Atlas›Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage›Guide 007
Guide XV-007

The Work That Reconnects (Macy)

Joanna Macy, Molly Young Brown
A 38 · L 39 · M 2322 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects (2nd ed., New Society Publishers, 2014), as its practices are published on the Work That Reconnects (WTR) Network site, together with the Network's Core Assumptions as edited by the WTR Network team and its Anti-Oppression Resource Group (seventh assumption added October 2024). [source: WTR Network, What is the Work That Reconnects; Core Assumptions; practice pages]

The Work That Reconnects is not a psychotherapy. Its own Network describes it as an interactive group process for people who want to serve the healing of the world more powerfully, developed by Joanna Macy with many colleagues over several decades and drawing on systems thinking, deep ecology and deep time, spiritual traditions and undoing oppression. Macy, a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory and deep ecology, is described by the Network as its root teacher; she died on 19 July 2025. Earlier and companion texts the Network lists include Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (Macy, 1983) and Active Hope (Macy and Chris Johnstone, 2011; revised 2022). [source: WTR Network, Joanna Macy, Root Teacher]

Core idea of change, as its authors hold it: pain for the world arises from our interconnectedness, and blocking it (denying it, repressing it, or treating it as personal pathology) weakens our capacity to act; feeling and expressing that pain, not merely understanding it, reveals our belonging in the web of life, restores clarity and releases the wish to act on the world's behalf. These are the framework's own assumptions (for example, that "the Earth is our larger body" and that the self is older and broader than the separate ego); describe them to clients as Macy's and the Network's views, neither as fact nor dismissed. [source: WTR Network, Core Assumptions]

What the psychotherapist does with it: (a) prepares, screens and debriefs clients who attend WTR workshops, Communities of Practice or Active Hope groups; (b) integrates adapted WTR structures (open sentences, the spiral sequence, future-generation perspective-taking) into individual or group therapy for eco-anxiety and climate grief, with attribution; (c) facilitates WTR groups where personally trained in the Work, keeping that role distinct from therapy; (d) works with the meaning of ecological grief, identity and action in the client's life. [synthesis]

Evidence status in one line: no systematic review of the Work That Reconnects as an intervention is cited here; treat outcome claims as [uncertain: not verified].

2. Framework

The Work moves through an open spiral of four stages; the Network recommends repeating it, each pass deepening insight, resilience and commitment, and asks facilitators to move through the full spiral in their workshops. [source: WTR Network, What is the Work That Reconnects; Facilitate the Work]

  1. Coming from Gratitude. Goal: calm the busy mind, ground participants and build emotional resources for what follows. Typical practices: Open Sentences on Gratitude, Open Sentences on the Great Turning, Mirror Walk. [source: WTR Network practice pages]
  2. Honoring Our Pain for the World. Goal: face grief and distress about the world, which the authors hold opens compassion and reveals wider connection, love, courage and a sense of justice. Practices: Open Sentences on Honoring Our Pain, the Truth Mandala. [source: WTR Network practice pages]
  3. Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes. Goal: experience interrelation with all life and the links between social and environmental justice. Practices: the Cradling, the Council of All Beings, Seventh Generation; teachings such as the Three Stories of Our Times and deep time. [source: WTR Network practice pages; Three Stories of Our Times]
  4. Going Forth. Goal: action suited to each person's situation and gifts, ideally with others; each step is treated as a teacher, including unsuccessful efforts. Closing practice: Circle of Blessings. [source: WTR Network, What is the Work That Reconnects; Circle of Blessings]

Format as published: workshops are the core format, usually one to two days, with two-hour introductions and intensives of up to ten days, in person or online; Communities of Practice and self-guided Active Hope book groups are other routes. Individual practices list their own times (for example, Open Sentences 20 to 45 minutes, Truth Mandala about 90 minutes plus setup, Seventh Generation 60 minutes, Council of All Beings from one hour to a weekend). [source: WTR Network practice pages] Seventh Generation is recommended by the authors as the only experiential component of a short workshop or evening. [source: WTR Network, Seventh Generation]

