Introduction
Industrialised cultures are leading multiple Earth systems, including climate and ecosystems, to become destabilised, affecting and threatening the wellbeing and existence of humans, other species and the biosphere. As individuals become aware of the harms, losses and threats resulting from these interlinked crises, significant distress can be evoked. As the crises worsen, it is likely that people will increasingly seek psychotherapeutic support for how to relate to this distress whilst maintaining wellbeing.
In parallel, on a societal scale, addressing the climate and ecological crisis requires shifts in culture, values, lifestyles, work and relating, that are far reaching. In order to develop a life-sustaining culture, psychological interventions are needed that create or maintain engagement and action towards mitigating harms and evolving life-sustaining systems (Ives et al., Reference Ives, Freeth and Fischer2020).
As therapists this challenges us to offer responses which not only enhance the wellbeing of the client, but also contribute to the wellbeing of the wider system including the living Earth (Mah et al., Reference Mah, Chapman, Markowitz and Lickel2020). Well-designed therapeutic interventions can simultaneously work at these two levels, supporting people in their distress, and towards empowered actions that build a life-sustaining culture, as appropriate to the individual’s capacities and needs. Such interventions can achieve this by creating inspiring and empowering perspective-shifts and experiences of meaning, connection and joy in people’s lives.
From a cognitive behavioural perspective, some key dimensions for therapeutic intervention are:
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Affect: Strong emotions may be provoked in individuals facing the state of the world (Hickman et al., Reference Hickman, Marks, Pihkala, Clayton, Lewandowski and Mayall2021). These can be overwhelming and disorienting (Macy, Reference Macy2007), and include shock, denial, fear, anger, grief, guilt, despair and hopelessness.
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Values: Materialist and instrumentalist values are propagated by the dominant culture, which can lead to disconnection from intrinsic values and values-based living. Materialist and instrumentalist values are negatively correlated with pro-ecological behaviour (Hedlund-de Witt et al., Reference Hedlund-de Witt, de Boer and Boersema2014).
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Cognition: Beliefs can interfere with commitment to life-regenerating actions. These include beliefs about the impossibility or pointlessness of trying to change life-destroying systems, such as ‘it’s too late’; lack of agency, ‘I’m too insignificant to make a difference’ (Office for National Statistics, 2021; Zaremba et al., Reference Zaremba, Kulesza, Herman, Marczak, Kossowski, Budziszewska, Michałowski, Klöckner, Marchewka and Wierzba2022), and unpredictability of outcome, ‘how do I know it will help?’. Alternatively, beliefs regarding self-blame or exaggerated responsibility for creating change can lead to overwhelm or burnout.
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Behaviour: Most people do not hold clear frameworks for how to explore and decide what actions to take in the face of world crises. Taking action for life is new and uncharted territory for many, and something people are unprepared for by their education, and psychological and social conditioning.
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Interpersonal: Loneliness and lack of social support correlate with concern about climate change (Hajek and Konig, Reference Hajek and König2022).
The Work That Reconnects (WTR) (Macy and Brown, Reference Macy and Brown2014) is a groupwork model that addresses the emotional, cognitive, behavioural and social dimensions described above. It was developed with the purpose of helping people face any concerns about the world (ecological and social) and to resource them to be able to take an active role in the transformation of the world. The methodology originated in the 1970s in activist circles in the US. Joanna Macy, an academic, eco-philosopher, Buddhist, systems theorist and activist, has been key to its development. The WTR draws on philosophies of deep ecology and deep time, and the scientific paradigm of living systems thinking, as well as related wisdom and practices from indigenous and spiritual traditions such as Buddhism. These concepts underpin the practices and may also be explained explicitly to participants, mirroring the psychoeducational element of CBT.
The experiential practices are usually offered as a sequence of four stages, conveyed as a spiral (see Fig. 1), communicating that the framework is an ongoing and transformative process.
The spiral of the Work That Reconnects.
The four stages are termed: gratitude, honouring our pain for the world, seeing with new and ancient eyes, and going forth. The WTR addresses each of the cognitive behavioural dimensions outlined above through offering:
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Affect: Psychological resourcing practices as preparation for engaging with painful emotions, combined with supportive contexts in which to express distress, despair, anger, anxiety and grief.
