Toward Multispecies Mourning: Imagining an Art Therapy for Ecological Grief

Abstract

Witnessing the devastating impacts of climate change and species loss has left many of us grappling with inexpressible grief for our more-than-human world. The importance of creating therapeutic environments to facilitate ecological grieving is greater than ever. This article examines the potential benefits of art therapy in this context. These include: reducing the risk of disenfranchized grief through connection; containing and externalizing complexity; providing regulation; and empowering participants to continue engagement. Grief counseling frameworks offer solid foundations for future directions. However, First Nations perspectives provide richer understandings of our multispecies interdependencies, and will be central to forging collective and localized responses to ecological grief that build communities of healing—not just between cultures, but between species, too.

Keywords:

• Art therapy
• climate change
• ecological grief
• mourning
• bereavement
• climate loss
• multispecies
• mental health

Introduction

The Earth’s ecological crises loom larger each day. Low-lying Islands in the Pacific Ocean find themselves sinking into rising seas, leading to the abandonment of towns and villages. On the Great Barrier Reef, rising sea temperatures are turning once-brilliant, symbiotic colonies of corals into bleached, barren graveyards. And, in the Arctic, those higher temperatures are threatening to melt ice sheets that have stored hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon for centuries. As Elizabeth Kolbert (2018) writes, bearing witness to this reality, it seems that we now inhabit a “world of wounds.” For some, these wounds are critical; for others, they are more easily dismissed—for now. Nevertheless, it appears that for many, an emotional experience of despair, dread, and hopelessness has come to characterize this time in human history.

The term ecological grief is now being used to capture this shared psychological experience. It is defined as “the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change” (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018, p. 275). While still an emerging concept, authors like Comtesse et al. (2021), Pihkala (2022), and Cunsolo and Ellis (2018) provide compelling vignettes of the way ecological grief impacts lives, and how a better understanding of it could help identify opportunities to reduce human suffering. Multiple studies have found that the mental health effects of climate-related hazards include PTSD, depression, anxiety, and psychotic symptoms (Cunsolo et al., 2020).

Grieving, however, is not just defined by pain, despair, or psychopathology. It is a dynamic process, in which we actively reconstruct ourselves and our world in light of the loss (Neimeyer et al., 2021). Engaging with ecological grief can be transformative, and can look very different between cultures and individuals (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018). It can also be a political act, that challenges systems of more-than-human exploitation and colonization (Chao, 2024). This paper aims to explore how art therapy can provide a therapeutic pathway for individuals and cultures to engage in ecological grieving, and by doing so, forge resilient communities of care before it is too late.

Do We Have to Mourn?

In our globalized world, we are constantly exposed to shocking images and stories of environmental disasters, traveling to us from the frontlines of climate change. As they circulate, the logic goes, grief follows. And yet, this is not always the case. The dissemination of these tragedies has complicated the responses of those in industrialized, higher-income countries, who are currently shielded from the most direct impacts of climate loss. Randall (2009) observed that in UK media narratives, climate change losses are often portrayed as either terrifying realities of a distant future or place, or they are entirely absent. Both approaches, she argued, are a defence mechanism, preventing us from truly facing, and grieving, these ecological losses (2009). Both approaches treat ecological grief as a “pandora’s box” that is better left unopened. However, this mentality disregards the very real experiences of communities already affected by climate losses, and ignores the psychological necessity of individual and collective mourning.

