Powerless Over Everything –
August 16, 2019 – Grounded in the healing power of ritual, Schmidt’s peer-to-peer support group, Good Grief, mirrors the format of Alcoholics Anonymous. Schmidt, whose parents battled addiction, spent years in the support group Adult Children of Alcoholics. Similar to AA’s 12-step program, the Good Grief Network is based on 10 steps designed to help people navigate feelings of powerlessness in the face of climate change and other systemic social ills like racial conflict and gun violence.
Wildfires are ravaging California. Heatwaves sweep through the U.S. and Europe. Extreme storms erupt with increasing frequency. As the climate crisis deepens, psychological coping mechanisms for the loss of once-familiar weather patterns are emerging — accompanied by terms like “eco-anxiety” and “solastalgia.” And for people who’ve made climate change their career, from biologists to grassroots organizers, Schmidt knows firsthand that it’s easy to feel defeated. Just as aid workers or psychotherapists are encouraged to seek therapy to prevent personal roadblocks from impeding their practice, Good Grief invites participants to metabolize “collective grief” to build resilience.