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Values: Strategies to clarify and increase an individual’s awareness and salience of intrinsic pro-ecological and pro-social values and to reflect on the implications of these values for their behaviour and action on issues that concern them.
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Cognition: Strategies to identify unhelpful assumptions or beliefs about the ability to effect change around world issues, and to develop more empowering beliefs. Practices to experience the problem or the self from more useful, inspiring, and motivating perspectives.
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Behaviour: Providing frameworks or practices to assist clarification and decisions on intentions, goals and actions, to identify obstacles and resources, and to plan and maintain pro-ecological actions.
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Interpersonal: Delivery and design of practices in ways that increase social connections and networks, and provide social support, empathy and non-judgement.
Existing literature and evidence base
The origins of the WTR mean that it is relatively unknown in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy. As a result, it has received extremely limited research as an overall approach, and much more robust evaluation is needed in order to meet the empirical standards of CBT.
Hollis-Walker (Reference Hollis-Walker2012), in a theoretical paper, discusses the model and suggests that it:
‘operates on the principle that expression of emotions associated with human interconnectedness with all life inspires intention and engagement regarding environmentally sustainable behaviors.’
Hathaway (Reference Hathaway2017) discusses WTR in the context of exploring how emotions may either impede or facilitate active engagement and presents a case study of young adults participating in a WTR group process. Hamilton (Reference Hamilton2022) conducted semi-structured interviews with WTR facilitators and participants, using a psycho-social methodology. Thematic analysis suggested that the WTR developed emotional reflexivity which was related to increased engagement and deeper determination to act on climate issues.
The two published quantitative studies to date consist of participant feedback surveys. Johnstone (Reference Johnstone, Chesner and Hahn2002, Reference Johnstone2019) conducted a one-year follow-up of 40 participants who had attended in-person workshops. Of the 31 respondents who replied, 80% said that it had changed their life, 25% scored this as ‘very deeply’. In a more recent study, Johnstone (Reference Johnstone, Aspey, Jackson and Parker2023) reports ratings from 165 participants who responded to feedback requests after completing a 7-week online programme; 92% agreed with statements that attending the course had increased their motivation to act for positive change and their belief that they could make a difference. Both were uncontrolled studies without attention to sampling, control conditions, or use of standardised measures. One purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the methodology with cognitive behavioural researchers who may be well-placed to develop the research base of WTR, given its coherence with some cognitive behavioural approaches, particularly mindfulness-based therapies such as ACT.
The four stages of the WTR spiral will now be elaborated in more detail and where there is an existing evidence base for these individual stages that will be described.
Gratitude
In order to resource participants for the later elements of the spiral, workshops begin with gratitude practices, to invoke positive mental states and emotions. Trait gratitude and gratitude interventions have been shown to predict mental, emotional, relational and physical well-being, and life satisfaction (Cunha et al., Reference Cunha, Pellanda and Reppold2019; Jackowska et al., Reference Jackowska, Brown, Ronaldson and Steptoe2016; Sirois and Wood, Reference Sirois and Wood2017; Wood et al., Reference Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley and Joseph2008). Gratitude practices orient towards what is loved or valued, which may enhance a desire to protect. Evidence demonstrates a link between gratitude and pro-environmental behaviour and pro-social behaviour (Bartlett and DeSteno, Reference Bartlett and DeSteno2006; Sun et al., Reference Sun, Ma and Wei2023). Practising gratitude can also reduce perceived sense of scarcity and materialism that arises as part of industrial growth cultures (Lee et al., Reference Lee, Chugani and Namkoong2020). Some of the gratitude practices in the WTR involve real or imaginal nature connection. Nature guided imagery has been shown to increase nature connection (Coughlan et al., Reference Coughlan, Ross, Nikles, De Cesare, Tran and Pensini2022), with affective connection demonstrating additional benefit (Hinds and Sparks, Reference Hinds and Sparks2008). Research has linked degree of nature connectedness with pro-environmental behaviour (Mayer and Frantz, Reference Mayer and Frantz2004).
