From Climate Anxiety to Climate Resilience

Details

• Dates: Wednesday's, 7-8pm EDT, September 11 - December 4, 2024 
• Format: Weekly course material and activities accessible via online learning platform plus weekly live group meeting on Zoom (1 hour)
• Cost: normally $1200, pilot discounted rate: $899 (a 25% savings)
• Group size: 8 participants max
• CEUs: Provided by VCPI for Allied Mental Health Professions and Social Work or Psychology if applicable. All participants will receive a Certificate of Completion. 

Description

Are you a coach, educator, health or mental health provider, social worker, healer, or in another helping profession, witnessing painful stress and tension caused by the climate crisis (or “climate anxiety”) in  your office or classroom? 

Are you looking for more effective ways to:

• Navigate complex and emotionally charged conversations about climate change that fall beyond your training and scope of expertise.
• Move through grief, anger or despair and create climate conversations that are generative - not overly positive, but safe, realistic and empowering.
• Maintain your composure when you share the same overwhelming feelings as those you are trying to help.

This 12-week, hands-on intensive course is designed for you.

Join a small group of fellow helping professionals to build your own climate resilience and grow your “ecological emotional intelligence” so that you can facilitate long lasting transformation in those you serve. 

Make a significant impact in the lives of those you serve.

As caring professionals, we are not climate scientists, we don’t need to engage in confrontation or political debates, we don’t need to lecture, tell people what to do, give answers or solutions, fix things, and we don’t have to fall into a spiral of despair with our clients, patients or students when the topic of climate change arises, directly or indirectly. We don’t have to feel responsible for driving fast, major change because of the positions we hold either. 

The biggest impact we can have is to create safe spaces, one-on-one or in small groups, to be in genuine conversation. We can learn ways to make others feel seen, validated, and empowered—even within the context of climate change or a polycrisis. With patience, curiosity, new habits of relating and strengths-based approaches, we can serve as guides for deeper personal transformations that not only help people shift out of anxiety and build resilience, but in the long term, lead to growing awareness, responsibility, value-driven and sustainable action, and improved health and wellbeing.