Existential Therapy and Climate Anxiety

Date: Friday, Nov. 8
Time: 7 pm
Location: The Refinery
Emmanuel Anglican (formerly St. James) Church Basement
607 Dufferin Avenue

About this event

This talk is presented by Erin Greer (MA Philosophy, MA Counselling Psychology)

Existential therapy focuses on internal conflicts that arise from the “givens of existence” (Yalom, 1980). Yalom suggests that there are four ultimate existential concerns that, to varying degrees, many of us fail to notice in our everyday lives, including death, isolation, freedom, and meaninglessness. These concerns will sound familiar to those who are interested in thinkers like Kierkegaard and Simone de Beauvoir. But how has existentialism informed therapy, and why is it relevant in our current context?

With growing anxiety about climate change, there is an increasing challenge among therapists over how best to address climate anxiety. Climate or eco-anxiety is defined as “heightened emotional, mental or somatic distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system” (Climate Psychology Alliance, 2020). While climate change is alarming and ought to provoke concern, eco-anxiety can be debilitating and thereby lead to inaction.

In this talk, Greer will examine existential therapy as a promising approach to confronting climate anxiety. Greer will explore how eco-anxiety forces us to consider ultimate existential concerns and how challenging climate anxiety is a matter of facing death and meaninglessness on a larger scale, as well as confronting isolation and freedom/responsibility in important ways.

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