Climate Change & Mental Health

Online Counseling for New Yorkers

Compassionate climate-aware therapy for these unique times.

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Climate anxiety doesn’t have to paralyze you.

Close-up of a child's feet, wearing one black shoe and one yellow hiking boot, standing on a dirt trail in a forest during autumn.

With record-breaking temperatures, unabating wildfires, and outcries from the scientific community – you’re feeling a lot of anxiety about what the future is going to look like. Everyone seems to be going on with their lives as if nothing is wrong, so you hope that maybe you can too. After all, you don’t want to be labeled a “doomsday activist,” or tree-hugger, or anything embarrassing like that.

But you know something is wrong. Work and day-to-day life have begun to lose their practical relevance to you. When you try to bring up climate change to friends, your conversations inevitably stall, because no one really knows what they can say or do about it. That only makes you feel more helpless.

Lately, you’ve been wondering…

  • Is everyone actually OK with all of this? What are we doing about this?

  • What am I working for, if it’s all going to end?

  • Have I been complicit? What can I do to help fix this? Is it OK that I’m furiously angry?

  • …should I still have kids?

It doesn’t seem like anyone will really understand. The questions keep rolling in for you, and you feel really alone.

Climate-aware therapy can help.

A person hiking along a trail on a green ridge overlooking a bay with a beach, mountains, and the ocean under a cloudy sky.

I get it. Anxiety about the climate crisis is a unique topic to tread. Mental health professionals actually categorize it as a type of disenfranchised grief. Disenfranchised grief is a type of sadness that someone feels but can’t fully acknowledge it because they don’t feel supported by others. This can happen with things that don’t seem to be socially acceptable to be sad about – like losing a beloved pet – by broader societal customs. As a result of this “disenfranchisement,” people going through these emotions can feel isolated, misunderstood, and unable to fully express their emotions. They tend to seek out less social support for it, as well.

I believe that the therapy room should be one of the safest places where you can share your deepest worries about climate change. As a climate-aware therapist, I am on this journey with you.

When you begin to talk about your climate emotions, the isolation of what you’ve been experiencing will start to lessen. You’re probably going to feel really hard things: grief, sadness, uncertainty, and perhaps even a profound sense of despair. This is actually a very healthy emotional experience that can deepen your understanding of your personal values, and create new hopes for the life you intend to lead.

Through this process, you’ll begin to gain some tools to help manage your sense of overwhelm. You’ll cultivate a new appreciation for the natural environment all around you and recognize the unique part you play in it. You’ll strengthen your sense of agency, identifying the things that generate and bolster more hope in your life. 

Ultimately, you’ll experience firsthand that you are not alone.

Climate-aware therapy can help you:

  • Understand your relationship with the environment around you

  • Define your climate-aligned values

  • Identify what is actually in your control, versus what isn’t

  • Inspire values-aligned action that generates a cycle of hope

  • Empower yourself through new resources and a community of like-minded people

Transform your climate anxiety into self-compassion and hope.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Climate Anxiety:

  • A: Climate anxiety has a lot of names. You may often see it referred to as climate change anxiety, ecological anxiety, or eco-anxiety. What all these terms have in common is that they attempt to capture the emotional experience of dread, fear, and worry about the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change. There is a robust amount of psychological research in this area now due to the increase of direct and indirect impacts of extreme weather events that so many populations are going through, and interest in this body of research continues to grow.

    It’s important to note that climate anxiety is not an official clinical disorder or diagnosis, but an existentially emotional experience for segments of the population. As recently as 2021, the American Psychological Association issued an update to their 2017 report about the mental health impacts of our changing climate, and what the responses of mental health professionals can look like.

  • A: A multitude of studies on climate anxiety has shown that climate change anxiety is not an uncommon experience, in particular amongst younger adults. There is a continuum to one’s anxiety, and it can be differentiated from worried distress to a more serious impairment, impacting someone’s ability to function in life. Overall, the research shows that climate change anxiety has a correlation to emotional responses, but not behavioral responses. The Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS) was developed and tested in 2020 as a 22-question assessment measuring a person’s response to climate change, and the Climate Anxiety Scale (CAS) was developed and tested in 2022 as a 13-item questionnaire for assessing climate anxiety. Some peer-reviewed publications and resources are directly linked below:

  • A: The frequency of our virtual therapy sessions will depend on your unique needs and the specific challenges you're facing. In the beginning, I recommend weekly sessions. That cadence can be very helpful to build momentum for your ongoing healing and working through the immediate issues you want to tackle.

    As we make progress and you start feeling more equipped to handle your climate anxiety, we can decide if it’s best for you to space out your sessions to bi-weekly, or perhaps another arrangement. The frequency will be a collaborative decision, and I’ll work with you to find the best approach that suits your circumstances and goals. Remember, virtual therapy is a valuable resource to support you through anxiety and major life transitions. Your well-being is important, and I'm here to help you prioritize that.

  • A: I currently offer sessions at $150 per 50-minute session. Fees are charged after the end of each session with your payment method of choice on file.

  • A: Cancellations must be given 48-hours' notice in order to avoid a session charge.