Sequencing criteria the sources give: the Truth Mandala should come only after participants have already acknowledged their pain (for example through Open Sentences), near the middle of the day, followed by a break and time for rest or journalling. [source: WTR Network, Truth Mandala] The Cradling is offered especially after difficult material, to relax and rebuild trust. [source: WTR Network, The Cradling] No published session count applies to therapy use. In therapy, moving to the pain stage only once the client has grounding resources and a working alliance, and to Going Forth only when grief has been voiced rather than bypassed, is [synthesis].

Training: the Network describes the Work as "open source" with no official certification. Its suggested path is to experience the Work with several facilitators, join as a Community Member (which gives access to a facilitator mentor), study the foundational teachings in a practice group of four to twelve people, build skills (anti-oppression and co-liberation work, one's own inner work, a WTR facilitator development programme), co-facilitate, then apply for Facilitator Membership. Attribution of the source is required. [source: WTR Network, Facilitate the Work]

3. Guiding principles

  • Pain for the world is not pathology. In the authors' view it is a sign of interconnection. Practical meaning: validate realistic concern; assess for clinical conditions without reframing climate distress itself as a symptom. [source: Core Assumptions; synthesis]
  • Feeling, not just information. The authors hold that intellectual information rarely moves people; feeling and expressing pain does. Practical meaning: create structured space to voice feeling, and limit lecturing. [source: Core Assumptions]
  • Gratitude first. Practical meaning: begin with resources and appreciation before opening grief. [source: What is the Work That Reconnects]
  • No need to fix, preach or comfort. The Network advises facilitators that "there is no need to fix, preach or comfort"; the Truth Mandala guidelines warn that excessive comforting can signal shutdown. Practical meaning: witness; do not rescue, reassure prematurely or convert. [source: Facilitate the Work; Truth Mandala]
  • Silent, receptive listening. In Open Sentences the listener stays completely silent. Practical meaning: protect uninterrupted speaking time. [source: Open Sentences pages]
  • Prompts unbiased and non-leading. Practical meaning: write stems that allow any answer, including numbness or disagreement. [source: Open Sentences on Honoring Our Pain]
  • Choice and voluntariness. Participants may hold an object silently or not enter the Truth Mandala at all; in the Cradling participation and how far to go are the participant's choice. Practical meaning: every exercise has an opt-out, stated in advance. [source: Truth Mandala; The Cradling]
  • Containment and confidentiality. The circle is treated as a vessel; what is said is kept confidential and not referred to afterwards, with no cross-talk. Practical meaning: agree group confidentiality limits, and explain how they differ from your own legal duties. [source: Truth Mandala; synthesis]
  • Clear roles in and out. Roles must be assigned swiftly and clearly, and participants explicitly release the role at the end (thanking and releasing a life-form; shaking off the future role). Practical meaning: always de-role. [source: Seventh Generation; Council of All Beings]
  • Grounding in the teachings. Practices without grounding in the foundational teachings can create "shallow (and risky)" experiences. Practical meaning: do not lift techniques out of the framework without understanding their purpose. [source: Facilitate the Work]
  • Collective liberation and undoing oppression. The seventh core assumption makes addressing oppressions central. Practical meaning: attend to power, privilege, racism and colonial history in the room and in the content. [source: Core Assumptions]
  • Respect for traditions not one's own. When using rituals from another tradition (for example smudging), seek guidance from its practitioners. Practical meaning: do not borrow closed or Indigenous ceremony; use secular openings unless invited by the tradition. [source: Council of All Beings; synthesis]
  • Action with some risk to comfort. The authors hold that action, even small, should stretch comfort. Practical meaning: plan graded, realistic action, not heroic overcommitment. [source: Core Assumptions; synthesis]
  • Attribution. Credit Macy and Brown and the Network whenever a practice is used. [source: Open Source Attribution as referenced on each practice page]
  • Therapist role clarity. Facilitator and therapist are different roles; multiple relationships are governed by APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05 (APA Ethics Code). Practical meaning: decide in advance whether you are a client's therapist or their workshop facilitator; avoid being both without explicit consent and a clear rationale. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

