The World Is Burning. 'Tell Me About Your Mother'

Not too long ago, if somebody walked into a therapist's office and described their existential dread about what's happening to the climate, the patient might have been considered a crackpot. Today? With mind-boggling heat, rampant wildfires, related smoke pollution, flooding, etc., not so much. In fact, Seattle therapist Andrew Bryant finds it notable when patients walk into his office through a smoky haze—from wildfires in California or Canada, say— with the Air Quality Index off the charts, and fail to mention it at all. A story in the New York Times Magazine explores how therapists, as well as patients, are fast adapting to what is referred to as "climate psychology." For example, Bryant found resources so lacking that he set up a Climate & Mind website to help therapists and non-therapists alike.

Not that everyone is buying in, as evidenced by a joke told to the magazine's Brooke Jarvis by a therapist: "You come in and talk about how anxious you are that fossil-fuel companies continue to pump CO2 into the air, and your therapist says, 'So, tell me about your mother.'" The story also explores a wrinkle to the issue: Typically, therapists don't bring their own feelings into a session, but since climate change affects them, too, a debate is underway about how to navigate those boundaries. "One of the emerging tenets of climate psychology is that counselors should validate their clients' climate-related emotions as reasonable, not pathological," adds Jarvis. It's not about "fixing" but about helping people confront and cope with their fears in rational ways instead of, say, doomscrolling. Read the full story. (Or check out other longforms.)