Integrating an Ecotherapy and Climate-Conscious Approach into Your Mental Health Work

This three-hour live webinar will be provided via Zoom by instructor Thomas Doherty, Psy.D.

In this class, participants will gain an overview of the latest findings on nature, climate change and mental health and learn practical strategies for emotional coping, improving healthy lifestyle, and responding to climate and environmental issues in their life and work. Central to the discussion will be the process of environmental identity, one's self-concept and a sense of relationship with nature. Environmental identity intersects with a person's other identities in unique ways and provides a base on which to build health promotion and therapeutic interventions, and help people act on their values. In this experiential workshop, participants will explore their own environmental identity and beliefs (including sources of well-being and resilience, as well as trauma or injustice), discover ways to adapt their existing skill set to take action on environmental and climate issues and concerns, and identity opportunities to apply these activities in the specific contexts of their personal and professional life.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Describe their personal motivations, guiding ethical principles, and skills and competencies re. providing ecotherapy or climate-focused mental health therapy
2. Hypothesize emotional responses about environmental issues they are likely to encounter, and skills to better dialog with individuals from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds
3. Differentiate between (1) normal feelings of anxiety and despair regarding environmental issues and (2) clinical anxiety, depressive and adjustment disorders
4. Demonstrate how to adapt common therapy approaches to address the environmental concerns of their clients and patients (e.g., using CBT, mindfulness, psychodynamic, existential, and multicultural approaches)

Audience

Beginner to Advanced

By participating in this class you will earn:

Explanation of Continuing Education Hours