The inventory has two parts: the WTR practices as Macy and Brown and the Network publish them (4.1 to 4.10), and the therapist-side procedures for screening, preparing, integrating and debriefing (4.11 to 4.20), which are [synthesis] unless a source is named. The Network's library holds many more practices than are listed here; only those whose published instructions are summarised below are included. Example language is illustrative throughout.

4.1 Open Sentences on Gratitude (Gratitude stage)

  • Purpose / when: a structure for spontaneous expression and unusually receptive listening; opens a workshop or a therapy group by grounding in appreciation. Published time about 30 minutes, in pairs. [source: WTR Network, Open Sentences on Gratitude]
  • Steps (outline): in pairs, one partner completes an unfinished sentence offered by the facilitator and keeps speaking spontaneously while the other listens in complete silence; a bell marks each change of sentence, and roles switch. The published series moves from appreciation of life on Earth and of places and people that sustained one, and ends with appreciation of oneself; facilitators may write their own sentences. Use the Network's published page for the full instructions. [source: Open Sentences on Gratitude]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When I read the beginning of a sentence, repeat it and let it finish itself. Your partner will only listen, no nods or comments needed. If you run dry, say the opening again and see what comes."
  • Watch for: a client who cannot find anything to appreciate (screen for depression); the self-appreciation stem provoking shame; listeners breaking silence to reassure. Working when speech becomes less rehearsed and the room settles. [synthesis]

4.2 Open Sentences on the Great Turning (Gratitude stage)

  • Purpose / when: introduces the Great Turning, ideally within the Three Stories of Our Times, and invites thankfulness for being able to choose which story to live by. Published time 20 minutes. [source: WTR Network, Open Sentences on the Great Turning]
  • Steps: (1) Present the Three Stories (see 4.10). (2) Use the open-sentence mechanics of 4.1. (3) Offer three stems: what is hard about being alive in this time of global crisis; what one appreciates about living now; and the ways one seems to be taking part in the Great Turning. [source: Open Sentences on the Great Turning]
  • Example language (illustrative): "This one asks you to hold two things at once: what is hard about living now, and what you might value about it. Both can be true."
  • Watch for: the appreciation stem feeling invalidating to someone directly harmed by climate events or injustice; offer the option to speak only to what is true for them. [synthesis]

4.3 Mirror Walk (Gratitude; Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes)

  • Purpose / when: awakens sensory awareness and gratitude, builds trust, offers a change of pace, and trains the "ecological self" by meeting the world as a larger body. Published time 40 minutes. [source: WTR Network, Mirror Walk]
  • Steps (outline): in pairs outdoors (a street with a tree can do), one partner keeps their eyes closed and is guided without words to things to smell, touch and hear, and is now and then invited to open their eyes briefly on a chosen view; partners swap on a signal, then share in small groups what they noticed and what it was like to guide and be guided. [source: Mirror Walk]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we start, tell your partner anything that would help them guide you safely, such as an injury, an allergy, or how you prefer to be touched on the arm."
  • Watch for: outdoor hazards (uneven ground, traffic, stinging plants, ticks, allergies, weather, heat or cold, hydration) and accessibility, all checked beforehand; anxiety about closing the eyes or being led, which is common after trauma; touch preferences; being seen by passers-by. Offer an eyes-open or seated version. Working when participants describe vivid sensory detail and ease. [synthesis]

