Climate change distress is a challenge to people seeking help, and to those providing help. Those providing help are working in a new area of clinical practice where little is known, but they may also be experiencing climate change distress. The aim of this article is to highlight the personal and professional implications of the unfolding climate crisis and how we might better understand and support those with understandable, yet intense, emotional reactions to the climate crisis. This article consists of a first-person narrative by the first author, and a commentary on the narrative based on the psychology of climate change literature by the second author. We have worked independently on the narrative and commentary; each is responsible for their own contribution. The narrative highlights the first author’s personal experience of moving from denial to facing the truth of the climate crisis and the impact on professional practice. The commentary by the second author found that literature is scarce, but more familiar areas of practice may help to understand and respond to climate change distress. Practitioners face a situation where they may experience similar emotions to their clients, analogous to the shared threat of the pandemic. Awareness of the crisis is daunting, but therapy, self-reflection and action can help hold our emotions and support our clients. The evidence is limited but experience of the pandemic suggests that CBT can respond, adapt, innovate, and even revolutionise mental healthcare. These two perspectives suggest, despite the challenges, there may be reasons for hope.

1. (1) To increase familiarity with climate change distress and its multi-faceted presentations.

2. (2) To understand the importance of self-care for climate activists and the different forms this may take.

3. (3) To consider the implications of being a practitioner helping people with climate change distress, while also experiencing climate change distress.

4. (4) To reflect on the tensions between, and the potential integration of, the personal and the professional in the context of climate change.

Both extreme weather and climate change have been linked to distress and at times mental health problems. Pro-environmental actions have often been related to higher distress. The uncertainty distress model (Freeston et al., 2020) proposes that in real-world situations, perceptions of threat and uncertainty contribute to distress. The aim of this study is to integrate variables from these two literatures and examine their relationships.

A community sample (n=327) was recruited and completed an online survey. Network analysis was used to analyse the relationships between the variables. Exposure to extreme weather, perceptions of climate change, climate change distress and pro-environmental action were measured along with symptoms of adjustment disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, and uncertainty intolerance and behaviours.

There was variable exposure to extreme weather, but greater exposure was associated with more severe post-traumatic symptoms. Pro-environmental action was associated with greater severity of adjustment disorder symptoms. The perception that climate change was happening now was linked positively to pro-environmental action and negatively to perceptions of uncertainty about whether climate change was happening.

The results replicate several findings from the emerging climate change distress literature and are consistent with some predictions of the uncertainty distress model, but not others. Uncertainty as to whether climate change is happening now may be a less distressing position. Research that simultaneously considers extreme weather and climate change may help understanding the range of complex responses that may arise as the frequency of extreme weather increases and evidence for anthropogenic climate change strengthens.

1. (1) To consider why the uncertainty distress model may be an appropriate framework to understand responses to extreme weather and climate change.

2. (2) To consider how the perceived proximity of climate change may play a role in peoples’ emotional and behavioural responses to climate change.

3. (3) To consider some of the variables that are linked to pro-environmental action.

4. (4) To consider whether an uncertainty-based understanding of extreme weather and climate change has helpful implications for practice.

The dominant economic, political and sociocultural system is leading the Earth towards climate and ecological breakdown (IPCC, 2023) as well as causing adverse mental, physical and social health consequences (Eisenberg-Guyot and Prins, 2022). To address these inter-related crises there is an urgent need for cultural evolution to life-sustaining ways of living and organising human life (Brooks et al., 2018). This requires concurrent psychological and ideological shifts and psychological contexts of support, in which people can explore their relationship with, and response to, the planetary predicament and the roles they would like to play in its transformation. The Work That Reconnects (WTR) (Macy and Brown, 2014) is a groupwork methodology developed to address this need. It consists of a set of philosophical and psychological teachings and experiential practices drawn from deep ecology, living systems thinking, Buddhism, and indigenous, spiritual and other wisdom traditions. It originated outside the field of CBT and psychotherapy, within activist movements, within which it is an increasingly well-known methodology for psychological support. The WTR has many characteristics which align with cognitive behavioural approaches with regard to processes, techniques and mechanisms of change. The WTR has, as yet, received minimal scientific research attention. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the methodology within the cognitive behavioural field, introducing philosophies, concepts, and techniques that may be of utility to CBT practitioners and stimulate research and evaluation of a methodology with potential to address psychological needs at this time.

1. (1) To learn about a groupwork methodology, the Work That Reconnects (WTR), for developing adaptive resilience, motivation, agency and wellbeing when facing concerns about the world.

2. (2) To learn about the four stages of the spiral of practices of the Work That Reconnects: gratitude, honouring our pain for the world, seeing with new and ancient eyes, and going forth.

3. (3) To understand the key concepts of the model including cultural schemas such as ‘the three stories of our time’ and application of living systems thinking to create cognitive and behavioural shifts towards adaptive action.

4. (4) To explore the parallels with cognitive behavioural approaches, review the evidence base, highlight the need for further research, and outline areas for investigation.

5. (5) To suggest ways in which the WTR can inform individual therapy for climate and ecological concerns.