ABSTRACT
What does it mean for the psychotherapy profession that more and more countries declare a climate emergency? In a time of demise of our ecosystem that supports human life on Earth, this chapter explores the role of psychotherapy at this important threshold moment and asks who needs to change – the individual clients we see, therapy itself or the culture at large? The chapter argues that in order to face the climate emergency, change is needed at a scale that goes beyond the personal and individual focus. Climate change is a global systemic problem that affects the whole system. What can the therapy profession contribute to individual and collective processes of change? The chapter suggests that we urgently need to develop ways to re-ensoul a culture that is costing us the Earth. It proposes to widen psychotherapeutic theories and explores the conditions that may be needed to develop a psychology of the environment. As a practical starting point, it suggests reviewing aspects of the profession that reflect problematic ideologies of anthropocentrism and individualism.
