Dr Sally Gillespie - Building Climate-Resilient Communities

Dr Sally Gillespie is an author, lecturer, workshop facilitator, and trainer for Psychology for a Safe Climate. We first spoke with Sally in season 2, episode 27 about her book Climate Crisis and Consciousness: Re-imagining Our World and Ourselves and how to deal with eco-anxiety. Since speaking with Sally in 2021, the changing climate continues to impact our communities and our mental health. Many communities have endured bushfires, floods, storms, coastal erosions and heatwaves, yet important community resilience-building actions are still lacking in many areas.

Sally’s recent article in Explorations in Climate Psychology Journal explores the significant mental health impacts associated with the escalating climate disasters in Australia - often overlooked when discussing climate change. So, in this episode, we unpack her article in more detail as Sally highlights the need for trauma-informed care and community-based practices to address this worsening crisis.

In the face of such uncertainty, holistic, resilience-building approaches, that integrate traditional Indigenous knowledge with modern psychological insights are now more important than ever, when it comes to supporting individual and community health.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Sally’s recent work and involvement in the Climate Psychology movement
• The generational shift occurring within the climate psychology space
• The high percentage of Australians impacted by climate disasters
• Mental health impacts for disaster survivors
• The huge burdens on local agencies providing mental health support services
• Systemic causes that have driven the climate and environmental crises
• A need to honour Indigenous knowledge for a truly inclusive community approach
• Looking to grassroots community movements to help foster a sense of empowerment
• Creating safe spaces for sharing stories and trauma, including the importance of ceremony
• Dealing with eco grief, doomerism and burnout
• Utilising grounded narratives when initiating climate conversations

If this story has raised concerns for you or someone you know, you can contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue at 1300 22 4636 in Australia or Lifeline at 0800 LIFELINE (0800 54 33 54) or free text HELP (4357) in New Zealand.

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

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