Gratitude practices function in the WTR as a form of psychological resourcing, similar to mindfulness and safe space or compassionate imagery. Because gratitude serves to ground, to instil mindfulness, and to build positive emotion and connection and therefore increase resilience and psychological flexibility, it supports the ability to engage more deeply and safely with the next phase of the spiral. In turning towards what is loved or appreciated, it often also begins to elicit grief and so leads naturally into the next stage.
Honouring our pain for the world
The second stage of the spiral provides an opportunity for deep expression of feelings and thoughts about the world’s predicament, allowing emotional processing (Rachman, Reference Rachman1980). Some ritual is frequently used to provide more containment and profundity to the experience. Honouring our pain can serve multiple functions including validation, empathy, support and grieving. The aspect of ‘honouring’ pain is key to the way emotions are framed to participants. Pain for the world (such as sadness, anger, frustration, fear) is explained as a sign of compassion, love, desire for justice and need for support. It is viewed as a sign of our interconnectedness with all life, humans being that part of the living Earth system that has evolved to be conscious of and compassionate to its own suffering. Connecting with our pain for the world is encouraged to allow it to fulfil its motivational evolutionary purpose.
This positive de-pathologising attitude seems to facilitate approach, expression, release, and processing of emotions, and allows the individual to use their emotional responses as a guide to and indicator of core values and needs. Emotional expression and turning towards despair can be part of a healthy grief and integration process with regard to the climate crisis (Cunsolo et al., Reference Cunsolo, Harper, Minor, Hayes, Williams and Howard2020) and other losses and threats (Macy, Reference Macy1983). ‘Positive disintegration’, an upwelling of emotion associated with a deeper connection to the realities of our time, can allow mourning of old understandings of the world to occur and integration of more realistic stories, from which constructive action can emerge. This is consistent with the psychological literature that understands ‘grieving as a form of learning’ (O’Connor, Reference O’Connor2022). Speaking about the harm occurring in the world can also be a form of what would be understood as ‘preparatory change talk’ within motivational interviewing (Miller and Rollnick, Reference Miller and Rollnick2013).
Seeing with new and ancient eyes
The third stage can be understood as involving primarily cognitive strategies, introducing a variety of helpful perspective shifts. The following processes and concepts inform the practices in this stage.
Widening the sense of self
Influences from Buddhism and ‘deep ecology’ (Naess and Haukeland, Reference Naess, Haukeland and Huntford2002; Naess and Sessions, Reference Naess and Sessions1984; Sessions, Reference Sessions1995) bring practices into the WTR to dissolve or widen the individual experience of self. In the same way that individuals can experience and act from a familial sense of self, or a community sense of self, in which thoughts and actions are ‘for’ the group, it is possible to experience an even broader sense of self, encompassing the entire living world (Fig. 2). This experience of ‘self-as-nature’ rather than feeling separate from it, is termed the ‘ecological self’ (Bragg, Reference Bragg1996; Furness, Reference Furness2021; Strumse, Reference Strumse2007). It may be achieved through direct experiences of nature connection, or embodied or imaginal practices. From the ecological self, action for life on Earth is not experienced as altruistic, self-sacrificing, guilt or duty-based, but intrinsic, ‘for ourselves’. When an individual identifies as part of life, motivation for pro-ecological behaviour has been shown to increase (Helm et al., Reference Helm, Pollitt, Barnett, Curran and Craig2018) and feels less effortful.
Widening senses of self.
Deepening the sense of time
Modern society with its individualistic focus has tended to sever our connections with people who have lived over the ages. Individualism leaves us with a shortened perspective of time in which only our individual endeavours, in our day, our week, or our lifetime, feel meaningful. This is both stressful in an action context, and can make us shortsighted and thereby less effective in our actions. Deep time practices can involve imaginal dialogues, writing, or imagery work with ancestors. They can offer insights and a subjective experience of support from humans at other times, and of feeling part of a larger endeavour over time. Motivation towards pro-ecological behaviour can also be stimulated by imaginal practices with people of future generations.
