What is Eco Anxiety? An Interview with Dr. Thomas Doherty Curt and Katie interview Dr. Thomas Doherty about Eco Anxiety. We look at the history of eco anxiety, what therapists should know about the environment, the concept of environmental identity, and how we can support clients with Eco Anxiety in therapy. We look at ways to bring these topics up with our clients as well as empower them to take action. An Interview with Dr. Thomas J. Doherty Thomas is a clinical and environmental psychologist based in Portland, Oregon, USA. His multiple publications on nature and mental health include the groundbreaking paper “The Psychological Impacts of Global Climate Change,” co-authored by Susan Clayton, cited over 700 times. Thomas is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Past President of the Society for Environmental, Population and Conservation Psychology, and Founding Editor of the academic journal Ecopsychology. Thomas was a member of the APA’s first Task Force on Global Climate Change and founded one of the first environmentally-focused certificate programs for mental health counselors in the US at Lewis & Clark Graduate School. Thomas is originally from Buffalo, New York. In this podcast episode we talk about what therapists should know about Eco Anxiety In preparation for Earth Day, we wanted to understand more about Eco Anxiety and what therapists can do to support our clients and the planet. What is Eco Anxiety? The history of Eco Anxiety, including worry about the use of chemicals, climate change The importance of words, personal experiences, how the client sees the world The diagnoses that align with this area, the types of impacts on clients What Should Therapists Know About the Environment? Resources related to climate change How to explore Environmental Identity Understand our own Environmental Identity The 3 basic psychological impacts from the environment (disaster, chronic, or ambient) The benefits of nature and how people in all environments can access them What is your Environmental Identity? “Our environmental identity is really all of our values and experiences regarding nature, in the natural world.” – Dr. Thomas Doherty Relationship to the natural world Significant experiences in the outdoors The nuance of bringing these ideas up in Urban areas What “nature” means to each of us “One of the things I tell people is that, around the world, there's millions of people that are working on climate change issues, and all these different areas, and people are studying things, and they're building things. And it's really inspiring to be around some of this stuff. So that's an important message to get out to people it. Yes, it's a big issue. But there's a ton of people working on this, think of all the people even in the Los Angeles area that are going to work every day, on climate and public health.” - Dr. Thomas Doherty How Can We Support Clients with Eco Anxiety in Therapy? Understanding the basics on the environment and climate change Building capacity to be with these issues Reeling in the anxiety, imagination Understanding the waves of emotions and completing the anxiety cycle Giving clients permission to talk about the environment and how to open up the conversations Coping strategies specific to Eco Anxiety Suggestions for activism and what clients can do to improve the environment Helping clients to identify if they are doing enough Where to find resources on environmental efforts How therapists can employ climate awareness in their practices Our Generous Sponsors for this episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide: Thrizer Thrizer is a new modern billing platform for therapists that was built on the belief that therapy should be accessible AND clinicians should earn what they are worth. Their platform automatically gets clients reimbursed by their insurance after every session. Just by billing your clients through Thrizer, you can potentially save them hundreds every month, wi