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Environmental identity-based therapies for climate distress: applying cognitive behavioural approaches

Part of: CBT in a Time of Climate and Biodiversity Crises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2024

Thomas Doherty ,
Salvia Artman ,
Jesse Homan ,
Jennifer Keluskar  and
Kristi E. White
Thomas Doherty*
Affiliation:
Sustainable Self, LLC, Portland, OR, USA
Salvia Artman
Affiliation:
The Climate Change Clinic, Boulder, CO, USA
Jesse Homan
Affiliation:
Queen City Psychotherapy LLC, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Jennifer Keluskar
Affiliation:
St John’s University, Queens, New York, USA
Kristi E. White
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
*
Corresponding author: Thomas Doherty; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Abstract

This paper describes an interdisciplinary integration of the concept of environmental identity into cognitive behavioural approaches to facilitate psychotherapy interventions for climate distress. Environmental identity encompasses one’s sense of self in relation to the natural world and other species, and is an important sub-identity analogous to gender, sexual and other forms of self and social identity recognized in psychotherapy. We provide a background on the construct of environmental identity as developed in social and environmental psychology and share culturally responsive methods for mental health practitioners and the public to evoke and explore their own environmental identity. We then discuss steps to create environmental identity-based therapy interventions using cognitive and behavioural approaches for climate distress. We highlight the potential for acceptance and commitment therapy to foster mindfulness and values-based action, dialectical behaviour therapy to support emotional regulation, and radically open dialectical behaviour therapy to mitigate perfectionism and over-controlled coping styles. We also describe a composite case study of environmental identity-based cognitive behavioural therapy for an LGBTQ+ client.

Key learning aims

  1. (1) The paper presents new opportunities and techniques for adapting cognitive behavioural interventions in a climate conscious manner, with insights and observations from the authors based on clinical practice, which informs research into psychotherapy best practices in the context of environmental and climate issues.

  2. (2) Readers will become familiar with the empirical basis of environmental identity drawn from theory and research in social and environmental psychology; how environmental experiences and values intersect with other forms of personal and social identity addressed in mental health practice; and culturally responsive ways to elicit environmental identity on the part of practitioners and those they serve.

  3. (3) Readers are guided through examples of environmental identity-based cognitive and behavioural interventions including (1) promoting values-based action using acceptance and commitment therapy, (2) addressing emotional dysregulation using dialectical behaviour therapy, and (3) modifying over-controlled or perfectionistic coping styles using radically open dialectical behaviour therapy.

  4. (4) A composite case study provides an example of environmental identity-based cognitive behavioural therapy for a 20-year-old LGBTQ+ person experiencing climate distress.

Keywords

acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)eco-anxietycco-distressenvironmental identityradically open dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT-RO)
Type
Empirically Grounded Clinical Guidance Paper
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 17 , 2024 , e29
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

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References

Further reading

Clayton, S. D. (2012). Environment and identity. In Clayton, S. D. (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology (pp. 164–180). New York, USA: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doherty, T. J., Lykins, A., Piotrowski, N., Rogers, Z., Sebree, D. D., & White, K. E. (2022). Clinical psychology responses to the climate crisis. In Asmundson, G. (ed), Comprehensive Clinical Psychology (2nd edn). Elsevier.Google Scholar
Whitmarsh, L., Player, L., Jiongco, A., James, M., Williams, M. O., Marks, E., & Kennedy-Williams, P. (2022). Climate anxiety: what predicts it and how is it related to climate action? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101866 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xue, S., Massazza, A., Akhter-Khan, S.C., Wray, B., Ishrat Husain, M., & Lawrance, E. L. (2024). Mental health and psychosocial interventions in the context of climate change: a scoping review. NPJ Mental Health Research, 3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44184-024-00054-1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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