While it is inexplicably painful to acknowledge the monumental scale of loss, denial is short-sighted and destructive to our own wellbeing—and the more-than-human world (Chao, 2023; Randall, 2009). In the words of Van Dooren and Rose, “we don’t mourn for the fun of it, or to avoid doing something about a loss” (2017, p. 376). So, why do we do it? There are many answers to this question, but I choose to turn to the inimitable American theorist, Donna Haraway, who was among the first to highlight the function of mourning at the intersection of ecology, activism, and art. Her words first drew my attention to this topic, almost ten years ago:

One way to live and die well as mortal critters in the Cthulucene is to join forces to reconstitute refuges, to make possible partial and robust biological-cultural-political-technological recuperation and recomposition, which must include mourning irreversible losses. … There are so many losses already, and there will be many more. Renewed generative flourishing cannot grow from myths of immortality or failure to become-with the dead and extinct. (Haraway, 2015, p. 159)

As evidence mounts indicating the sixth mass extinction is already underway, urgent questions now face us regarding how we navigate the complexities of grief, mourning, and transformation at a global scale. How do we mourn irreversible climate losses as we must? How do we break down myths of immortality and achieve renewed flourishing? Art therapy may be a good starting point for considering these questions—at an individual, community, and collective scale. Mercifully, it may also help alleviate some of the pain of processing this grief.

Understanding Ecological Grief: Parallels and Distinctions From Conventional Grief

Contemporary literature on grief related to the loss of a loved one is well-established, built on decades of work from authors like Freud (1917), Kubler-Ross (1970), and Neimeyer (2001). Only recently have these concepts been extended to losses in our natural environment, yet the parallels are striking. Ecological grief is distinct from other types of climate-related emotional distress, like climate anxiety, in that it is more accurately understood through the context of bereavement than psychopathology (Comtesse et al., 2021; Pihkala, 2022). This is because many climate-related losses involve attachment-based characteristics (Comtesse et al., 2021).

Like conventional grief, many types of losses can result in ecological grief. There are finite losses, such as the distinct and irreversible loss of landscapes, species, and ecosystems due to climate impacts. Those encountering these losses bear the closest similarity to conventional bereavement grief (Comtesse et al., 2021). Nonfinite losses are ongoing and symbolic, and often less tangible than finite losses. These include the loss of hope, control, or security that comes with a threatened future (Comtesse et al., 2021). Nonfinite loss occurs when treasured objects and places are destroyed, disrupted, or changed irrevocably by climate impacts, which leads to a loss of personal or cultural identity, or a sense of belonging (Clayton et al., 2017). Cunsolo and Ellis (2018) note that, given the magnitude of unfolding climate changes,

Ecological grief may also expose new understandings of “ambiguous loss,” or loss that goes on without answers or closure and leads to feelings of being frozen, halted, or stuck in the grief process, living with both the presence and the absence of what was lost. (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018, p. 279)

Lack of recognition by others often accompanies ambiguous losses, and can lead to disenfranchized grief (Harris & Winokuer, 2019). Climate losses have many disenfranchized qualities, such as the ongoing uncertainty of climate outcomes, public narratives of denial and invalidation, political inaction on climate issues, as well as the uneven distribution of climate impacts across the globe (Chao, 2023; Comtesse et al., 2021; Pihkala, 2022; Randall, 2009). Compounding this is a widespread lack of psychosocial resources, which contributes to the development of complicated forms of ecological grief (Pihkala, 2022; Tschakert et al., 2019).

Therapeutic Approaches to Grief

While no specific therapeutic protocols exist yet, drawing on therapeutic recommendations for conventional bereavement and nonfinite grief can help us consider how we might engage with ecological grief in a therapeutic context. What needs to happen within a process of ecological grieving can be given some form by understanding the therapeutic mechanisms of conventional grief counseling. Moving away from a stage-based model of grief (Kubler-Ross, 1970), Neimeyer and Thompson (2014) contemporary bereavement model emphasizes the role of meaning-making in processing grief, through two parallel processes. The first involves processing the event story of the death, while the second involves reengaging with the relationship to the person who has died in a healing manner (Neimeyer & Thompson, 2014). A nonfinite loss is processed slightly differently: by naming and validating the loss, fostering realistic expectations of the degree of acceptance that might be achieved in the face of the loss, normalizing ambivalence, and reconstructing identity in light of the monumental changes brought about by the loss (Harris & Winokuer, 2019).

