Groups of therapists, climate activists and citizens concerned about the warming of the planet meet in so-called climate cafes to discuss the effects of the environmental crisis on mental health.
Ecoanxiety is a growing form of mental illness and has been cited in several high-profile suicides in recent years.
Climate cafes have popped up across the United States, from Los Angeles to Kansas City, Boston and Brooklyn, in coffee shops and hosts’ living rooms as a way to confront this growing mental health crisis.
Group leaders, sometimes trained therapists, help worried Americans talk about and process their feelings about ecological collapse and climate injustice.
While not everyone belongs to a formal network, Rebecca Nestor, of the nonprofit Climate Psychology Alliance that trains leaders, told the New York Times the number has skyrocketed in the last three years.
A weekly group in Kansas City, Missouri, led by the nonprofit Resilient Activist begins with spiritual gatherings and guided meditations.
Nonprofit Climate Psychology Alliance Trains Climate Cafe Leaders
So far, the organization has trained 350 people to run climate cafes in the United States, Canada and Europe.
The goal of the alliance is to study how environmental issues such as climate disasters and dangerous air pollution affect people’s mental health.
The organization “addresses the urgent psychological dimensions of the climate and ecological crisis and promotes cultural shifts toward human resilience, regeneration, and equity,” according to its website.
The group proposes to see mental health as something intrinsically linked to the environment.
“The ecosystem guides circadian rhythms and seasonal effects, and includes the local landscapes and climate systems in which we are embedded,” he says.
The climate cafe groups she facilitates are intended to be a “space for the exploration of thoughts, feelings and experiences” rather than a discussion about activism.
Putting theory into action Nestor hosted his first climate cafe in the UK in 2018.
He was inspired by the Swiss creation of the death cafe, where people gather to face the taboo of death.
Climate cafes have sprung up across the country, from Los Angeles to Kansas City, Boston and Brooklyn, to help concerned Americans discuss their ecological anxiety.
At a climate cafe in Lower Manhattan, anxious New Yorkers drank kombucha and discussed their fears for the planet, the New York Times reported.
Participants spoke of their fears for their future children and future generations who will inherit a dangerous land.
Climate cafes, now spread around the world, are usually free and accessible to the general public.
However, there are special sessions geared toward librarians, therapists, and others with a professional connection to the climate anxieties of others.
Psychologists told the Times that these groups are having a positive impact on those trying to cope with the realities of a changing planet.
A weekly group in Kansas City, Missouri, run by a nonprofit organization, Resilient Activists Meetings begins with spiritual gatherings and guided meditations.
The group also discusses topics such as the ethics of having children on an overpopulated planet with increasingly scarce resources.
Sami Aron, 71, a retired software developer, founded Resilient Activist after her son, a Berkeley student, committed suicide citing hopelessness over climate change.
Three quarters of people between 16 and 25 years old feel anxiety about climate change, according to a 2022 study.
According to the study, a 1°C increase in air temperature has been associated with a 1.1 to 2.3 percent increase in suicides.
Climate cafes, now spread around the world, are usually free and accessible to the general public.
The Climate Psychology Alliance studies how environmental issues such as climate disasters and dangerous air pollution affect people’s mental health
Some groups have focused on turning their feelings into protest and action.
‘Temperature and suicide rates have been found to be linked’ to 2023 Front Psychiatry completed report.
“The fear, the hopelessness is exiling itself in all of us, and that’s why we don’t talk about it, because it’s too painful,” Bondy told the Times.
And he added: “If we can’t heal what we all feel, we can’t heal our planet either.”
At a climate cafe in Lower Manhattan, anxious New Yorkers drank kombucha and discussed their fears for the planet, the outlet reported.
The event was organized by Olivia Ferraro, 24, who has led more than 20 climate cafes since June 2023.
His meetings typically have between five and twenty attendees, and he also trains others online who want to host similar meetings in their own communities.
“I can no longer accept the narrative that there is no choice in how to end this and that big corporations have complete control over my future,” one aide, Sheila McMenamin, told the New York Times.
“They don’t have full control and I refuse to give it up,” the 32-year-old added.
Other participants spoke of their fears for their future children and future generations who would inherit a dangerous land.
“It makes me angry that there aren’t more black and brown people in these rooms,” said Sarah Scott, a first-time attendee, the Times reported.
“They don’t have the money to worry about these things,” he explained.
A group of psychotherapists in Champaign, Illinois, helps those working to alleviate the anxieties of others confront their own difficult feelings about the climate.
“I find myself struggling to enjoy the outdoors because of the constant reminders” of environmental degradation, Kate Mauer told the online group, according to the Times.
“By appreciating its beauty, but also appreciating the strangeness and the loss, we preserve it all,” agreed Lauren Bondy, a Chicago therapist.