Climate Therapist: Touch Grass to Sustain Climate Work — SkimNews
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- Leslie, a climate therapist writing Grist's "Ask a Climate Therapist" column, describes client "Emma" who felt persistently "low" despite a values-aligned career, community, and self-care — until immersion in Colorado's San Juan Mountains triggered tears of joy she described as "drinking clear, cool water when you didn't know you were thirsty."
- Emma translated the mountain experience into urban practices: leaving earbuds at home on runs, watching the sky each morning before opening her laptop, and sitting regularly under the same park tree to observe seasonal change.
- A reader's question — "Why is it that working with animals and tending to plants helps process the grief, anxiety, and depression?" — prompts Leslie to frame nature engagement as reciprocity within an interwoven system: "We receive and we give back."
- Leslie points to supporting science: compounds released by trees can boost immune cell activity, and stroking animals has been shown to lower stress hormones while raising oxytocin.
- Leslie concludes that restoring connection to the natural world is not merely a source of personal joy but "supports and sustains your ability to do the larger work" of addressing climate change, and offers concrete daily practices including a guided audio, a one-minute sensory pause, and tending something living.
Why it matters: Leslie reframes nature time from a personal wellness perk into a prerequisite for sustained climate engagement, with a concrete, free prescription: one minute of daily sensory awareness, earbuds left at home, tending something living. For climate workers and anxious readers, detachment from the living world may itself be driving the burnout that erodes long-term capacity for the work.
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