Psychiatria Danubina, Vol. 37 No. 1, 2025.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2025.76
Integrative psychotherapists working with eco-anxiety: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore their experiences
Jaz Henry
; Mediterranean College & University of Derby, Thessaloniki, Greece
Vaitsa Giannouli
; Mediterranean College & University of Derby, Thessaloniki, Greece
Sažetak
Background: Despite a recent surge in mental health research discussing the concept of eco-anxiety, very little qualitative
research has been conducted investigating therapist or client experiences, or possible responses to it in psychotherapy. This research
aimed to address this gap by conducting a qualitative exploration of the experience of Integrative psychotherapists experiencing and
working with clients who present with eco-anxiety.
Subjects and Methods: Semi-structured interviews examined the experiences of 8 Integrative psychotherapists. IPA analysis
followed with the assistance of ‘Atlas.ti Web’.
Results: 7 themes were identified and these themes encompassed what kind of anxiety eco-anxiety represents, what emotions
co-occur with the experience of eco-anxiety, how eco-anxiety is upheld, and what responses eco-anxiety elicited in participants and
in their clients. Eco-anxiety was reported as an existential anxiety that raises questions about mortality and is a response to a threat
to human meaning-making as well as survival. The major emotions and feelings accompanying eco-anxiety were hopelessness, upheld
by the awareness of the systemic nature of the ecological crisis, grief, both due to awareness of current losses in biodiversity
and for future losses in the natural environment, anger, induced and perpetuated by political inactivity, and guilt stemming from
action-value misalignment and participation in an uncaring system. Stigma was seen as worsening eco-anxiety by inducing a sense
of alienation.
Conclusions: Working to accept eco-anxiety as a rational response, avoid pathologizing it, and acknowledging the ecological
crisis through group participation and open conversation in psychotherapy are important markers in destigmatising eco-anxiety, and
fostering meaning-making and agency in clients affected by it.
Ključne riječi
eco-anxiety; integrative psychotherapy; IPA; systemic issues; ecological crisis
Hrčak ID:
332236
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.5.2025.
Posjeta: 432 *