Tree Staunton

Tree Staunton

Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown

How do we self-regulate in a time when the world is on fire, when violence and polarisation are escalating and we feel increasingly powerless to influence those who should be in charge? How do we hold ourselves together when things are falling apart?

The issue of climate change is not merely an environmental or scientific challenge, but also a profound psychological and emotional one. Individuals experience a range of responses—from denial and anxiety to grief and helplessness—when confronted with the reality of our changing world. How do we as therapists sit alongside our clients when we are in the same boat?

 In this talk Tree Staunton will introduce understandings from Climate Psychology, and Body Psychotherapy to address these questions, bringing clinical examples of working with climate distress in the consulting room.

Meet Tree Staunton

Tree Staunton is a UKCP Honorary Fellow, and has been a Registered Body Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Trainer for 35 years. She was MA Program Leader and Director of Studies at BCPC from 2011 and, overall Director of the charity from 2014 - 2023. Tree represented BCPC in UKCP in addition to serving as Chair of the Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy College for 5 years. She is a published author of various academic papers, contributing articles and editorships including Body Psychotherapy (ed, Routledge, 2002) and Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown (co-eds Anderson, Staunton, O’Gorman and Hickman, Routledge 2024). She was awarded Emeritus status after stepping down as Director and continues to teach and supervise psychotherapists-in-training.