Living systems thinking
Living systems thinking (Miller, Reference Miller1978) is a paradigm shift away from linear, mechanistic or reductionist ways of understanding the world. Living systems are networks of mutually influencing relationships, that dynamically self-organise and self-regulate, evolving towards complexity, diversity, responsiveness, and resilience, and display emergent properties not predictable from their individual parts. Feedback loops in living systems can create dynamic equilibriums, but under certain conditions can cause abrupt ‘non-linear’ changes to the system. Living systems thinking can provide the following beneficial perspectives:
More realistic threat appraisals
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Living systems thinking explains the roles of feedback loops, non-linear changes and tipping points, facilitating more realistic (often more negative) appraisals of climate and ecological threats and the unsustainability of industrial growth societies.
Non-blaming or judging appraisals of others or humanity
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Living systems thinking can help us understand cultures as complex networked evolved systems rather than with actors/creators to be blamed. This facilitates a non-blaming and non-othering perspective on groups or individuals within a system, which facilitates non-violence, dialogue and change. It can also challenge the common and demotivating cognition that humans are a virus or are evil.
Re-appraisal of potential for change
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Living systems thinking teaches that systems can change abruptly, non-linearly and unpredictably, offering hope to create social change, and appreciation that what may appear to be small impacts of social movements may unpredictably cause radical systemic shifts.
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Movements modelled on living systems involve humans working together in ‘power-with’ collaborations (rather than ‘power-over’ dominance). In such instances of collective action, where the power of everyone is increased, the properties of living systems such as emergence, diversity, adaptability and non-linear growth can manifest. These emergent systemic properties create much more power and potential to have impact than when we act alone.
Reappraisal of uncertainty
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Understanding that because complex systems are unpredictable, we can act without needing to be sure of the outcome, freeing us up to try things out.
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Understanding we can act based on our values rather than probability or certainty of outcome.
Much indigenous wisdom and Buddhist and other spiritual traditions have apprehended the world from related perspectives for thousands of years, albeit languaged differently. These traditions are also used to convey similar concepts in the WTR, and greater acknowledgement of this ancient wisdom has been part of recent decolonising of the Work That Reconnects.
Going forth
The fourth phase of the spiral is the behaviourally oriented stage, focusing on actions the participant might wish to engage in beyond the workshop to play their collective part in creating a life-sustaining culture. Practices aim to help people clarify specific action intentions, identify resources, face and resolve doubts and obstacles, and gain encouragement. Perspectives from ancestors or future generations are often also utilised again at this stage.
A philosophical framework of the WTR that supports action is called ‘the three stories of our time’. Three broad narratives that can be held about the world are explained to participants. Cognitive behaviourally they might be understood as ‘cultural schema’, as these narratives shape thoughts, feelings, behaviour and values around how we conduct our lives. Becoming aware of the schema, which may have been adopted without awareness, is an important step in moderating their influence upon the individual.
The first story is termed the ‘Industrial Growth Society’ or ‘Business as Usual’ story, and dominates our media and politics. It includes core beliefs about the benefits of economic growth, industrial-technological progress, selfishness, individualism, and the Earth as a set of resources for extraction. This second story is termed ‘The Great Unravelling’, and recognises the reality of social and ecological disintegration. However, with the same mindsets conditioned by the Industrial Growth Society, of lack of agency, separation from others, and separation from nature, engagement with The Great Unravelling will likely lead to persistent responses of fear, panicked action, or powerlessness and hopelessness. Many cope by engaging in some level of disavowal and returning to the Business as Usual story. The third story offered is ‘The Great Turning’, which describes humans working to transform their lives and societies towards ones which regenerate and sustain life on Earth, including their own inner personal regeneration and that of their communities: a life of meaning, care, connection, love and aliveness. Elements of action towards The Great Turning include stopping further harm being done, building new life-sustaining systems, and contributing to the ideological shifts needed to support these.
