Coaches unsure whether to raise the issue of the climate crisis with clients may find motivation from a survey by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) revealing that more than half (57%) of UK adults say climate crisis affects their mental health.
The BACP’s 2024 Public Perceptions Survey shows that this rises to 63% for those aged 16 to 24 and to nearly three- quarters (73%) of people who’ve experienced a mental health issue in the past five years.
Nearly two-thirds of therapists also told BACP they believe climate anxiety is one of the reasons they’ve seen a decline this year in people’s mental health.
BACP member, therapist, coach and climate psychologist Linda Aspey says climate change used to feel distant for most people in the UK, but in the last few years it’s starting to feel closer to home.
“With more extreme weather events like floods, droughts and fires, and related issues of loss of biodiversity in nature, pollution in our air, soil and water, and talk of food insecurity, it’s not surprising that more than half of people in the UK are worried about climate change.
“These emotions are often called eco-anxiety or climate anxiety and yet it’s more nuanced than that. It’s sometimes a mixture of distress, frustration, anger, grief and even numbness – all very normal and natural responses to the losses and the uncertainties we face.”
The BACP introduced its annual Public Perceptions Survey in 2019 to measure the opinions and attitudes of the British public towards mental health, using a self-complete, online methodology. A nationally representative sample of 5,249 adults (aged 16+) was taken from YouGov’s online research panel and results were weighted to provide a nationally representative dataset. Fieldwork for the 2024 survey was conducted between 16 and 28 February 2024.
- The BACP is the largest professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists with about 70,000 members internationally.