Eco-anxiety

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It is unfolding at a scale that presents a challenge to us all. If we were to think of the planet in medical terms, it would be in a critical condition – surrounded by emergency teams, urgent interventions, and specialists working to stabilise it.

Because of this, a new term ‘eco-anxiety’ has entered everyday language almost as quickly as the crisis itself, capturing a growing sense of overwhelm, fear, and helplessness in the face of environmental collapse. In the face of this, and in order not to be consumed by despair, we might focus on our own capacities – our resourcefulness, creativity, agency, and personal knowledge, which might help us to respond, act, and find movement, even within the weight of uncertainty.

This is an edited extract from an editorial first published in Private Practice, June 2023, published by BACP©