Drawing from William Worden’s (1983) tasks of grief, Randall (2009) articulated one of the only descriptions of what ecological grieving should entail. This is: to accept the reality of the loss intellectually and emotionally; work through the painful emotions of grief (including despair, guilt, anger, shame, fear, sadness, disorganization, and yearning); adjust to the changed environment, adapting one’s skills and identity to suit; and, to reinvest emotional energy (Randall, 2009). There are many possible negative responses to each of these tasks, highlighting the need for an attuned therapist’s guidance and support in each delicate process.

Van Dooren and Rose (2017) have insisted on the importance of grieving. They warn that pursuing ambitious solutions to climate change, such as de-extinction, without adequate mourning may result in a kind of “false motion.” Instead, “dwelling with extinction—taking it seriously, not rushing to overcome it—may actually be the more important and ethical work” (Van Dooren & Rose, 2017, p. 376). Ultimately, to engage with ecological grief is “to become open, in a personal sense, to the magnitude of the ecological challenges facing our global society” (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2017, p. 279)—a task art therapy may be uniquely well-suited to.

Art Therapy’s Role in Addressing Ecological Grief

I am not the first to notice art therapy’s potential use in this context. After feeling “grief stricken and depressed” by the impact of the climate crisis, Bird (2022) proposed a group art therapy program intended to help participants respond to the emotional and practical questions arising from their concerns about the climate. I wish to enhance Bird’s proposal, by drawing on a recent scoping review (de Witte et al., 2021) to identify specific therapeutic factors of art therapy that may facilitate the tasks of mourning. These include containing and externalizing complexity, providing regulation, and empowering participants through artmaking.

Containing and Externalizing Complexity

Art therapy helps individuals symbolize and externalize experiences that are difficult to verbalize (de Witte et al., 2021). Climate issues can be difficult to discuss verbally due to their scientific nature, overwhelming scale, and emotional weight—which can create resistance to engaging with climate issues altogether (Randall, 2009). By externalizing experiences through art, individuals can better elicit and process their feelings (Gabel & Robb, 2017). Artmaking also fosters perspective-taking, self-reflection, and understanding (de Witte et al., 2021), potentially enabling increased comprehension of climate science, the need for solidarity with affected communities, and examination of personal climate attitudes and behaviors. The ability to integrate various timescales, places, and concepts into one image may also help address “temporal misalignment,” wherein the long timescale of climate change makes it challenging to instill urgency and personal relevance required to drive climate action (Boyle et al., 2022).

Providing Regulation

Art therapy promotes relaxation and emotional regulation (de Witte et al., 2021) which may be crucial for navigating the complexities of ecological grief. The tactile qualities of art, coupled with the therapist’s ability to select appropriate materials, serve as effective tools in alleviating anxiety (de Witte et al., 2021), with the potential to soothe individuals confronting the painful emotions of ecological grief noted by Randall (2009). Activities operating on the Kinesthetic and Sensory level of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (Hinz, 2009), such as bilateral drawing, offer patterned, repetitive neural activation, which may prevent individuals from being overwhelmed by distress when considering issues like environmental collapse and species loss. Furthermore, the nonverbal nature of art therapy allows individuals to confront such emotionally challenging ideas without triggering the stress response (Gantt & Tripp, 2021). The goal of providing regulation is not to provide “relief” from the grieving process altogether, but to keep participants within their window of tolerance (Siegel, 1999) and able to continue engagement. Further, the shared experience of creating art within group art therapy also fosters a sense of safety, and enables relational healing (Moon, 2010), which protects from disenfranchized grief by enabling participants to normalize their responses to ecological losses.

