Leading Beyond Climate Anxiety and Grief: An Online Skills Workshop for the PNW

​Feelings of alarm, anxiety, outrage, grief, mourning -- these are healthy emotional reactions to the climate crisis and current political problems. But left unacknowledged or misunderstood, they can stifle taking action or sticking with it.

​This experience-based online workshop will help PNW sustainability professionals, educators, health providers, coaches and activists expand their messaging and engagement skills to meet the societal moment. We'll learn ways to honor and integrate a variety of responses using an emotional intelligence and cultural wisdom framework that can propel individuals, teams, and communities into more insightful, resilient and empowered modes.

​Speakers will translate knowledge from psychology and climate science into accessible takeaways and exercises you can apply in your work. For long-term engagement with solutions to complex problems, a well-understood commitment to our values and meaning, supportive comrades, and an ability to summon joy and tenacity will carry us forward.

​The presenter is an award-winning climate psychologist who contributed to the basic research verifying eco-anxiety. He is joined in discussion by experts who will discuss environmental messaging and supporting college age young people.

​Speakers

​Dr. Thomas Doherty is an award winning clinical and environmental psychologist based in Portland, Oregon, who has helped pioneer the field of climate psychology. Thomas co-hosts the Climate Change and Happiness podcast with Finnish climate emotions scholar Panu Pihkala. Thomas’s book Surviving Climate Anxiety: A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving (2025, Little Brown) is a comprehensive guide for the public to understand feelings and responses to environmental issues, and to find meaning, motivation and authentic happiness. Learn more at thomasdoherty.com

​Co-Speakers

​Rachael Coccia, MA, Seattle, WA

​Jeremy Bekker, Ph.D. Portland OR