1st Edition
Climate Crisis and Consciousness Re-imagining Our World and Ourselves
Climate crisis disrupts the beliefs, values and behaviors of contemporary societies, sparking potential for radical changes in culture and consciousness. Drawing upon her experience as a Jungian psychotherapist and a researcher in the field of climate psychology, Sally Gillespie writes about the challenges, dilemmas, opportunities and transformations of engaging with climate and ecological crises.
Many factors shape how we understand and respond to the existential threats of climate crisis. This accessible book with its discussions about worldviews, cultural myths, emotional resilience, social connectedness, nature relatedness and collective action explores consciousness change in those most engaged with climate issues. Calling upon the words and stories of many people, including Indigenous leaders, ecologists, campaigners, writers and philosophers, Gillespie encourages us to enter into climate conversations to forge emotional resilience, ecological consciousness and inspired action.
With its unique focus on the psychological experience of facing into the climate crisis, this warm and supportive book offers companionship and sustenance for anyone who wants to be alive to our natural world and to the existential challenges of today. It is an essential resource for counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers and other helping professionals, as well as climate campaigners, policy makers, educators, scientists and researchers.
Biography
Sally Gillespie, PhD, worked as a Jungian psychotherapist for over twenty years before undertaking doctoral research in climate psychology at Western Sydney University. She now lectures, and facilitates workshops, on climate psychology and ecopsychology. A former President of the Jung Society of Sydney, Sally is a member of Psychology for a Safe Climate, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Wellbeing Network.
"This is a soulful work that speaks to all of us concerning the greatest threat to life on Earth. With care and acuity, Sally Gillespie brings us close to this issue and presents heart centered approaches to not only hold our grief, but to work towards re-imagining new, creative ways to be with Earth." - Jeffrey T. Kiehl, climate scientist, Jungian analyst and author of Facing Climate Change: An Integrated Path to the Future
"As the climate changes, we must also change our thinking. With not just brilliance but also profound insight and compassion, Dr Sally Gillespie shows us how. We will save our world only when we better understand the depth of our responses to it. No book could be more timely." - Stephanie Dowrick, PhD, author of Seeking the Sacred: Transforming Our View of Ourselves and One Another
"This lovely book asks how we can live well in a world ravaged by climate disruption and then guides us empathically and sensitively through the process. Sally Gillespie shows us how to live with our confusion, draw on our dreams, speak our pain and join with others on a journey whose outcome is uncertain but whose necessity has never felt more urgent.
Imbued with a deep respect for the natural world and filled with inspiring examples - check out the Knitting Nannas! - Sally Gillespie offers myths and tells stories that both comfort and inspire. She has lived the painful journey that so many people need to take, and she meets our fears and vulnerabilities with compassion and resolution. Whether you are trembling on the edge of climate awareness or burnt out from years of struggle, this wise book will help you find your place in the growing climate movement and its new consciousness. Read it - it will give you courage and help you step out."- Rosemary Randall, co-founder of Carbon Conversations Project, www.carbonconversations.co.uk
"Climate Crisis and Consciousness covers such a range of vital issues in such a lively and personal style I am sure it will quickly become a ‘must read’ for these climate troubled times. I found myself feeling envious of Sally Gillespie’s ability to draw on such a variety of literatures to find the psychological resources we will all need to negotiate the difficult transition ahead. In her hands, that phrase ‘every crisis is an opportunity’ no longer became a bland piece of Blairite rhetoric but a convincing call to each one of us to be the transformation that this warming earth requires." - Professor Paul Hoggett, co-founder of the Climate Psychology Alliance
