By Rick Williment, registered psychotherapist, climate activist
The disciplines of psychology and psychotherapy have a contribution to make to humanity’s greatest collective struggle: the urgent, dire need to find meaningful responses to the rapidly escalating climate and ecological crises. These crises that imperil so much that we love; so much that we belong to; so much that we depend upon.
How we language and represent these crises is significant to how we find our response. There is a world of difference between framing our predicament as ‘climate change’, so scientifically accurate and neutral and observational, and Greta’s ‘The House is on Fire!!’, so emotive, so alarming, and so activating. How cool and factual should we be as our world fries before our eyes? Could it be that we are compromised in our capacity and willingness to engage emotionally with these threats, and have our actions informed by our emotional life?? Are we stymied by our emotional avoidance??
[Read more…] about Feeling and responding to the climate and ecological crises