University of Salford Climate Café
The frequency of adverse effects of rising global temperatures like heatwaves, droughts and floods have become a regular fixture on our news cycles and social media feeds in recent times.
We’ve all been there – you read a headline about climate change and you feel worried or concerned about what this means for the future of our planet, for our kids and grandkids.
You’re not alone. Climate anxiety is real.
Climate or eco-anxiety is distress relating to the ecological crises we are facing and can be connected to many emotions - anger, worry, despair, fear, guilt and shame to name a few. It can be hard to navigate these feelings or to talk about it in the fear of burdening someone else with our concerns. Sometimes we need hope and other times we just need to talk to someone that is feeling the same way which is why we’re bringing our first Climate Café to the University of Salford.
A Climate Café is a simple social gathering where we can talk about our thoughts and feelings about the climate emergency. Climate Cafés are bounded by confidentiality, although they are not therapy sessions. We invite you to take part in a warm, hospitable conversation where you can reflect on your feelings without being bounced into action. This is one way of coping with the challenges facing us all.
Any questions? Please get in touch.
Climate Psychology Alliance
Climate Psychology Alliance draw on psychotherapeutic approaches, psychosocial studies, the arts, spiritual and philosophical thought, literature, systems thinking and ecopsychology, all in the service of unpicking collective and individual responses to the crisis, much of which is unacknowledged and unconscious.They provide support to individuals and groups struggling with eco-distress and offer safe spaces to share emotions surrounding the climate crisis.
Podcast episode
Climate Change: Finding the silver lining
It is easy to forget that the majority of Environmental destruction has taken place within just one human lifetime... So imagine: what might be achieved in the next?
Overwhelm, grief and terror are the first emotions which come to mind when young Environmentalist Martha Stringer discusses the future. And yet, through discussion with psychotherapist Caroline Hickman, she recognises the huge potential for unity, imagination and shared meaning which the Climate Crisis brings.
In this episode, Martha describes her work in Bath Youth Climate Alliance and discusses the value of ‘Imperfect Environmentalism’.
Podcast episode
Deep Questionning: Navigating youth at a time of Climate Change
Asking existential questions has always been a defining part of what it is to be young, but how does it feel to be a young adult at this time of Climate breakdown ?
Sophia Thornton describes her experiences as a 19 year old activist looking for answers and fighting for a future, in conversation with psychotherapist Caroline Hickman.
Podcast episode
From Anxiety to Agency: stepping up, rather than shutting down, in the face of the climate change crisis
Clover Hogan is a 20-year-old climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety, and the founder of Force of Nature.
In this Podcast, Clover Hogan talks with Caroline Hickman about how depth psychology transformed her approach to her activism, the role of holding despair and optimism in the same breath, and her path to igniting agency in a diversity of audiences - from Wall Street bankers, to 11-year-old students in the classroom.
How to cope with eco-anxiety
With multiple councils and governments declaring a climate emergency, the worsening environmental situation can often feel overwhelming. Psychotherapist and lecturer Caroline Hickman discusses the phenomenon of "eco-anxiety", and what to do about it, with Friends of the Earth.
Eco distress for children & young people
Information resource for children and young people, their parents, carers, teachers and other people who might support them. It looks at eco distress, what actions you can take to look after yourself and how you can get more help.
Eco distress for parents & carers
Information resource for parents and carers, as well as teachers and others who support children and young people, to help you understand what eco distress is, how to recognise if your child is experiencing eco distress, and provide some suggestions to help them cope with their feelings.