Thank you for this! I'm just wrapping up a masters in counseling and am in the process of writing a capstone project on how the hospice movement can inform group therapy for climate emotions. This is so helpful (as is your entire newsletter)! Grateful!
Hi Roxy! I would be so interested in your research/project! Might you be willing to share? I am also working on my masters in counseling and did a lit review on treatment modalities for eco-anxiety and now will be doing my internship with hospice so I would love to bridge those two worlds and I'm so curious what you found! My email is: jennifer.roy@students.dominican.edu
Yes I would be so happy to!! I have learned so much through the process! I am just doing the final edits on it and will soon be submitting it - so I will send it along to you soon. Thanks for asking! :)
Thanks for this resource. I’ve been offering work of this sort in the climate and social justice activist community for 15 plus years. So grateful for the collective wisdom emerging! I’ll be sharing this in my circles.
At Britt's invitation, I'm sharing here about our 'Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time' offerings through Vermont's Sterling College.
In the past we've only been able to offer an annual live 8-week experience (next starting Jan 31st, 2022), but now also have a year-round, self-directed offering - A Path Through Tumultuous Times - that serves as an always-available gateway into our active community of folk grappling with the impossible questions of our times, together.
I once asked philosophy professor Robert Soloman, in a discussion of his book "About Love: Reinventing Romance for Our Times" (1988), if there was a way out of story and he laughed. He started as a medical student captured by Nietzsche's idea of "eternal return" and fundamental question: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?"
I met narrative therapist originator Michael White first in 1998 and then again in 2008, when I asked him if he had any stories about the way out of story. He too answered with a laugh. He was freed from an ordinary life by acquiring a bicycle as a youngster and becoming an avid biker within a wider world. He was warned by his cardiologist not to fly but took a flight anyway and was dead a month after I spoke with him in 2008.
Now retired, I've been an active member of Save RGV from LNG since it was formed in May 2014 on news that LNG export operations were targeting our local Port of Brownsville TX and am primarily focused, but not exclusively focused, on killing NextDecade and its Rio Grande LNG and NEXT Carbon Solutions projects, which would also take down Enbridge's Rio Bravo Pipeline project. I'm striking at the projects from existential and narrative angles, getting into their stories and strategies to slice and dice them.
With Omnicon now in the air with COVID-19, who know knows what challenge I'll face next. But I do hope to get back to the mythopoetic and other imponderables one of these days.
Fascinating anecdotes you shared. This is powerful and something I imagine we all think about: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?" Thanks for the links to other resources, will check them out.
Sustaining All Life (SAL) is a global organization that allies with and supports organizations and individuals working to end the climate crisis by providing tools that assist people to
• address emotional barriers to effective climate organizing.
• uncover and heal from damage and separation caused by oppression.
SAL has attended the United Nations Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and other climate conferences since 2015, and will be at COP26 in Glasgow.
SAL bases our work in the theory and practice of Re-evaluation Counseling (also known as Co-Counseling or RC).
This is a fantastic gathering of resources. This offering on Transformative Climate Advocacy might also be supportive - working to support climate change agents in their own development, presence, resilience, and transformative impact https://www.pacificintegral.com/transformative-climate-advocacy
Here's another resource: The open-source "Night Kitchen" short story (10 minute read, best as a shared read-aloud) explores our relationships to the climate crisis with six workshop guide options, depending on the needs and interests of your group. I have used it in women's groups, library reading groups, and drama workshops. It is the story of old friends gathered at the house of the Goddess the night of the end of the world and offers many jumping off points for reflection. "Night Kitchen" is freely available for PDF download at https://www.webermack.com/night-kitchen-the-workshop-version. Thank you, Britt Wray, for your generous suggestion to share another climate crisis resource.
Anger is important and definitely welcomed and worked with in these programs (such as The Good Grief Network, Climate Cafes, Climate Awakening etc) and generally anger is seen to be an adaptive emotion in all of this - more motivating of agency/action than some of the other common emotions that come with this reckoning https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278221000018
Thanks for the resources! I'm exploring the intersection between psychology and climate change for my newsletter An Educated Guess and am planning to link to this. Can I share my post with you once it's done to see what you think?
Hi folks, at Britt's invitation I'd like to share this first-of-its-kind online course, Yoga for Ecological Grief, which is offered at a sliding scale with scholarships available.
