As common as climate change-related droughts and floods are, is the anxiety that comes with it. In an effort to save the planet, art therapy is one way humans can care for themselves as well.
The Earth is burning, according to Climate.gov, and with the rising temperatures come rising levels of stress, said Edith Moses, a licensed marriage and family art therapist. Some may feel it is nearly impossible to escape the external reminders that the world as they know it will not be here one day, and Moses said one way to relieve that overwhelming feeling is through art practices.
“Using bilateral activities using both sides of your brain at one time helps reduce stress — it increases focus, it calms your nervous system down, it contains your emotions, it increases efficacy, which is actually really important,” Moses said. “With efficacy and climate, it’s like we feel like we can actually make induced change, and that’s the therapeutic process.”
Moses said she discovered her love for art therapy when creativity became a coping skill in her own life. Now, she works at a mental health treatment center in Calabasas, California, and she said the topic of climate change is prevalent in many of her adolescent clients.
“I suppose if we think about climate, we are in danger — we really are in danger,” Moses said. “And that can cause a lot of anxiety disorders in people, because they’re like, ‘OK, what can we do?’ A lot of kids are feeling like they have to change the world, like they have to do something now.”
The process of making art is therapeutic for the mind and the body, which is why it is effective for those who experience obsessive thinking that makes it difficult to experience day-to-day life, Moses said. In the world of psychotherapy, she said the process is called “sublimation” because it diverts feelings into a healthier activity.
“It’s a whole body experience; it’s whole brain integration,” she said. “It really is more about the process than the product.”
Science Professor Krista Lucas has been a proponent of incorporating creativity into her teachings on heavy climate-related topics. In her BIOL 109 Plants and the Environment class, Lucas said she has her students choose a set of data relevant to climate change and asks them to create an image that conveys their interpretation of the data.
“Taking this real data that can be really stressful and thinking about it as, ‘What does this mean to me?’” Lucas said. “Or ‘How is this meaningful to me?’ can be like getting back a little bit of a sense of control over something that is uncontrollable by any one individual.”
She said when someone puts all their energy into a project, blood flows through the pathways in the brain that feel rewarding, which is why humans experience relief and positive emotions when making art.
“It’s also called externalizing, so like, looking at it and saying, ‘OK, this is what my anxiety looks like. What is it telling me?’” she said.
Kiva Herrera (‘23) took Lucas’ class during his senior year at Pepperdine, and he said it was an experience unlike any other. For the activity, he chose to research data on the pattern of Earth’s rising temperatures.
“With learning about it and then having something like that where you’re actually interacting with the data in a way that is meaningful through art and expression — I think that’s super important,” he said.
Herrera’s final illustration was of a waterfall pouring into a trash can, and he said, despite entering the class worried about motivation and interest in the lessons, the project helped him connect with the topic.
“It ended up being something I really care about,” Herrera said.
Belle Li, a sophomore and volunteer at the Re-Earth Initiative, also took Lucas’ course, and she said she personally has experienced climate anxiety since a young age. She said she does what she can to protect the planet, which helps her avoid spiraling with anxious thoughts, but society makes it hard to easily do that.
“A lot of our day-to-day things that we do in life are quite unsustainable and quite environmentally damaging,” Li said. “But the thing is that it’s hard for us because that’s what helps us live our lives.”
For Lucas’ class, Li focused her project on researching the history of sustainability in Indigenous practices. She said putting what she learned into a picture helped focus her emotions about climate change into something enjoyable and positive, and it taught her new ways she can contribute to reversing climate change.
“I get anxious if I’m not doing something, so battling the anxiety is by doing my part,” Li said.
Possibly the biggest reason that art has such a grounding effect on the brain is that it is nonverbal, which Moses said makes it less threatening than traditional forms of therapy. In considering how to take this already-effective practice a step further, Moses said she has an idea.
“Thinking about students that are involved in climate goals and climate change, I wonder if sustainability and also using our Earth — using materials that are already here — so we’re not wasting, would be just a perfect solution,” Moses said.
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Contact Liza Esquibias by email: liza.esquibias@pepperdine.edu