The key teaching regarding the three stories of our time is that it is not necessary to decide which story is true, but to decide which story we would like to live into, to make it more likely to come about. The meaning, richness and values-connectedness created by committing to participate in The Great Turning, creates a subjective experience of purpose and wellbeing that is termed ‘active hope’. The teaching is conceptually very similar to values-based living and committed action in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes and Lillis, Reference Hayes and Lillis2012), and the concept of ‘towards’ versus ‘away’ moves:
‘Generally speaking, the more frequently our behaviour is guided by moving towards what we want, rather than away from what we don’t want, the happier and more fulfilled we’ll be. Moving toward what we care about creates energy and vitality, as well as expands the flexibility and range of our behaviours.’ (Atkins et al., Reference Atkins, Wilson and Hayes2019, p.74)
The Work That Reconnects in practice
For each stage of the spiral, there are a large range of practices from which the facilitator can select. As such, every workshop can be unique, and practices chosen to reflect particular needs or interests of the group. The WTR has a richness that comes from the interweaving of multiple spiritual, indigenous, wisdom and scientific traditions, and this allows its delivery and language to be tailored to different settings and groups, as well as the orientation of the facilitator. A community activist, ecologist, indigenous teacher, psychologist or meditator may offer a different way of explaining the same concepts. A workshop will usually consist of a mix of techniques and learning approaches to maintain engagement, selected depending on the group’s comfort and willingness: verbally expressive, imaginal, movement or body-based, versions of chairwork and role-play, reflective or expressive writing, and use of art, poetry, and music.
A workshop example
A typical one-day workshop will be described, providing some examples of practices and how participants respond to the experiences.
Participants
Twelve participants attended the workshop, having heard about it through environmental and activist networks, community groups, word of mouth or social media. Two participants will be described, with typical concerns brought to workshops. They are composites based on individuals, and quotes are from anonymised participants who have given feedback about their experiences attending workshops.
Paul came to the workshop feeling intense anxiety about climate change, species and biodiversity loss, and fear and despair for his grandchildren. He had a sense of powerlessness to be able to make an impact on the world. He had made some small lifestyle changes but had found it difficult to step into community level action, being what he described as a ‘conformist’. He was seeking ‘an injection of hope’.
Julia is active in a climate and ecological direct-action movement. She had become aware of the environmental crises and found what she had read very frightening. Before the workshop she had been feeling that she was ‘overdoing it’ in activist organising, finding it increasingly hard to switch off and mindful to avoid burnout given a history of depression.
Introductions and gratitude
The workshop began with an explanation of the process, its influences and core philosophies, and the spiral stages and their purposes. Group agreements to create safety were explained and discussed.
The facilitator then offered a simple gratitude ‘open sentences’ practice as an ice-breaker. In pairs, participants took turns to speak for two minutes to the sentence starter ‘Some things I love about being alive in Earth are…’ while their partner silently listened with their full attention. After swapping roles, both then responded to a second sentence starter, ‘A person who has helped me believe in myself is or was…’.
Paul had arrived at the workshop close to tears. The opening explanations helped him to feel contained by the model, with a clear structure in which he would be able to unburden himself as the workshop progressed. He was able to engage in the open sentence practice and reported feeling a surprising level of joy and a supportive sense of connection with his partner as a result.
The facilitators then offered a gratitude and deep ecology practice called ‘The Mirror Walk’. In pairs, one participant guided another other with their eyes closed for about 10 minutes around a woodland garden. Guiding their hand, the partner was invited to touch plants, trees and other natural elements, experiencing them from sensory modalities not usually emphasised. At certain points the guide was invited to say to their partner the phrase ‘open your eyes and look in the mirror’, inviting a novel self-as-nature experience of a particular view or sight.
Julia reported that this practice had a memorable impact on her: ‘The absolute trust … and feeling nature and being forced to use all my senses was a very effective way of experiencing nature. It was like I was reconnecting with myself spiritually and why I was doing this.’
Honouring our pain for the world
Moving into the second stage, a ritual called the ‘Truth Mandala’ was offered. The group sat in a circle with a central space containing a stone, leaves, a stick and an empty bowl. These objects each represented fear, sorrow, anger and emptiness or longing. After careful instruction on the process and boundaries, participants were invited if they wished, to take turns to speak about their concerns or pain and hold the objects to connect with their emotions. The objects provide an embodiment element to the practice as well as helping people identify, clarify and connect with different emotions.
Paul described having fears initially about opening up such strong emotions, and the relief that he found in doing so. He noted the absence of such spaces in the rest of his life: ‘I don’t have anywhere I can really talk about this stuff’. He added, ‘I felt so relieved when you called it “our pain for the world”, I’ve always just thought of it as a problem, that I was suffering from “eco-anxiety”’. Following this process, he reported feeling lighter, relieved and validated, and with more capacity to consider getting involved in community projects that addressed his concerns.