Empowerment Through Artmaking

Art therapy presents avenues for mastery (de Witte et al., 2021) and artistic agency (Haeyen et al., 2015), offering potential relief from the overwhelming sense of helplessness experienced by those witnessing climate changes (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018). Children who have survived climate disasters use art therapy to find a measure of safety and control, visually “fixing” their broken homes, and using artmaking to imagine new ways of coping with their circumstances (Malchiodi, 2006). An “ideal therapeutic medium” for addressing loss with children, art therapy enables symbolic acts and ritual (Finn, 2003), which are important components of grief counseling that help clients express feelings and beliefs associated with loss (Finn, 2003). Cancer patients face significant nonfinite losses related to their diagnosis (Wood et al., 2011), which bear a striking resemblance to those associated with ecological grief. Uncertainty about the future, loss of control over life circumstances, and disenfranchized grief from losing the life one thought they would lead, characterize both. This overlap warrants further research given art therapy’s success in enhancing personal empowerment, autonomy, and mastery for these populations (Wood et al., 2011).

Possible Interventions

I imagine that there are a wide range of art-based activities that could help participants recognize ecological losses, connect with others, and self-regulate difficult emotions, which I can only begin to describe here. Group settings, such as Bird’s (2022) community-based group, may be particularly effective in facilitating the processing of grieving given the importance of being with others in mourning (Van Dooren & Rose, 2017). Structured groups could explicitly focus on identifying, naming, and exploring the impacts of ecological losses. Groups may take a single-session approach or run over many weeks, drawing on the principles and structures of established grief group frameworks such as Neimeyer et al.’s “Meaning in Loss” group (2021). Analytic therapists may wish to align closely with Randall’s (2009) aforementioned tasks of ecological mourning.

Tailoring approaches to address specific ecological losses, whether on a local or global scale, could culminate in the production of collaborative artworks, public installations, or exhibitions. Alternatively, an open studio approach (Moon, 2010) with the theme of ecological grief could also be highly successful and allow participants to navigate grief at their own pace. Groups might occur outdoors, at culturally significant places or times; such as at the change of seasons, or following major ecological losses, or collective actions. They could even be a place to come together to experience and discuss narratives of climate loss. Groups could use artmaking to respond to books like “The Sixth Extinction” (Kolbert, 2014); or “Abandon Every Hope: Essays for the Dead” (Singer, 2023); films like “Thank You for the Rain” (Dahr & Musya, 2017); or art events such as the recent exhibition “Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living” at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (Mori Art Museum, 2024).

Target populations for these interventions might include adolescents, university students, adults, and older adults in appropriate contexts. Groups tailored to specific populations may be beneficial in the case of major ecological events impacting those populations’ culturally significant landscapes, species, or communities. Individuals who have immigrated and are experiencing grief over losses in their home countries may benefit from such groups. First Nations art therapists may wish to run groups specifically for other First Nations people, seeking to reestablish connections to culture, country, and community. Another application may be using art therapy proactively, to support the resilience of communities at increasing risk from climate change impacts (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018). Individual art therapy may also be suitable for this purpose, run with an explicit focus on ecological grief, or situated in local environmental hubs where climate issues are a key community focus.

There is also a clear opportunity for community-based participatory action, which may focus on creating artworks that represent local species threatened by or lost to climate change. Public art is another exciting avenue. Examples are emerging of projects like The Blacksmith’s Tree, in Strathewen, Victoria; or The Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory on the Dorset coast, UK, commemorating recently extinct plants and animals as a public acknowledgement of biodiversity loss (Randall, 2009). Curating spaces for the public to engage with and respond to artworks like these could engage broad sections of the community, build emotional literacy, and facilitate collective conversations about ecological grief, while representing diverse cultural perspectives.

Practical Considerations

There are numerous challenges to utilizing art therapy for ecological grief. It is important to recognize that some individuals still deny climate change, and will therefore not be receptive to this concept. Of those concerned about climate change, some may not be ready to acknowledge ecological grief due to fears of overwhelming despair. As with all grief, one must enter the process of mourning when the time is right, when there is ample support and relative safety (Neimeyer & Thompson, 2014). Participants should be informed well in advance of the nature of any art therapy intervention with this focus. Their autonomy to participate should be respected, ensuring that only those willing and prepared to address this potentially triggering topic are present. This approach not only safeguards the wellbeing of participants, but in group applications, protects the safety of other members. In situations where advance warning of the nature of content may not be possible, such as more public interventions, trigger warnings may be necessary. Establishing pathways for ongoing therapeutic or community support post-intervention, such as ongoing engagement with public artworks, connecting with relevant community services, or establishing new community networks focussing on climate issues, can further enhance participant safety.