4.4 Open Sentences on Honoring Our Pain (Honoring Our Pain stage)

  • Purpose / when: a quick, structured way to voice felt responses to the state of the world, including feelings usually withheld for fear of reaction. Published time 30 to 45 minutes; also the recommended preparation before the Truth Mandala. [source: WTR Network, Open Sentences on Honoring Our Pain; Truth Mandala]
  • Steps (outline): the open-sentence structure of 4.1. The published series moves from concerns about the world and society, through the feelings one carries, to the ways one avoids and uses them; sentences must be unbiased and non-leading, and published variants exist for colleagues, couples, and teachers and parents. [source: Open Sentences on Honoring Our Pain]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Whatever comes is welcome, including 'I don't feel much' or 'I'm angry at being asked.'"
  • Watch for: escalating panic, dissociation or hopelessness with suicidal content (see 4.12 and section 5); the avoidance stem is useful clinically for mapping coping. Working when the speaker names feeling directly rather than facts. [synthesis]

4.5 The Truth Mandala (Honoring Our Pain stage)

  • Purpose / when: a whole-group ritual in which the circle is a container for telling the truth of one's pain for the world; first conducted in 1990 near Frankfurt on the day of German reunification. Published length about 90 minutes plus 20 to 30 minutes' setup; usually 12 to 100 people, most comfortable with 20 to 40, though groups of about four have worked. [source: WTR Network, Truth Mandala]
  • Steps (outline): the group sits in a close circle divided into four quadrants, each holding a symbolic object for fear, sorrow, anger and emptiness, with a centre for whatever fits nowhere else; the authors frame the deeper side of each feeling (for example sorrow as love, anger as passion for justice). After an opening, people enter one at a time, only if they choose, to hold an object and speak, and the circle acknowledges each speaker; a closing restates the meanings. The published guidelines include brevity, confidentiality (what is said is not referred to afterwards), no cross-talk and no excessive comforting; the facilitator notes advise holding it near midday with rest afterwards and adapting the objects for elders and psychiatric settings. Run it only from the Network's published instructions and with WTR facilitator training, not from this outline. [source: Truth Mandala]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You may come in, hold something without speaking, or stay where you are; all are full participation."
  • Watch for: the anger quadrant activating someone with a history of violence or victimisation; contagion of distress; participants who want to comfort the speaker. In a therapy group, agree in advance who will check on anyone who leaves the circle [synthesis].

4.6 The Cradling (Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes)

  • Purpose / when: deep relaxation after difficult material, trust and respectful care, and attention to the body as what is at stake in social and ecological harm. Published time 45 to 60 minutes, or 10 to 20 minutes seated. [source: WTR Network, The Cradling]
  • Steps (published outline): after a demonstration and a clear explanation of what will be lifted and held, freely chosen partners take turns lying down while the other gently lifts and holds the limbs and head, as the facilitator offers slow reflections in their own words on the body's history and vulnerability; roles then reverse, followed by quiet reorientation. A seated version exists. [source: The Cradling]
  • Example language (illustrative): "This practice involves touch. You can say no now, or stop at any moment by saying 'stop' or sitting up, and no reason is needed."
  • Watch for: the source flags sensitivity to physical trauma and histories of abuse and cultural norms in which touch is taboo. Consent before and during, an explicit right to stop, never sexual. A psychotherapist should not take the cradling role with their own individual client; reserve this practice for workshop settings run by WTR facilitators, or use a no-touch alternative such as guided attention to one's own hands [synthesis].

4.7 Council of All Beings (Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes)

  • Purpose / when: participants step out of human identity to speak for other life-forms, developed by Joanna Macy and John Seed for rainforest activists; the authors describe it as growing the "ecological self" and solidarity with all life. One hour to a weekend. [source: WTR Network, Council of All Beings]
  • Steps (outline): an optional opening (the source advises seeking guidance from practitioners before using any tradition not one's own); time alone, ideally outdoors, letting a life-form come to each participant; making a simple mask; gathering in council in character, where beings speak of what is befalling them, a few participants sit as humans to listen, and the beings offer gifts to the humans; and a closing in which each person thanks and releases their life-form. A shorter version in small groups without masks exists. See 008 for preparation, adaptation and debriefing. [source: Council of All Beings]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we finish, thank the being you spoke for and let it go. Say your own name aloud, notice your own hands, and come back as yourself."
  • Watch for: the source notes quiet participants may be deeply affected and strong emotion may surface; incomplete de-roling, derealisation or depersonalisation; misuse of Indigenous ceremony; for clients with psychosis or unstable identity, prefer the unmasked, shortened form or omit [synthesis].

