"There definitely has been a significant increase in the need to address climate and other existential threats in the therapy room. The demand for therapists to counsel for emotions related to the climate—including grief, anxiety, and despair—is in line with what Hickman explains as a heightened awareness of the severity of the climate crisis."
"In 2025, the United States experienced 23 extreme weather events, including flooding in Texas, wildfires in Los Angeles, and tornadoes in the Northeast. These events cost billions in repairs and were responsible for the loss of at least 276 lives. This is in contrast to the five documented extreme weather events that happened in 2000."
"[Higher prevalence of concern] is not necessarily a bad thing, because eco-anxiety is simply the beginning of a process of consciousness raising. The challenge is when someone doesn't have the tools to manage the heaviness that comes with witnessing news cycles of—or, for that matter, surviving—natural disasters and feeling concern for the future."
Climate anxiety is becoming increasingly prevalent in therapy practices worldwide. Caroline Hickman, a climate-aware psychotherapist at the University of Bath, has seen climate anxiety requests quadruple over five years and now dominate her practice. Research indicates 54 percent of German therapists have addressed environmental concerns with clients in the past year, with similar trends in the United States. This surge correlates with heightened awareness of climate crisis severity, evidenced by 23 extreme weather events in the U.S. in 2025 compared to five in 2000. These events caused billions in damages and hundreds of deaths. While eco-anxiety represents consciousness-raising, the challenge lies in helping people manage the emotional weight of climate awareness without adequate coping tools.
Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]