There is also a risk that the concept of ecological grief may be misused as a justification for inaction on climate issues. While mourning can be transformative, it can draw us into inaction and resignation if future losses appear inescapable (Chao, 2023). To counteract this factor interventions should emphasize the integral role of collective action within the process of ecological mourning, demonstrated by Chao (2023) and in line with the principles of social action art therapy (Bird, 2022; Talwar, 2018). This must also involve the critical examination of how systems of power and privilege continue to impact our research and practice as art therapists (Talwar, 2018), in addition to the climate itself.

Finally, while there may be challenges in reaching broad audiences and potentially “preaching to the converted,” supporting the well-being of climate activists at risk of burnout can have significant value. The interventions proposed here have the potential to engage individuals who may be hesitant to participate in climate activism due to the intense emotions it may bring forth. By providing these people with a place to access support and heal alongside others, we may be able to mobilize a greater proportion of our communities to engage in the work of climate activism.

Recognizing Indigenous Knowledge

It must be acknowledged that, after subjugation to generations of colonial violence and dispossession (Chao, 2023; Land, 2015), First Nations communities are now also disproportionately affected by climate impacts (Clayton et al., 2017). The perspectives of these communities are, therefore, vital to a comprehensive understanding of ecological grief. Recently, descriptions of Indigenous practices using art to grieve ecological losses have emerged in ethnographic research, although these practices themselves have often been in use for many generations. Referred to as multispecies mourning, these practices, developed by communities like the Marind peoples of rural Meruake in West Papua, reflect the principles of environmental care and kinship that have long been at the core of Indigenous philosophies and practice (Chao, 2023).

Chao’s (2023) portrayal of the Marind peoples’ mourning practices is a moving depiction of the ways that, by extending empathy and agency to the natural world, ecological grieving practices have the potential to create communities for healing, and lead to a deeper understanding of more-than-human interdependencies in light of the climate crisis (Mühlbacher, 2020). The weaving of noken, traditional handwoven bags, fulfills an important function as an act of multispecies grieving in response to deforestation and environmental degradation (Chao, 2023). Noken are woven when sacred areas of the forest are razed, or when river water is polluted. This process is described as one of healing by Marind people, that commemorates the wounds inflicted upon both the forest and its peoples. Mourning also takes the form of songwriting in remembrance of roadkill—a rejecting of indifference in the face of acts that strip animals of their lives and dignity (Chao, 2023).

The painting practices of Yolgnu clans in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia, also reject indifference within the multispecies concept of bir’yun, or shimmer (Rose, 2017). Reflecting the seasonal rhythms of the land, shimmer is an esthetic quality that extends beyond art into dance, ritual, and life generally. Painting shimmer serves as a visual representation of the “ecological pulse” between wet and dry seasons; a recognition of the interconnectedness of life and death in the natural world (Rose, 2017). In the face of disruptions to this pulse, these artworks, rituals, and dance serve as vehicles for acknowledging the loss of shimmer. Rose situates this art-making practice within a broader narrative of ecological loss and regeneration, relating to angiosperms and flying foxes: “this is where one grasps, afresh, the awful disaster of extinction cascades: not only life and life’s shimmer but many of its manifold potentials are eroding” (Rose, 2017, p. 55). These kinds of grieving are not acts of withdrawal, surrender, or disconnection—they are a “staying with the trouble” (Haraway, 2015), that can act as a crucial starting point for collective social action, protest, and mobilization (Chao, 2023).