4.8 Seventh Generation (Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes)

  • Purpose / when: sets the Great Turning in a longer time frame by meeting a person about seven generations ahead; formerly called the Double Circle; 60 minutes; the authors recommend it as the sole experiential element of a short session. [source: WTR Network, Seventh Generation]
  • Steps (outline): pairs take present-day and future roles; for the ritual, participants grant that people still live on Earth about two centuries from now and remember this era. The future partner asks the present-day partner what it was like to know of the harms as they happened, what moved them to act and where they found strength; the future partner then speaks in reply. Roles are released and the group processes what was learned, which the source calls almost as valuable as the ritual. [source: Seventh Generation]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to believe this future will happen. For the next hour, let's act as if it might, and see what you learn."
  • Watch for: clients for whom imagining any future is unbearable, or who hear the future voice as judgement; guilt spirals. Working when answers move from guilt to sources of strength. [synthesis]

4.9 Circle of Blessings (Going Forth)

  • Purpose / when: a closing in which participants express appreciation and good wishes for each other; 2 to 5 minutes per person. [source: WTR Network, Circle of Blessings]
  • Steps: Method 1: each person in turn steps into the centre and names an intended action in the Great Turning; the circle sings their name several times with spontaneous encouragement, palms forward. Method 2: the circle looks at each person in turn with full appreciation, then sings their name; the person says nothing. The authors call Method 2 "simpler and actually more moving." [source: Circle of Blessings]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't need to say anything. Just let yourself be seen for a moment."
  • Watch for: people who find being the centre of attention exposing (offer a seated, eyes-down option); commitments made under group pressure, which are reviewed later in therapy (4.18). [synthesis]

4.10 Three Stories of Our Times (teaching)

  • Purpose / when: a teaching frame used in the Gratitude stage and throughout: Business as Usual (growth and getting ahead, crises treated as temporary), the Great Unraveling (ecological and social breakdown, extraction, displacement, inequality), and the Great Turning (a shift from an Industrial Growth Society to a Life-Sustaining Society), with three dimensions: holding actions in defence of life, transforming the foundations of common life, and a shift in perception and values. [source: WTR Network, Three Stories of Our Times]
  • Steps: present the three stories briefly; invite the client or group to notice which story they give their energy to; link to open sentences (4.2) or action planning (4.18). [source; synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Macy described three stories people live by today. Which one has your attention most days, and which one would you choose?"
  • Watch for: the frame being heard as political pressure; present it as one author's lens and leave room for disagreement. [synthesis]

4.11 Screening and readiness before WTR work [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: before referring a client to a workshop, or before bringing pain-stage practices into therapy.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what draws the client to the Work and what they hope for. (2) Review current mental state, recent losses, trauma history (including touch, being led with eyes closed, group humiliation), dissociation, psychosis, mania, substance use and suicidality. (3) Ask about mobility, health, allergies and outdoor needs for practices held outside. (4) Explore how the client manages strong emotion in groups. (5) Decide jointly: proceed, proceed with adaptations (skip the Cradling, sit out the Truth Mandala, eyes-open Mirror Walk), or defer until stabilised.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some of these exercises invite grief in a room full of people. Let's think together about what would help you stay steady, and what you might choose to sit out."
  • Watch for: a client seeking the workshop to replace treatment for a clinical disorder; acute crisis is a reason to defer.

