The Climate is in Crisis: Art Therapy Apathy is Not an Option

Within the next decade, tens of millions of people will become displaced as a direct result of climate change, creating the biggest refugee crisis the world has ever seen. The poorest and most vulnerable in our global society will be affected first. Already, every second, someone is displaced by a climate or weather-related disaster. This is a climate emergency. ‘Eco anxiety’ is on the rise and it is children who are taking action. These voices cannot be ignored. Apathy is not an option. Governments, corporations, professionals and individuals need to respond with urgency. Art Psychotherapists work with the most vulnerable and marginalised in society and this will include those most affected by the climate crisis. Art Psychotherapists need to advocate for climate justice. Art Psychotherapists need to pledge to have a sustainable and earth conscious practice.

I started creating Earth Art Therapy in 2018, just before the beginning of my Art Therapy training and at the height of my involvement in environmental justice activism. Although my clinical work focused my learning in a different direction, my idea for creating an earth conscious approach to Art Therapy continued to evolve throughout my MA. 

For our first End of Year Exhibition, my artwork explored the concept of the therapy contract and the idea of keeping the client ‘safe’ within the therapeutic relationship, including with the art materials and the therapy room itself. With the rise in news coverage of children protesting around the world for climate justice, I found myself considering what I could offer my clients as an Art Therapist trainee based in a Primary School, in relation to wider environmental issues. How as a professional could I address my responsibility to future generations facing the climate crisis? How could I do my part to reduce plastic pollution with an Art Therapy room filled with plastic: plastic toys, plastic furniture and plastic pots containing various types of micro-plastics?

My artwork entitled ‘The climate is in crisis: Art Therapy apathy is not an option’ explored these ideas and formed the basis for my imagined earth conscious Art Therapy studio, equipped with natural playdough, plant based paints, shells, stones, feathers and dried flower petals. I also created an earth conscious Art Therapy contract which highlighted the issues around what it means to commit to ‘safety’ in an ever increasingly unstable world:

The Earth Conscious Art Psychotherapy
Contract with a Child

This is a safe place:

1.	The paints on the shelf are made with natural ingredients   without solvents or VOCs 
2.	The playdough has been made with everyday kitchen ingredients so is safe to handle and even ingest 
3.	The glitter in the jar is biodegradable so can be poured down the drain without damaging sea life or contributing to microplastic waste  
4.	The paper you are drawing on has not contributed to deforestation and the destruction of wild species 
5.	There is a bin for all waste which will be sorted and recycled 
6.	The toys you can see were made locally with sustainably sourced wood 
7.	When we wash our hands the water that flows out of the tap is rain water that has been collected from the roof above us
8.	There is a fabric towel to dry our hands which gets washed and reused
9.	Some of the furniture we are sitting on is second hand and some has been upcycled
10.	The walls surrounding us are not leaking lead or phthalates (which have been linked to causing asthma and cancer)
11.	The light above our heads is powered by renewable green energy and therefore does not rely on releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere 
12.	You can hear children outside in the playground because they are not striking from school in order to fight for climate justice 
13.	The building we are in is not being flooded because the climate is not in crisis