, B., Coleman Curtis, R., & Bohm, L. (Eds.), Understanding and coping with failure: Psychoanalytic perspectives. Routledge.Google Scholar
Allured, E. (2019). The illusion of a future: Adolescents face smoke and mirrors with a good-enough and bad-enough eco-analyst. Manhattan Institute Conference: Climate Change, Inside and Outside the Consulting Room, December 12, 2020. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of psychiatric disorders (5th ed., text rev.). APA. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787httGoogle Scholar
Beebe, B., & Lachman, F. (2013). The origins of attachment: Infant research and adult treatment. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, G. N., Anderson, C., Berman, M., Cochran, B., & Devries, S. (2019). Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. Science Advances, 5(7) doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax090CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clayton, S., & Karazsia, B (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 101434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Consulo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2020). Comment: Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(7), E261–E263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3Google Scholar
Craske, M. G., Kircanski, K., Zelikowsky, M., Mystkowski, J., Chowdhury, N., & Baker, A. (2008). Optimizing inhibitory learning during exposure therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(1), 5–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2007.10.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dooley, L., Sheats, J., Hamilton, O., Chapman, D., & Karlin, B. (2021). Climate change and youth mental health: Psychological impacts, resilience resources, and future directions. See Change Institute.Google Scholar
Fyfe Johnson, A. L., Hazlehurst, M. F., Perrins, S. P., Bratman, G. N., Thomas, R., Garrett, K. A., … & Tandon, P. S. (2021). Nature and children’s health: A systematic review. Pediatrics, 148(4), e2020049155. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-049155CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gil, E. (1991). The healing power of play: Working with abused children. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Havel, V. (1990). Disturbing the peace. Knopf Publishing, pp. 181–182.Google Scholar
Hawken, P. (2017). Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Hayes, S., Luoma, B., Bond, F., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., … & van Susteren, L. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–e873. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoggett, P. (2013). Climate change in a perverse culture. In Weintrobe, S. (Ed.), Engaging with climate change: Psychoanalytic and interdisciplinary perspectives. Routledge.Google Scholar
Klein, M. (1997). The psychoanalysis of children. Vintage.Google Scholar
Lifton, R. (2017). The climate swerve. The New Press.Google Scholar
Ojala, M. (2015). Hope in the face of climate change: Associations with environmental engagement and student perceptions of teachers’ emotion communication style and future orientation. Journal of Environmental Education, 46(3), 133–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2015.1021662CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orange, D. (2017). Climate crisis, psychoanalysis, and radical ethics. Routledge.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1971). The theory of stages in cognitive development. In Ross, D., M. P. Ford, & Flamer Green, G. B. (Eds.), Measurement and Piaget. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Samuels, A. (2017). The “activist client”: Social responsibility, the political self, and clinical practice in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 27, 678–694. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2017.1379324CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santostefano, S. (2004). Child therapy in the great outdoors: A relational view. Routledge.Google Scholar
Schertz, K., & Berman, M. (2019). Understanding nature and its cognitive benefits. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419854100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 65(2), 98–109. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0018378CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sifuentes, J. E., York, E. A., & Thomas, J. R.(2022). Climate change and youth mental health. Oregon Health Authority, May. https://sharedsystems.dhsoha.state.or.us/DHSForms/Served/le4212.pdfGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, H. (1954). The psychiatric interview: The technique of the personal inquiry; A valuable guide for the psychiatrist, social worker, personnel manager and counsellor. Norton and Co.Google Scholar
Weintrobe, S. (2021). Psychological roots of the climate crisis: Neoliberal exceptionalism and the culture of uncare. Bloomsbury.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whis.stem.men.knee (1987, February) Open Center Workshop, New York.Google Scholar
Whitmarsh, L., Player, L., Jiongco, A., James, M., Williams, M. O., Marks, E., & Kennedy-Williams, P. (2022). Climate anxiety: What predicts it and how is it related to climate action? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83, 101866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101866CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winnicott, D. (1985). The maturational processes and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional development. Hogarth Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×