4.12 Differential assessment of climate distress [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: whenever eco-anxiety or climate grief is the presenting concern, without pathologising realistic concern (Core Assumption 3 holds that treating pain for the world as personal pathology blocks it [source: Core Assumptions]).
  • Steps: (1) Map content, intensity, duration and functional impact. (2) Distinguish proportionate, action-compatible concern from generalised anxiety (worry spreading across many domains), depression (anhedonia, hopelessness, guilt beyond the topic), OCD (intrusive contamination or responsibility themes with compulsions such as checking or reassurance-seeking about climate), panic and trauma reactions after direct climate events. (3) Assess suicide risk with standard practice, including hopelessness about the future. (4) Treat any disorder with indicated evidence-based care; WTR-style work is an adjunct.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your concern makes sense given what is happening. I also want to check whether the worry has started running your days in a way that needs its own help."
  • Watch for: safe messaging: avoid catastrophic framing or statements that the future is hopeless; offer crisis resources (988 in the US; Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland) where risk is present.

4.13 Grief assessment and loss mapping [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: ecological grief often overlaps with personal losses (a place, a home after a disaster, a person).
  • Steps: (1) List losses: ecological, place-based, personal. (2) For bereavements, assess for prolonged grief disorder as DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 describe it [uncertain: not verified]. (3) Note disrupted or absent mourning rites (for example after displacement). (4) Cross-refer Domain VI 128 (grief counselling) and Domain II 127 (prolonged grief treatment) where criteria are met.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you speak of the river, it sounds like grief. Are there other losses tangled up with it?"
  • Watch for: suicide bereavement (use safe messaging and the crisis resources above); grief for places that cannot be visited again.

4.14 Preparing a client to attend a workshop [synthesis, with source details]

  • Purpose / when: a client plans to join a WTR workshop, Community of Practice or Active Hope group.
  • Steps: (1) Help the client find a facilitator via the Network's directory, noting that the Work has no official certification and facilitators vary; Facilitator Members meet Network criteria [source: Facilitate the Work]. (2) Suggest the client ask the facilitator about the programme, which practices involve touch, outdoor time or ritual, how strong emotion is handled, and group size. (3) Rehearse opting out ("I'll sit this one out"). (4) Plan aftercare: rest after the day, a support person, a session booked soon after.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You are allowed to watch rather than join any part. Let's practise how you'd say that."
  • Watch for: expectations of a cathartic breakthrough; a facilitator who cannot describe how they handle distress.

4.15 Open sentences adapted for individual therapy [synthesis, adapted from 4.1 and 4.4]

  • Purpose / when: to give a client uninterrupted space to voice feeling about the world in session.
  • Steps: (1) Explain the structure and attribute it to Macy and Brown. (2) Agree on a stop signal. (3) Offer one stem at a time, from gratitude before pain; the client speaks while you listen silently. (4) Pause after each with a breath. (5) Then, unlike the workshop form, process together: what surprised them, where they felt it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'll stay quiet while you speak, not because I've nothing to say but to keep the space open for you."
  • Watch for: silence feeling like abandonment to some clients; shorten or add brief reflections.

4.16 Spiral-sequenced sessions [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: structuring a short series of individual or group therapy sessions on climate distress, following the published order (gratitude, honouring pain, new/ancient eyes, going forth) [source: What is the Work That Reconnects].
  • Steps: (1) Open each phase with resources. (2) Move to pain only when grounding is reliable. (3) Use perspective-shifting (future generations, deep time) once grief has been voiced. (4) Close with concrete, shared action. (5) Return to gratitude at the next cycle.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's start where the approach starts: with what you love, because that is what the grief is about."
  • Watch for: skipping to action to avoid feeling, or staying in pain without resource.

4.17 Debriefing after a workshop [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: the first session after a client attends.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what happened, what stayed with them and how they slept and functioned afterwards. (2) Check for lingering identification with a role (life-form, future being) and complete de-roling if needed. (3) Respect workshop confidentiality: the client may share their own experience but not others' disclosures [source: Truth Mandala guidelines]. (4) Review any intentions voiced in the Circle of Blessings for realism.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Tell me about your part in it. We'll leave out what others said, as the group agreed."
  • Watch for: intrusive images, sleep disruption, guilt or a post-workshop low.

