Dear Leslie,
A lot of my work in therapy for anxiety has focused on recognizing catastrophic thinking and assessing what is more realistic. How would you suggest adapting this for a world where reality itself is increasingly becoming more catastrophic, and science suggests things will get worse in the future?
— Anonymously Anxious
Submit a question for a future Ask a Climate Therapist columnDear Anonymously Anxious,
Your question points to something I’ve had to reckon with in my own practice as a therapist. Before I became more aware of the impacts of climate change, I used the same framework you describe — I helped clients recognize their distorted thinking and recalibrate toward what’s realistic.
But as I came to understand the actual science, I had a striking realization: For climate-aware cl... Read more
