It is evident in these times that climate change is a serious crisis, with serious consequences. The potential mental health impact on our clients is going to become more and more evident in the clinical space, interacting with the other presenting concerns that brought them into the consulting room. It is the therapist’s responsibility to start thinking more deeply about these issues and identify ways to address anxiety, depression and other psychological responses to climate change. As people living in this world, therapists may also have their own experiences with climate anxiety.
This online workshop, presented by WTCI graduates Marisa Mabli, LCSW and Aleksandra Rayska, PhD, will showcase contemporary theory related to climate crisis anxiety at the cutting edge of current clinical thinking. Presenters will focus on the feminist perspective of the issue of climate change, which brings to the forefront the intertwined issues of gender, oppression, and social justice. The workshop will also be an opportunity to look at ways in which both clients but also therapists are impacted by the trauma of climate change anxiety. During the workshop, clinical examples of climate change anxiety will be shared and discussed, Presenters and attendees will have a chance to come up with action items for clinical practice and share recommendations on how to address those issues in the clinical situation.
Qualifying practitioners—see below—will receive 2.0 CEUs.
Learning objectives:
1. Deepen understanding of climate change anxiety in clinical encounters
2. Enable clinicians to gain understanding of how climate change anxiety is affecting them
3. Increase skills in handling climate change anxiety in clinical situation
4. To be able to critically analyze contemporary theory of climate change anxiety
Aleksandra Rayska, PhD is a clinical psychologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital. She is a graduate of WTCI. She also works in a private practice where she specializes in working with psychosomatic disorders.
Marisa Mabli, LCSW is a psychotherapist in private practice with specialties in body image/eating concerns, substance use, and sexuality and gender identities. She is also a therapist at the counseling center at The New School. She is a graduate of WTCI and is a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance.
WTCI is recognized by the New York State (NYS) Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for NYS licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0102 and creative arts therapists #CAT-0018, by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Workers as an approved provider of continuing education for NYS licensed social workers #SW-0361, and by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0049.