4.18 Going Forth as behavioural activation [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: turning reconnection into values-based action, consistent with the authors' view that action, even small and imperfect, is part of the Work [source: What is the Work That Reconnects; Core Assumptions]. Cross-refer Domain II 040 (behavioural activation).
  • Steps: (1) Identify values and gifts. (2) Choose actions across the three dimensions of the Great Turning (holding actions, new structures, shifts in consciousness) [source: Three Stories of Our Times]. (3) Prefer actions taken with others. (4) Schedule and review; treat setbacks as information.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which of these feels a little stretching but doable, and who could do it with you?"
  • Watch for: activist burnout, perfectionism, moral injury when actions fail; balance action with rest.

4.19 Referral and collaboration [synthesis, with source details]

  • Purpose / when: connecting clients with communities that hold this work.
  • Steps: (1) WTR facilitators and Communities of Practice through the Network [source: Facilitate the Work]. (2) The Good Grief Network's 10-Step Program, which its organisers describe as peer support ("this is not a therapy program"), co-created by LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis Reau, led by two trained facilitators on Zoom over ten consecutive weekly sessions, capped at 15 people, with sliding-scale pricing; it asks participants whether they have a therapist and support person [source: Good Grief Network, 10 Steps]. (3) The Climate Psychology Alliance as a professional network [uncertain: not verified]. (4) With consent, share only what the facilitator needs to support safe participation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "This group is peer support rather than therapy, so it can sit alongside our work rather than replace it."
  • Watch for: clients with active disorders using peer groups as their only care.

4.20 Client-authored ecological grief ritual [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: marking a loss (a felled woodland, a home lost to flood) where no rite exists. Clinicians' methods for designing therapeutic rituals (for example van der Hart; Imber-Black and Roberts) are named here as [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps: (1) Clarify what is being mourned. (2) The client chooses place, objects, words and witnesses; you help structure a beginning, middle and end. (3) Use the client's own traditions or secular forms; do not borrow closed or Indigenous ceremony. (4) Review afterwards.
  • Example language (illustrative): "This is yours to design. What would honour this place, in your own way?"
  • Watch for: pressure to perform a ritual; outdoor safety for any chosen site.

4.21 Working with meaning and spirituality [synthesis]

  • Purpose / when: WTR experiences can bring up spiritual or identity questions (an "ecological self", ancestors, Buddhist ideas).
  • Steps: (1) Explore meaning in the client's own terms, describing the framework's ideas as its authors' views. (2) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview with its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: not verified]. (3) Where distress centres on a spiritual crisis, the DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem" may be named (code Z65.8; ICD-10-CM Z65.8 lists religious or spiritual problem under Includes: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine)); DSM-5-TR wording [uncertain]. (4) Collaborate with the client's religious or spiritual teacher if the client wishes.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you said you felt part of the forest, what did that mean to you?"
  • Watch for: conflict with the client's faith tradition; spiritual bypassing of grief.

4.22 Facilitating WTR groups as a therapist [synthesis, with source details]

  • Purpose / when: a therapist trained in the Work wants to run groups.
  • Steps: (1) Follow the Network's pathway: experience, membership, study, skills, co-facilitation, Facilitator Membership [source: Facilitate the Work]. (2) Decide whether the group is therapy (screened, contracted, documented, within your licence and insurance) or a non-clinical workshop; say which in all publicity. (3) Avoid running workshops for your own individual clients unless the multiple-relationship risks have been weighed (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05). (4) Check that your professional insurance covers group, outdoor and touch-based work; co-facilitate with an experienced WTR facilitator. (5) Attribute the source.
  • Example language (illustrative): "This is an educational workshop, not therapy. If something comes up that needs more support, I'll help you find it."
  • Watch for: blurred roles, participants treating you as their therapist, and your own unprocessed grief.

5. Handling problems

The published practice pages give few problem-handling instructions beyond those noted; most guidance below is [synthesis].