This self-paced series created by Laura Johnson, PhD, RYT-500, TCYM, includes lectures, handouts, journal prompts, discussion forums, and four slow and accessible yoga classes intertwining yin and restorative poses, meditations, breath practices, and readings/poetry/teachings from Joanna Macy, Francis Weller, Pema Chodron, Tricia Hersey, Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and many more wise teachers for these times.
Folks brand new to yoga as well as seasoned practitioners will benefit, and all bodies are welcome. 12 Continuing Education (CE) hours are available through Yoga Alliance.
Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions, and I welcome you to share this heartfelt offering widely!
It has been so wonderful to have this list of deeply thoughtful resources. I am a psychologist increasing getting involved in collective action, helping make other therapists knowledgeable about climate-aware therapy, and climate storytelling. Having this to share is heaven! I'm excited to learn about Elizabeth Bechard's work with parents processing climate anxiety. Also, Radical Support Collective that I learned about through you Britt was such an encouragement to me in my own work and process. Jess and Anastasia are both so deeply present and resonant, I was so clear and energized after meeting with them both. Thank you!
Your work is so so vital, Britt. Thanks for being an open-hearted alive part of this ecosystem. Sending gratitude and solidarity back through the roots!
Thank you for this! I'm just wrapping up a masters in counseling and am in the process of writing a capstone project on how the hospice movement can inform group therapy for climate emotions. This is so helpful (as is your entire newsletter)! Grateful!
Thank you, Roxy!
Hi Roxy! I would be so interested in your research/project! Might you be willing to share? I am also working on my masters in counseling and did a lit review on treatment modalities for eco-anxiety and now will be doing my internship with hospice so I would love to bridge those two worlds and I'm so curious what you found! My email is: jennifer.roy@students.dominican.edu
Yes I would be so happy to!! I have learned so much through the process! I am just doing the final edits on it and will soon be submitting it - so I will send it along to you soon. Thanks for asking! :)
Awesome!! Thank you so so much! So exciting!
Thanks for this resource. I’ve been offering work of this sort in the climate and social justice activist community for 15 plus years. So grateful for the collective wisdom emerging! I’ll be sharing this in my circles.
Thanks Barbara! Please feel free to link to your work here so others can find it
My personal website: https://barbaraford.net/
350PDX Climate Odyssey Program (a little out of date but being resurrected soon) https://350pdx.org/campaigns/climate-odyssey/
At Britt's invitation, I'm sharing here about our 'Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time' offerings through Vermont's Sterling College.
In the past we've only been able to offer an annual live 8-week experience (next starting Jan 31st, 2022), but now also have a year-round, self-directed offering - A Path Through Tumultuous Times - that serves as an always-available gateway into our active community of folk grappling with the impossible questions of our times, together.
All details at:
https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/surviving-the-future
(and offered on a trust-based 'pay as feels right for you' basis, including free access)
Shaun
Check out "In Deep Adaptation’s Focus on Societal Collapse, a Hopeful Call to Action," Kiley Bense, 12-24-2021, https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24122021/deep-adaptation-climate-change-jem-bendell/. And "The Shape of a Story ... or so I've been told," Issy Manley, https://drawingthetimes.com/story/the-shape-of-a-story/ (which can load slowly, requiring some patience).
I once asked philosophy professor Robert Soloman, in a discussion of his book "About Love: Reinventing Romance for Our Times" (1988), if there was a way out of story and he laughed. He started as a medical student captured by Nietzsche's idea of "eternal return" and fundamental question: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?"
I met narrative therapist originator Michael White first in 1998 and then again in 2008, when I asked him if he had any stories about the way out of story. He too answered with a laugh. He was freed from an ordinary life by acquiring a bicycle as a youngster and becoming an avid biker within a wider world. He was warned by his cardiologist not to fly but took a flight anyway and was dead a month after I spoke with him in 2008.
Now retired, I've been an active member of Save RGV from LNG since it was formed in May 2014 on news that LNG export operations were targeting our local Port of Brownsville TX and am primarily focused, but not exclusively focused, on killing NextDecade and its Rio Grande LNG and NEXT Carbon Solutions projects, which would also take down Enbridge's Rio Bravo Pipeline project. I'm striking at the projects from existential and narrative angles, getting into their stories and strategies to slice and dice them.
