The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

As we approach the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Dorian – which devastated both Abaco and Grand Bahama – a Bahamian woman wants to use her expertise to address climate change in conjunction with mental health.

Christina Johnson, founder of Brightside Bahamas, a counselling firm in Nassau, recently made a presentation regarding the impact climate change can have on mental health at the Mental Health America’s (MHA) Conference.

The conference, which was held in Washington, DC, saw thousands of MHA affiliates, peers, providers, government officials, and stakeholders from across the globe convene for a common goal.

This year, the conference focused on “promoting lived experiences advancing health equity, and centering the social determinants of mental health..”

Christina’a presentation was made on the first day of the conference to a standing room only audience.

“One of the conference organisers mentioned to me that my presentation had the highest number of pre-registered attendees for that day. I was pleased that so many working professionals had a vested interest in this subject,” she told Tribune Woman.

Her subject was climate psychology.

“The presentation outlined my personal journey and experience in pursuing climate psychology as a component of my professional repertoire, gave a contextual positioning of what mental health concerns and considerations I’ve seen here in the Bahamas, particularly in light of the climate-related events we’ve experienced, an overview of how young people’s mental health is negatively impacted by the climate crisis, and some therapeutic interventions and tools that the audience could use to support their young clients,” she said.

Christina, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, as well as certifications in grief counselling, climate psychology and life coaching, believes the psychological impact of natural disasters must be addressed to better help Bahamians who are still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

“Climate psychology concerns itself with human components that comprise our global ecological and climate crisis - like the various emotions we experience due to it, the cultural and societal processes that have contributed to creating it, and how we respond and adapt to the various challenges within it,” she explained.

The psychological impact of the climate crisis is widespread and multi-faceted, Christina added. In her capacity as a therapist, she helps people cope with the emotional and mental health consequences they experience, particularly as a result of hurricanes.

“That can look like providing therapy to a hurricane survivor navigating a traumatic experience, creating a safe space for someone to grieves the loss of their generational home in a storm, teaching coping skills to someone who lives with extreme anxiety every hurricane season, and helping young people process the uncertainty that their futures hold due to the climate crisis,” she said.

Christina said she saw the great need for this kind of therapeutic care in the aftermath of Dorian.

“My initial interest in the intersection of climate change and mental health was piqued after Hurricane Dorian. With support from the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, local mental health practitioners banded together to facilitate a psychosocial support initiative called ‘We Gatchu’, which provided four months of free group therapy for the survivors of the storm and first responders to the storm like members of the RBDF and media personnel,” she said.

“Being a volunteer therapist for that was a profoundly significant experience in my professional career.”

It was then Christina recognised the significant and long-term implications disasters have can.

“I realised that hurricanes of exceptionally strong magnitude and size were only going to increase, and that Bahamians would need mental health and psychosocial support professionals like myself even more,” she said.

Given that the Bahamas is an island nation that is vulnerable to storms and climate change, Christina said she has been preparing herself.

She spent most of 2022 in various training and certification courses that support climate psychology, starting with becoming a Caribbean Climate Health responder through Columbia University. She completed an intensive stigma reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy skills course through the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), and most significantly, gained a full scholarship to the inaugural climate psychology certificate course offered by the California Institute for Integral Studies.

And the work Christina and others are doing in this specialised field is proving to be very necessary.

“If we admit we are high on the list of the most vulnerable places on the planet, we need to acknowledge all of our significant vulnerabilities, mental health being one of them. We have the recent experiences of Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic to support this necessary emphasis,” she said.

Christina’s hope is that the mental health aspect of the consequences of climate change is taken into consideration and prioritised.

“We tend to be a reactive and not proactive society, so my wish for mental health considerations within our country’s climate conversation is that these considerations are prioritised and centered - not just accessed once an extreme event happens,” she said.

“If we’re honest, an extreme event is continuously happening. Taking care of our mental health should be something we continuously engage in, but we have become accustomed to neglecting it unless we are forced to address it. Continuously and intentionally fostering resilience is a more sustainable practice than simply responding to a crisis, because continuous practice primes us for greater success when crisis occurs.”