We understand that the climate crisis arouses deeply disturbing feelings of fear, powerlessness and grief, which are commonly suppressed, ignored or denied. We support people to respond constructively to this crisis by providing them with the opportunity to acknowledge and explore their emotional responses. Our experience is that this begins the process of strengthening mental health, wellbeing and resilience rather than denying, ignoring or burying upsetting emotions. Emotional connection with climate realities is for many a key to both beginning and maintaining engagement.  

Our Psychology for a Safe Climate signature workshops on grief, eco-distress and burnout are our core offering. We currently offer these workshops to climate activists in the community, researchers, scientists and policy makers.  Each three hour workshop is run by committed and qualified volunteer mental health professionals from our team. We conduct each workshop by dividing participants into groups of 5 or 6 (face to face or on zoom), and offer art therapy based expressive drawing activities, discussion of the meaning of each person’s drawings, and group discussion. The workshops also include a segment on self-care. We run about 2 to 3 workshops a month. The feedback is very positive, with participants sometimes returning for further workshops, or introducing their friends and colleagues to the opportunity.  

Our vision is that we build an Australian network of climate engaged psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors, who are proactive in advocating and building the emotional awareness, psychosocial support and resilience of individuals, groups and communities.  

Our current aim is to make our groundbreaking work more widely available by offering our models and experience to support this development through training and mentorship. Our goal is to build a community of climate aware and engaged mental health practitioners with the necessary skills and knowledge to offer support to individuals and communities across the country who are facing the enormity of the climate reality. We are calling this the Climate Aware Practitioners Network (CAPs Network).