What Can Existential Therapists Offer in a Time of Climate Crisis?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65828/81gbh294Keywords:
Climate change, climate crisis, climate anxiety, climate grief, being-in- the-world, lifeworldAbstract
Based on a workshop given at this year's conference, this paper opens an enquiry into how existential therapy might respond to the climate crisis. The silence of our community on this topic is noticed and reflected upon. I take a sounding of how the psy-disciplines are conceiving of climate-related distress (for example, 'climate anxiety' or 'ecoanxiety'), before offering starting points on how a distinctively existential voice may enter this chorus.
Complete access to the full archive of articles is available with SEA membership. Existing members: please log in with your membership password to view full text. Non-members can buy a single article or issue by registering an account on this website, then selecting a padlocked full text button to purchase.
References
Albrecht, G. (2005). Solastalgia: A new concept in human health and identity. Philosophy Activism Nature. 3: 41-55.
Anderson, J., Staunton, T., O'Gorman, J. & Hickman, C. (eds) (2024). Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003436096
American Psychological Association (APA) (2017). Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, publications and guidance. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf [Accessed on 3rd July 2025.]
Beran, O. (2022). Who should have children?(us?) when should we have children? (now?). SATS Northern European Journal of Philosophy. 23 (1): 55-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sats-2022-0004
Butler, J. (2004). Precarious Life: The powers of mourning and violence. London, UK: Verso.
Butler, J. (2005). Giving an Account of Oneself. New York, NY: Fordham University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5422/fso/9780823225033.001.0001
Butler, J. (2022). What World is This? A pandemic phenomenology. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/butl20828
Butler, J. (2023). Climate sorrow. Recorded lecture. University of Copenhagen, 4 May. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6NozRjNda3AgUn67tbEKjb [Accessed on 16th June 2025.]
Clayton, S. & Karazsia, B.T. (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 69: 101434. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434
Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) (2022). Handbook of Climate Psychology. https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/index.php/component/content/article/climate-psychology-handbook?catid=15&Itemid=101 [Accessed on 16th June 2025.]
Cunsolo, A. & Ellis, N.R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change. 8 (4): 275-281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2
Environment Agency (EA) (2022). Working with Nature. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-with-nature [Accessed on 3rd July 2025.]
Environment Agency (EA) (2025a). State of the Water Environment Indicator B3: Supporting evidence. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-water-environment-indicator-b3-supporting-evidence/state-of-the-water-environment-indicator-b3-supporting-evidence [Accessed on 3rd July 2025.]
Environment Agency (EA) (2025b). National Assessment of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk in England 2024. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-assessment-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-in-england-2024/national-assessment-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-in-england-2024 [Accessed on 3rd July 2025.]
Gayle, D. (2025). UK registers its hottest and sunniest spring on record. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/02/uk-registers-its-hottest-and-sunniest-spring-on-record [Accessed on 6th June 2025.]
Government Office for Science (GOS) (2017). Future of the Sea: Current and future impacts of sea level rise on the UK. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a81e1a9e5274a2e8ab5653b/Future of the sea – sea level_rise.pdf [Accessed on 8th December 2025.]
Heidegger, M. (1962 [1927]). Being and Time. Trans. Macquarrie, J. & Robinson, E. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Reprint. Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2019.
Krähenbühl, M. (2022). Environmental Childlessness? Reproduction and (im)possible futures amidst environmental crises. Geneva: Graduate Institute Publications. https://books.openedition.org/iheid/8842 [Accessed on 21st June 2025.] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.iheid.8842
Kühner, C., Gemmecke, C., Hüffmeier,J. & Zacher, H. (2025). Climate change anxiety: A meta-analysis. Global Environmental Change. 93: 103015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103015
Lear, J. (2006). Radical Hope: ethics in the face of cultural devastation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674040021
Lewis, J.L., Haase, E. & Trope, A. (2020). Climate dialectics in psychotherapy: Holding open the space between abyss and advance. Psychodynamic Psychiatry. 48 (3): 271-294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1521/pdps.2020.48.3.271
Laing, R.D. (1967). The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and ecology after the end of the world. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Myers, T.C. (2014). Understanding climate change as an existential threat: Confronting climate denial as a challenge to climate ethics. De Ethica. 1 (1): 53-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/de-ethica.2001-8819.141153
Overall, C. (2012). Why Have Children? The ethical debate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8674.001.0001
Pihkala, P. (2022). Toward a taxonomy of climate emotion. Frontiers in Climate. 3 (738154): 1-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.738154
Royal College of Psychiatrists (2020). The Climate Crisis is Taking a Toll on the Mental Health of Children and Young People. https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2020/11/20/the-climate-crisis-is-taking-a-toll-on-the-mental-health-of-children-and-young-people [Accessed on 8th December 2025.]
Susteren, L. van & Pollack, D.A. (2019). Climate impact on psychiatric diagnostic nomenclature. Psychiatric News. 54 (21). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2019.11a15
United Kingdom Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) (2023). Landmark Report Shows UK's Terrestrial Wildlife is Continuing to Cecline. https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/landmark-report-shows-uk-terrestrial-wildlife-continuing-decline/#:~:text=Highlights%20from%20the%20State%20of,and%20terrestrial%20mammals%20(26%25) [Accessed on 3rd July 2025.]
United Kingdom Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) (2025). Heat Mortality Monitoring Report, England: 2024. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-2024/ [Accessed on 3rd July 2025.]
Valkengoed, A.M. van (2023). Climate anxiety is not a mental health problem. But we should still treat it as one. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 79 (6): 385-387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2023.2266942
Yalom, I.D. (2008). Staring at the sun: Overcoming the terror of death. The Humanistic Psychologist. 36 (3-4): 283-297. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08873260802350006