Conversely, Mühlbacher (2020) wrote that it is the very absence of a multispecies perspective within Eurocentric cultures that has hindered the mourning of ecological losses. Our failure to recognize emotional attachment to our more-than-human world has left us with nowhere, no ways, and no language to collectively process losses from it (Mühlbacher, 2020). This observation highlights a critical tension concerning the future trajectory of ecological grieving in these countries, that I can only begin to unpack given my identity as a white Australian settler-coloniser. It is that: people in European-US, industrialized, and higher income countries must recognize, honor, and learn from the longstanding multispecies mourning practices of First Nations communities in order to develop their own ecological grieving methodologies. However, there is something circular and concerning about these communities processing their ecological grief using methods inspired by First Nations knowledge.

Attention must be given to the danger of subjugating Indigenous knowledge into art therapy interventions considering ecological grief, the risks of which have been clearly outlined by Napoli (2019). The notion of non-Indigenous individuals benefiting from these practices while perpetuating ongoing ecological violence upon those same First Nations communities raises major ethical concerns. Despite the urgency of the issue, art therapists should refrain from such interventions until a broader range of perspectives have been considered. Direct translation of these mourning practices into European-US cultural contexts would certainly be appropriation, as noted by Land (2015) and Napoli (2019). This appropriation could be considered especially egregious given that the grief experienced in European-US countries is secondary to the primary grief experienced by those First Nations communities at the forefront of the climate disaster—grief that is itself caused by these cultures’ extractive practices and continued acts of colonization and genocide (Chao, 2023).

There is a great need for First Nations voices in future discussions on this topic and within the field of art therapy generally. Many of our future ecological losses will be shared—albeit, unequally. Collaborative, decolonizing approaches to grieving these losses through art therapy, in ways that might draw together both non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities in healing, must be explored. Chao notes:

Mourning as a form of practice and resistance, as such, is by no means limited to peoples in remote settings like West Papua. It is an invitation and ethic for us all to develop as we thinkfeel our way through the climate crisis and the rightful sense of outrage this crisis provokes for many among us. (Chao, 2024, p. 11)

Only once a rich, diverse dialogue is established can we really begin this important work, and I wish to position this article as only a starting point. I strongly encourage any other art therapists interested in this field, particularly those identifying as First Nations or culturally diverse, to continue this dialogue. Interested readers should also explore related viewpoints presented by art therapists Talwar (2018) and Arslanbek et al. (2022), and First Nations scholars Tynan (2021), Rose (2017), and Vivian (2018).

Conclusion

Navigating the difficult terrain of grief amid the climate crisis poses profound challenges. Climate change is hard to mourn for many reasons, including because it is hard to capture as a singular loss. It spirals out, overwhelming our sense of scale and time. In industrialized and Eurocentric countries, mourning these losses is further complicated by our ontological standpoint as superior to, rather than in-relationship-with, nature. Ecological losses can be complex and ineffable, and yet, art therapy can offer tools to make acknowledging and mourning climate losses more achievable, tolerable, and relationally-grounded for those of us without culturally established multispecies mourning practices. As Rose puts it, “at the very least, we who have not yet been drawn into the vortex of violence are called to recognize it, name it, and resist it; we are called to bear witness and to offer care” (Rose, 2017, p. 55).

At the end of the day, we must ask ourselves: do we wish to mourn better, or just ease our grief? I propose art therapy as a powerful tool for navigating this frightening historical junction, not for the reason that it can help minimize our pain (although it certainty can help us regulate our emotions), but because it can be used to reveal and express our grief. This grief, perhaps counterintuitively, may be necessary to ensuring our own and our more-than-human world’s wellbeing. It may also comprise a kind of resistance, particularly in economic environments where taking the time to grieve challenges the very systems of complicity, colonization, and exploitation that perpetuate environmental destruction. By embracing this grief together, we have the potential to forge a collective response to this urgent issue that is firmly grounded in an ethos of multispecies understanding, empathy, and collaboration.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beatrice Wharldall

Beatrice Wharldall, AThR, MAT, GDipPsy, BFA, is an art therapist and artist from La Trobe University at Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to the author at [email protected]