Seeing with new and ancient eyes
To have movement and a change of pace, the group then played ‘The systems game’. This is a fun exercise used to teach and explore some of the qualities of living systems in an embodied way.
Participants stood in an outside space allowing free movement. They were instructed to mentally select two people, and then to attempt to keep equidistant from both at all times. As the game unfolded, qualities of living systems became apparent, such as emergent patterns, feedback loops, interdependence, complexity, and dynamic equilibrium, and the facilitator paused at points to elicit these concepts and enable the group to reflect on their implications for action, in a facilitated discussion.
In the next practice of this stage, participants experienced a short version of ‘The Council of All Beings’. They were invited to imagine themselves as a non-human being or system, perhaps an animal, plant, soil, or a river. From the perspective of this life form, they expressed their sense of the world and particularly the threats they witness and face. Some participants were invited to listen as humans, and as the beings shared in ‘council’ it created a powerful experience of calling the humans to account. The beings then had the opportunity to name to the humans the strengths and gifts inherent in each life-form, such as playfulness, flow, or wide vision, offering the humans inspiration for their task of addressing the disruptions and destruction in the world.
Paul later reflected, ‘It’s so useful stepping out of the human centric view of things, even if it feels a bit new and odd to me … Considering the needs of the wider ecology … how often do we actually do that?’.
Going forth
For the final stage, in groups of four, participants took it in turns to describe an action or project they were considering undertaking towards The Great Turning. Then, in turn, the other group members responded to the idea, one expressing the voice of doubt, another speaking from an ancestor’s wisdom and experience, and a third a voice from the future explaining what the action might mean to them.
Julia reported, ‘I found deep time really helpful. The broader perspective. It’s very easy to get absorbed in what is happening in the here and now and what am I doing, am I doing enough? It puts us into some kind of perspective’. She highlighted the support element of deep time practices and collective action, ‘The fact that you kind of don’t have to do it all alone as well. This is about us all stepping up and doing it together. You don’t have to be some kind of hero.’
A summary of the core elements of the model and the shifts to more adaptive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that each stage engenders, is given in Table 1.
Summary of the main change processes in the Work That Reconnects
Discussion
Much of the Work That Reconnects can be understood within established cognitive behavioural frames and merits research attention from the CBT field. Some commonalities between CBT and the WTR are as follows:
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Client-centred and promoting autonomy: participants bring their specific issues, values and goals;
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Structured;
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Combines psychoeducation with experiential practices;
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Combines affective, cognitive, behavioural and motivational strategies;
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Particular alignment with ACT, such as shifts in sense of self, values-based living and committed action;
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Multi-modal, including use of verbal, imagery, chairwork, role play, mediation, written, and art-based techniques;
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Explicit purpose to facilitate or support adaptive action.
Robust qualitative and quantitative outcome evaluation of the WTR is required. Key outcome variables of interest could be subjective well-being and mental health indicators, and pro-ecological behaviour. Hypothesised intervening variables, including nature connectedness, social connectedness, and subjective sense of agency, would benefit from study, to elucidate mechanisms of effect of the WTR.
Distress as an outcome variable is complex in climate and ecological psychology research, as some forms or levels of distress may be adaptive and welcome, or part of a necessary phase of turning towards the world’s problems, as in other grief responses. Distinction may need to be made between those currently coping through avoidance or numbing, and those experiencing clinical levels of depression, anxiety or other responses impacting on daily functioning. A successful intervention might be expected to lead to reduced clinical symptoms in the latter group, with a slight but sub-clinical increase in scores for the ‘avoidance’ group.
Another avenue of research would be to evaluate specific or unique components of the WTR methodology, such as deep time or ecological-self practices, or the impact of teaching living systems thinking to groups such activists and community organisations. It would be of benefit to empirically research the construct of subjective connection to deep time, exploring its validity and utility as a construct, developing standardised measures, and whether enhancing a sense of deep time has therapeutic impact. Alternatively, interventions such as deep time or deep ecology visualisations could be explored in experimental laboratory studies. The impact of these on, for example, performance on tasks that measure pro-social and pro-ecological behavioural orientations, cooperation, and empathy, or on measurements of physiological variables or state anxiety, would be of great relevance in developing the evidence base for therapeutic strategies to address climate and ecological concerns.
