Navigating the Psychological Effects of Climate Change

Climate change represents one of the most pressing problems of our time and amplifies existing mental health impacts, especially for historically marginalized and vulnerable individuals and communities, and for children and youth who are facing the dread of an uncertain future. As extreme weather events become more common, and for those who have long been exposed to multiple forms of environmental racism and injustice, traumatic responses and symptoms often increase. Mental health clinicians need to be able to expand their toolkit to include awareness of the climate crisis and ways to meet the multi-faceted psychological needs that are arising.

Since we are embedded in the same problem as the clients we treat, clinicians can benefit by first understanding and work through their own emotional responses to climate change, before engaging in climate-informed approaches to treatment.

This workshop will include an overview of the climate crisis and its implications for clinical work, as well as present ways for clinicians to process their own emotional reactions. We will utilize a variety of experiential exercises to understand the tendency to move away from pain and awareness, as well as practices to enlarge what can be known, felt and shared. Finally, we will discuss important strategies for building resilience and for being able to listen and hold the distress of others.

Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:

• Describe the mental health impacts of the climate crisis.
• Explain the multiple embedded layers of sociopolitical harms that amplify impacts of the climate crisis.
• Identify the clinician’s personal emotional reactions to the climate crisis as well as ways they defend against knowing.
• Practice ways to “stay aware” and build emotional resilience in living through this crisis.

An additional training on the climate crisis and its mental health implications will be offered by CTI in October 2022, building on the topics discussed here.

About the Trainers:

Wendy Greenspun, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and serves on the Board of Directors and steering committee of the Climate Psychology Alliance- North America. She is on faculty at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, at the Adelphi University Postgraduate Program in Marriage and Couples Therapy and the William Alanson White Couple Therapy Training and Education Program. She has presented papers and workshops nationally and internationally on climate psychology and provides workshops and courses for mental health professionals on ways to work with climate distress and grief. She also provides workshops on building emotional resilience for climate activists and for high school and university students and has run group forums (climate cafes) for processing climate distress. She is in private practice in New York City, specializing in climate distress and in couples therapy.

Elizabeth Allured, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, and is Co-founder and Co-president of the Climate Psychology Alliance – North America. She is on teaching faculty at the Derner Institute’s Postgraduate Programs at Adelphi University in the Adult Clinical and School Psychology programs. She has presented papers internationally and nationally on the topic of mental health and environmental issues since 2007, and has written papers on this topic and its relevance for work with children and adolescents. She has provided training in institutes and university settings on the area of the integration of environmental distress with clinical work, and has taught workshops to organizations involved in environmental education. She has run groups to process climate distress (climate cafes), and has provided training in this area. She is in private practice in Manhasset, N.Y.

Fee:

$75 Standard Registration

$85 Registration Including 4 CE Credits

Continuing Education Credits:

Full attendance meets the qualifications for 4.0 hours of continuing education credit. Child Training Institute (CTI) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CTI maintains responsibility for this program and its content. The CA BBS recognizes the APA as an approval agency to meet their CE requirements. Disciplines such as social workers and counselors outside of California should check with their respective state board to assure acceptance of APA approved sponsors for CE credits.

In order to receive CE credits, participants must purchase a Registration Including CE Credit ticket. Full attendance is required in order to receive CE credits and no partial credit will be offered. Failure to meet this requirement will prohibit the Child Training Institute from issuing a CE certificate and no refund will be provided.

Registration and Cancellation:

Pre-registration is required. Cancellation requests emailed to the event manager prior to 11:59 pm on Wednesday, 5/11/22, will receive a full refund. No refunds for cancellation requests received on or after 5/12/22 regardless of the cause for cancellation including failure to join the meeting on the day of the training. If the training cannot be held due to circumstances beyond the hosts’ control (natural disaster, strike, fire, severe weather, illness of speaker, speaker cancellation, etc.) the event will be rescheduled, if possible, and the registration fee applied to that date. If rescheduling is not possible or the registrant cannot attend the rescheduled date, reimbursement will be provided less any actual costs accrued.

Instructions for Zoom will be emailed to all participants 30 minutes prior to the training.

For questions and discounts for students and interns, please contact Teresa Merenda, Child Training Institute Program Coordinator, at TeresaM@jfcs.org.