£2.50 of each therapy session will now be donated towards carbon-offsetting to www.climatecare.org.
As the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) states on their website: ‘The climate emergency is the most significant existential threat facing humanity, and it will put enormous pressure on our emotional and mental wellbeing. We have called on the UK government to recognise that our mental health is inextricably linked to our habitat and nature and radically increase access to psychotherapy for all who need it.’ (https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/policy-and-research/psychotherapy-and-society/)
Many people are perceiving climate change as an emergency and are afraid of the impact it is having on our ecological habitat, and our future. They come to therapy speaking about this, feeling confused, angry, but mostly also overwhelmed and powerless. For many people, there is also an important question of what personal action can or should be taken. The experience of this, of course, differs individually, and can be fruitfully explored in therapy, in terms of what it means to the individual, their identity and their history.
Central to this emerging clinical phenomenon is the acknowledgement that climate change is real, it is an emergency, it does require urgent action, and any feelings of fear around it are justified and legitimate:
https://coveringclimatenow.org/?fbclid=IwAR1HTjGK0YOKkholJlP6rNRCfM2zfsMk7RA6PmiRy2TLrdsemgKdPnwe8OU
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2022/may/11/fossil-fuel-carbon-bombs-climate-breakdown-oil-gas?fbclid=IwAR2HFjEBIvkJLPptPGgdZXZgCUGlZRPbH6UqzwiNPK5kYAr41gkYg9QKXz
In order to make my practice carbon-neutral, I will now contribute £2.50 of each therapy session to a well-reputed carbon offsetting scheme: www.climatecare.org
This means that over the course of a year of therapy, each client offsets slightly more than the average annual carbon footprint of a UK citizen. If you would like yours to go to a different offsetting program, please let me know.
Links of interest:
https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/action-climate-change
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/resilience-through-rebellion
https://www.tablehurstfarm.org.uk/
https://www.plawhatchfarm.co.uk/home-1