Responding to climate and ecological concerns with groupwork
The WTR is principally a groupwork methodology; however, the ideas have been made accessible for individuals or as paired or small group self-directed practice through the book Active Hope (Macy and Johnstone, Reference Macy and Johnstone2022) and the online course Active Hope Training (Johnstone, Reference Johnstone, Aspey, Jackson and Parker2023). For those seeking support for climate and ecological concerns, groupwork has a number of advantages over individual therapy beyond the ability to reach more people with limited therapeutic resources. Participants can experience more validation, and expressions of distress can be more easily de-stigmatised and de-pathologised by witnessing others’ emotional responses. Well-structured group practices, such as present in the WTR, can still allow individuals to work on their idiosyncratic responses at their own pace, but with the benefits of group connection. In general, exercises structured to create reflective opportunities rather than debate or discussion are most effective. Lastly, groupwork can facilitate the building of networks of support and connections that can enhance both personal wellbeing and capacity to take collective action on these issues. With more robust research to demonstrate outcomes, there could be potential for a version of the WTR to be offered as an intervention in primary care services such as IAPT, or student counselling services, if climate and ecological distress is a frequent presentation.
Implications for individual therapy
Whilst groupwork has great advantages for world difficulties that affect us all, individual therapy may be more appropriate where social anxiety or the severity of other difficulties are preventing group participation, or as an adjunct to groupwork. Groupwork approaches may also simply be unavailable, or a client may raise climate concerns within the context of seeking therapy for other issues. The WTR has potential to inform or enrich cognitive behavioural practice for these issues, and some examples of this will be offered below. Some WTR practices are close to established techniques such as mindfulness, chairwork and imagery work, and demonstrate ways cognitive behavioural techniques can be adapted to concerns for world.
When clients bring distress for the world to therapy, honour their pain through expressing gratitude that they care, reframing sadness, fear and anger as signs of compassion, care, and desire for justice. Explore how the client copes with these feelings, for example avoidance, suppression, or rumination, whilst normalising these coping responses as a result of the lack of settings in our society in which such feelings can be named or fully expressed.
In individual therapy, the role of gratitude can be explained and introduced after the initial sessions, framed as a resourcing tool for psychological resilience. With agreement, gratitude or nature connection exercises could then be used to open or close sessions and suggested as between-sessions practices, such as gratitude diaries or mindful attention to elements of nature.
After assessment and formulation and when the client seems sufficiently resourced, encourage deeper grieving or emotional expression in sessions, adapting established griefwork techniques or those within the WTR. For example, a client could be invited to bring objects, perhaps from nature, to represent climate or ecological issues they feel distressed about, or to create a ‘cairn of mourning’ within or between sessions. The ‘open sentences’ technique can be used to encourage emotional expression, by providing sentence starters such as: ‘what concerns me most about the world at the moment is…’. The use of natural objects in the ‘Truth Mandala’ to connect with different emotions, could also be used in individual sessions. Acknowledge the need for ongoing validation and shared reality with others around world issues, and explore potential community contexts in which a client can meet people who share their concerns.
Many clients may bring to therapy the personal impact on them of the ecological and climate crises. For example, the decision to have fewer or no children, relationship discord due to different levels of concern about these issues, or social isolation due to friends, family and community not understanding their degree of concern. Many existing psychotherapeutic techniques can be brought to these issues and WTR practices from ‘seeing with new and ancient eyes’ can also be adapted. For example, a chairwork exercise of inhabiting different perspectives including someone of an opposing view, can allow deeper empathising with oneself and with the other. Another WTR practice uses role play to explore how to communicate one’s concerns, needs and hopes more effectively, and is akin to communication skills training.
