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These peer support programs and other facilitated experiences designed to be done in groups help people connect with and process difficult climate feelings, such as anxiety, grief, and dread, in ways that build courage, acceptance, and inner resilience. Unlike much climate-aware therapy, these group programs and are not necessarily facilitated by a mental health professional. In each their own way, they move people past denial and emotional paralysis towards deeper understanding of their own felt responses, as well as meaningful external actions they can take. As a category, they have been named "emotional methodologies", see Jo Hamilton’s 2020 PhD thesis.​
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Here are a couple of our favourites:​​​​
GGN is an innovative peer support network for processing and integrating the uncertainty and grief that the climate and wider eco-crisis can awaken in people. Based on Alcoholics Anonymous, this group format moves participants through a 10-step program in which key topics are processed in a supportive setting, such as: “accept the uncertainty of the predicament,” “practice being with uncertainty,” and “honor my mortality and the mortality of all.”
Learn more or join a GGN 10-step group: www.goodgriefnetwork.org
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TWTR is practiced around the world as a way to cultivate inner resilience, healing, and connection in collectively dark times that demand empowered action. It is based in the teachings of Joanna Macy, a renowned activist and author whose life has been dedicated to helping people tap into the interconnectedness of all living things using a mixture of modern systems theory, Indigenous, and Buddhist philosophies.
Find workshops, retreats, and study groups: workthatreconnects.org
Listen to the amazing podcast from Jess Serrante and Joanna Macy: We Are the Great Turning​