  • Overwhelm or panic during pain work. Pause the exercise; orient to the room, feet and breath; offer the choice to step out with a support person; return to a gratitude or grounding stem before continuing. The Network points facilitators to the strong-emotions material in Coming Back to Life (chapter 5) [source: Truth Mandala; content of that chapter uncertain: not verified]. Do not rush to comfort: the source warns excessive comforting can signal shutdown, but safety comes before the ritual. [synthesis]
  • Hopelessness with suicidal thinking. Shift from the exercise to a standard risk assessment and safety plan; follow safe messaging (no fatalistic statements about the future); give 988 (US) or Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland); if lethal means are a concern, counsel on safe storage or removal. [synthesis]
  • Numbness or "I don't feel anything." Treat it as welcome material, as the authors' stems on avoidance invite; explore its function; do not push for catharsis. [source: Open Sentences on Honoring Our Pain; synthesis]
  • Stuck in grief, no movement towards action. Check for depression or prolonged grief; return to gratitude and resources; offer perspective-shifting (Seventh Generation questions on sources of strength) before small, shared actions. [synthesis]
  • Rushing to action to escape feeling. Name the pattern gently; slow down with an open-sentence round on what is hard; keep action plans modest. [synthesis]
  • Resistance to the framework's ideas (Earth as alive, the ecological self, spiritual language). Present them as the authors' views and invite the client's own language; the Work's practices can be used without adopting its metaphysics, and the Seventh Generation assumptions are explicitly granted "for the ritual" only. [source: Seventh Generation; synthesis]
  • Political or values rupture. Clients may experience the Three Stories as partisan, or the therapist's stance as pressure. Repair by acknowledging, separating your role from advocacy, and returning to the client's own values. [synthesis]
  • Guilt and shame (especially in the Council's "humans called to listen" stage or the Seventh Generation first question). Distinguish proportionate responsibility from global self-blame; use self-compassion work; move to the gifts stage or strength question. [source: Council of All Beings; Seventh Generation; synthesis]
  • Incomplete de-roling after the Council of All Beings or Seventh Generation. Repeat the release steps (thanks, release, return of the role) and grounding in present identity; for persistent derealisation or unusual experiences, assess clinically. [source: Council of All Beings; Seventh Generation; synthesis]
  • Touch and trauma. In the Cradling or Mirror Walk, a client may freeze or feel unable to refuse. Restate the right to stop before and during; offer no-touch alternatives; debrief any boundary breach in therapy. The source itself flags trauma, abuse histories and cultural touch norms. [source: The Cradling; synthesis]
  • Cultural appropriation concerns. If a workshop used smudging or other ceremony a client experiences as appropriation, validate this; the source advises seeking guidance from practitioners of traditions not one's own, and the seventh core assumption names undoing oppression as central. [source: Council of All Beings; Core Assumptions]
  • Oppression in the group. Participants from marginalised groups may face microaggressions or have their grief over injustice minimised. The Network asks facilitators to recognise and transform oppression in themselves, the Work and their spaces; in therapy, process the experience and help the client choose a better-held group. [source: Facilitate the Work; synthesis]
  • Outdoor problems. Weather, terrain, ticks, allergies, heat, cold, hydration and accessibility can derail outdoor practices; check in advance, have a weather plan and an indoor alternative, and follow the venue's or programme's safety guidance. Being seen by passers-by and travel to a site raise confidentiality and boundary questions; agree these before any outdoor session. [synthesis]
  • Non-adherence with between-session practice or action plans. Reduce size; link to the client's values; explore whether action has become another source of guilt. [synthesis]
  • Facilitator distress. Your own climate grief can leak into sessions; use supervision, your own practice, and the Network's mentoring and Communities of Practice. [source: Facilitate the Work; synthesis]
  • Dual-role tensions. A client meets you as a workshop facilitator or co-participant. Discuss it openly in session, clarify confidentiality across settings, and consult on multiple relationships (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05). [synthesis]

Sources

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