Explore behavioural responses with questions such as, ‘Are there things you’d like to do in response to your concerns? What is stopping you doing that?’. Blocks to taking action on ecological and social issues may be indecision over what action will be effective, social and other anxiety, ‘imposter syndrome’, and hopelessness. In these contexts, explaining the ‘three stories of our time’ and the reframe of ‘which story would you like to live into?’ can be powerful, and similar to the ACT values-clarifying question of ‘What do you want your life to be about?’. It may also be of benefit to introduce systems and complexity theory: that working collectively with others can lead to unpredictable emergent effects, that change can happen suddenly and rapidly, and so we can act without certainty of the outcomes.
For focused work on behavioural responses, questions based on ‘Going forth’ practices may be useful, such as:
‘If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do in service to life on Earth?’
‘What specific project or action do you feel drawn towards at the moment?’
‘What resources inner and outer, do you have that could assist you in making this happen? And what resources would you need to acquire?’
‘What obstacles might you put in your way and what will you do to move around or through these obstacles?’
If a client brings indecision, a useful CBT intervention might be using problem solving: generating possibilities and listing pros and cons of options and ideas. A WTR practice that offers a related approach is ‘Lifemap’ in which the client draws different paths their future could take based on different choices, and through this explores feelings and thoughts about the various options. To clarify values and motivate, the exercise ‘Letter from the Future’ invites the client to write a letter to themselves from a future human. It operates in a similar way to the ACT exercise of writing one’s own obituary, using a future perspective to increase motivation for values-based behaviour.
In individual therapy, there will be more opportunity to explore some of the idiosyncratic issues that come up for the clients in their response to concerns for the world. Core beliefs and early maladaptive schema, for example, are also likely to affect emotional coping responses and interfere with adaptive pro-ecological action. An individualised formulation and therapy integrating existing cognitive behavioural approaches is therefore necessary. Philosophies and adapted practices from the WTR could be used to enrich the toolkit of therapeutic responses. Any intervention, however, needs to be delivered with care taken not to pathologise a client’s concern and distress about the ecological and climate crisis, but rather to enable adaptive responses to the distress.
Lastly, there are a number of therapist attributes which will enable the conduct of more effective therapy on these issues. The first is for the therapist to have turned sufficiently towards the issues themselves. Experiential avoidance of either the state of the world, or one’s emotional responses to it, will make it more difficult to help a client turn towards their own pain, and there is a greater risk of pathologising responses. Secondly, it will be difficult to communicate empowering frames for action if the therapist is holding beliefs about lack of agency and it being impossible to have a meaningful impact. It is recommended therefore that therapists work through the issues described in this article themselves and ideally engage with some form of pro-ecological community activity, in order to understand the challenges and benefits that engaging with these issues brings.
Key practice points
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(1) Groupwork for world concerns is particularly powerful due to the shared nature of the threat and the need for building supportive and like-minded community.
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(2) Gratitude is an evidence-based resourcing practice that can be used for pro-ecological distress and action.
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(3) Honour your clients’ pain for the world. Express gratitude that they care. Encourage and offer griefwork and emotional expression.
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(4) Dialogic, imaginal, written or reflective exercises with nature, ancestors, and future humans can be used alongside other cognitive strategies to motivate and clarify pro-ecological actions.
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(5) Use practices such as the WTR to approach your personal feelings about world crises, to have capacity to fully hear your clients’ distress. Reflect on disempowering beliefs you may be holding about your or others’ ability to create change in the world.
Data availability statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and/or its supplementary materials.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Joanna Macy and the international community of practice engaged in the Work That Reconnects, particularly those involved with the websites at https://workthatreconnects.org and https://activehope.training, and to all participants who have given feedback on workshops.
Author contributions
Rosie Jones: Conceptualization (equal), Data curation (lead), Investigation (lead), Methodology (lead), Software (supporting), Writing – original draft (lead), Writing – review & editing (lead); Chris Johnstone: Conceptualization (equal), Software (lead), Writing – review & editing (supporting).
Financial support
This work received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests
Rosie Jones is self-employed at Psychology for Ecology. Chris Johnstone is co-author of Active Hope (Macy and Johnstone, Reference Macy and Johnstone2022).
Ethical standards
The authors have abided by the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct as set out by the BABCP and BPS. All individuals quoted in this paper have given informed consent to publish their comments and have seen the submission in full and agreed to it going forward for publication.
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