In the fourth and final pilot episode of Grounding: Conversations on Mental Health and Mother Earth, host Sarah Aronson is joined by Grounding producer Jake Birch and guests Winona Bateman and Rebecca Weston to explore caregiving in this time of climate change. What does it mean to be a caregiver at this time, and how do we care for our caregivers?
Families for a Livable Climate
https://livableclimate.org/
Climate Psychology Alliance North America
https://www.climatepsychology.us
Notes:
(00:00) Introductions
(01:18) Winona Bateman - The missing piece of climate activism
(03:13) Rebecca Weston - A mother’s fear
(04:15) Rebecca Weston - I think the most important thing when I talk to parents and caregivers is first just to meet them where they are and say, “Whatever your response has been up to this point is completely understandable.” Because it is an overwhelming, really hard issue. It’s painful to look at. It’s scary. And that creates a lot of big feelings, especially in parents and caregivers who are thinking about the future of their children
(05:44) Rebecca Weston - The benefits a caregiver might get in return
(06:40) Winona Bateman - People are really scared, despairing, overwhelmed; and there are a lot of pressures on Montana families right now
(08:07) Rebecca Weston - We all reach places of exhaustion of depletion, of needing to replenish. There's plenty of parenting that's not joyful, there’s plenty of caretaking that is not joyful. But I think [this is], perhaps, connected to that question of meaning
(09:13) Jake Birch - If I’m a caretaker, approaching burnout, what would you suggest for me?
(09:24) Rebecca Weston - I think it’s really, really important to be with and among and create places where you are not alone in those feelings
(10:42) Jake Birch - An audio postcard from the Rattlesnake Wilderness
(14:08) Winona Bateman - There’s a huge percentage of people who are worried, and there’s also a huge percentage… And in Montana, it’s almost the same percentage of people who don’t talk about it, or rarely or never. I think it’s overwhelm. I think it’s cultural division. There’s a huge psychological distancing that’s happening
(15:54) Winona Bateman - A good rule of thumb when you’re having conversations about climate, is to approach the conversation so that you get to have another conversation with that person
(18:40) Sarah Aronson - The impulse to protect the future for those we love to protect this planet that we all share is completely understandable. But there’s a risk that we might lose ourselves in the context of that endeavor
(22:18) Rebecca Weston - The more we have room to process all of that comfortably, and without judgment, and with a sense of companionship, the more we can be there for our kids
(26:44) Rebecca Weston - And yet I need to feel as a human being rooted in this world that I am part of a solution, I find that to be tremendously meaningful
(27:20) Winona Bateman - There are going to be very few heroes in addressing climate change, but we can weave a new world together—like a tapestry, right? We can each grab a thread and start running
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Winona Bateman is the founder of Families for a Livable Climate. In her work, Ms. Bateman is interested in bridging the yawning gap between the urgent need for bold climate policies and the pervasive silence surrounding climate change. She sees storytelling as a key way to make connections across differences, create meaning in our lives, and envision an equitable and thriving future.
From 2021 to 2022, Ms. Bateman served as the U.S. representative for the International Climate Parent Fellowship through Parents for Future Global and Our Kids' Climate, training with eleven other climate mothers from around the globe. Ms. Bateman has a Bachelors of Arts in Biology from Carleton College, and Masters of Fine Arts in Media Arts from the University of Montana. She lives with her husband and daughter, and enjoys growing and preserving food, observing animals and insects, and otherwise learning from our living world.
Rebecca Weston, JD, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, photographer, and activist living in metro-New York. In her clinical practice, her work is informed by a recognition that our senses of self, connection, and our sense of capacity are powerfully influenced by both internal and systemic aspects of our lives. She has expertise in attachment and trauma.
As a long time social activist with deep roots in clinical practice, Rebecca believes that emotion carries a story that is at once private and social; that change is at once individual and collective. She is the co-president of the Climate Psychology Alliance North America.
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In this series, we work to better understand the feelings so many of us have, but may not be able to name—the internal emotional experiences we have as we react to the changing climate around us. We call some of the psychological impacts of climate change eco anxiety or climate anxiety.
Grounding is produced by Jake Birch, Lauren Korn, and Sarah Aronson. Theme song by Brian Ramirez. Artwork by April Werle. Engineering by Chris Moyles. Mixed by Jake Birch. Special thanks to Michael Marsolek, Noah Epps, Emma Bucher, Nick Mott, and Alice Sauter. Grounding is a production of Montana Public Radio.