With Omnicon now in the air with COVID-19, who know knows what challenge I'll face next. But I do hope to get back to the mythopoetic and other imponderables one of these days.
Fascinating anecdotes you shared. This is powerful and something I imagine we all think about: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?" Thanks for the links to other resources, will check them out.
Adding to your list: https://sustainingalllife.org/
Sustaining All Life (SAL) is a global organization that allies with and supports organizations and individuals working to end the climate crisis by providing tools that assist people to
• address emotional barriers to effective climate organizing.
• uncover and heal from damage and separation caused by oppression.
SAL has attended the United Nations Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and other climate conferences since 2015, and will be at COP26 in Glasgow.
SAL bases our work in the theory and practice of Re-evaluation Counseling (also known as Co-Counseling or RC).
Just saw your comment, thanks for letting me know about SAL - hadn't heard of it but sounds great, will check it out!
This is a fantastic gathering of resources. This offering on Transformative Climate Advocacy might also be supportive - working to support climate change agents in their own development, presence, resilience, and transformative impact https://www.pacificintegral.com/transformative-climate-advocacy
Another great one, thank you!
Here's another resource: The open-source "Night Kitchen" short story (10 minute read, best as a shared read-aloud) explores our relationships to the climate crisis with six workshop guide options, depending on the needs and interests of your group. I have used it in women's groups, library reading groups, and drama workshops. It is the story of old friends gathered at the house of the Goddess the night of the end of the world and offers many jumping off points for reflection. "Night Kitchen" is freely available for PDF download at https://www.webermack.com/night-kitchen-the-workshop-version. Thank you, Britt Wray, for your generous suggestion to share another climate crisis resource.
This sounds like a great resource. Thank you for sharing Rhoda!
Wow thank you so much for this great list of resources, grateful ❤️
You're most welcome
This is extraordinary. A friend recently sent your newsletter my direction. What a terrific resource. Thank you!
My pleasure, glad you found it!
These are all very helpful resources. Thank you. The one emotion that isn't really acknowledged or addressed here, though, is anger.
Anger is important and definitely welcomed and worked with in these programs (such as The Good Grief Network, Climate Cafes, Climate Awakening etc) and generally anger is seen to be an adaptive emotion in all of this - more motivating of agency/action than some of the other common emotions that come with this reckoning https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278221000018
Agreed - hope to see anger discussed more openly and widely here and in other climate discussions. Motivating, indeed...
Thanks for the resources! I'm exploring the intersection between psychology and climate change for my newsletter An Educated Guess and am planning to link to this. Can I share my post with you once it's done to see what you think?
Hi folks, at Britt's invitation I'd like to share this first-of-its-kind online course, Yoga for Ecological Grief, which is offered at a sliding scale with scholarships available.
This self-paced series created by Laura Johnson, PhD, RYT-500, TCYM, includes lectures, handouts, journal prompts, discussion forums, and four slow and accessible yoga classes intertwining yin and restorative poses, meditations, breath practices, and readings/poetry/teachings from Joanna Macy, Francis Weller, Pema Chodron, Tricia Hersey, Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and many more wise teachers for these times.
For more details and to enroll: https://a-restful-space.teachable.com/p/yoga-for-ecological-grief
Folks brand new to yoga as well as seasoned practitioners will benefit, and all bodies are welcome. 12 Continuing Education (CE) hours are available through Yoga Alliance.
Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions, and I welcome you to share this heartfelt offering widely!
With much gratitude,
Laura
It has been so wonderful to have this list of deeply thoughtful resources. I am a psychologist increasing getting involved in collective action, helping make other therapists knowledgeable about climate-aware therapy, and climate storytelling. Having this to share is heaven! I'm excited to learn about Elizabeth Bechard's work with parents processing climate anxiety. Also, Radical Support Collective that I learned about through you Britt was such an encouragement to me in my own work and process. Jess and Anastasia are both so deeply present and resonant, I was so clear and energized after meeting with them both. Thank you!
That's so nice, I'm glad they are making a difference for you Brooke!
Your work is so so vital, Britt. Thanks for being an open-hearted alive part of this ecosystem. Sending gratitude and solidarity back through the roots!