The recent BBC drama series THE RAPTURE is a landmark. It is the best effort yet at a mainstream climate-based drama on TV.

The novel (by Liz Jensen) on which it was based is a dystopia. This TV adaptation is so different from the original novel that in some regards it is barely an adaptation at all. For the adaptation quite deliberately seeks to be a ‘thrutopia’: a story of the kind we need: of active hope… a reality-based picture of how - grim though it is - we might together find fine ways through what is coming at us.

Our overarching concern about the story can be summed up in the following: we found the first three episodes more compellingly believable than the last two. The risk that the TV series takes, is that towards the end at times it leaves believability behind and edges towards being a utopia: a wish-fulfilment fantasy of what we would like to happen - corrupt politicians seeing the light, Parliament turning around on a dime, climate activists becoming heroes, unrepentant bad guys (including big business interests) suddenly losing, the nation waking up, etc. -, rather than a convincing picture of something good that one can actually credit could happen.

To investigate further how the series did, let’s ask some more specific questions about it — and about the true life context in which it appeared…

Is climate anxiety really one of the many themes in The Rapture?

Superficially it seems to ‘not go there’ …but then that is maybe the brilliant point it is subtly making. The suppression of emotion, the distractions, the obvious defenses. The disabled psychologist protagonist of the show, Gabs, bluntly illustrates the avoidance saying “I’ve been more focussed on saving myself than saving the planet” and “I don’t really watch the news”. Then there is the fascinating portrayal of ‘The Faith Way’, a whole new religious cult, designed to disenfranchise climate anxiety. We found this latter a deeply intriguing and disturbing hypothesis that could accurately reflect on how some groups are currently capitalising on our anxieties.

How directly does this relate to our reality now?

The suppression of the climate emotions, the build up of chaos, misinformation and the inadequacy of adaptation, all add to the repressed stress and the fear. Businesses, pubs, homes and institutions carrying on ‘soldiering through’ high 30s degrees heat. What Joanna Macy called ‘Business as Usual’. If you stepped outside this summer, you’ll have noticed. Then again, what’s the alternative? Climate breakdown comes not (as it does at the end of the novel of The Rapture) in one gigantic deluge, but in this series of hits - which we have to endure through, together.

Does The Rapture succeed in foregrounding the justified anxiety in the face of all this?

Well, in our society climate anxiety often still is pathologised - and in the show, the young woman with agoraphobia and anxiety is in a specialist mental health hospital and when invited to therapy says, “you want me to switch off and pretend we are not doomed”. Gabs’s own therapy never mentions the context of societal collapse. The main character, the (it turns out) prophet Bethany, is portrayed as the ‘craziest’ of them all — but is the only one with insight into what is actually happening. This is where the writers Bryony Kimmings and Rebecca Manley have very cleverly shown that facing fear and anxiety is the key. It is when the trust and openness in expressing feelings develops in the relationship between Gabs and Bethany that breakthroughs start to happen.

How can what occurs along these lines in the show be seen in positive initiatives in real life?

As well as ‘Business as Usual’ there is an underlying growing movement of “The Great Turning” of people who believe understanding our defenses and processing our emotions is what we need right now. The Inner Climate Response Alliance exists to build a future where people are emotionally prepared as communities and can feel and face fear by working through the pain and the challenge. To be aware of the ‘inner work’ and self/collective care we need and build the resilience to avoid polarity, division and manipulation (rather than avoiding our own emotional, psychological and physiological responses). The Climate Majority Project’s Climate Courage campaign focuses on supporting teachers and young people to do this.

So to move towards conclusion: The Rapture, as the first prime time drama to address all this, has taken us forward in asking what is going on when conspiracies, greenwashing, distractions and manipulation use our deepest, valid fears to create chaos, blame and destruction. Why are we so unprepared emotionally as well as practically for our future? Why aren’t we listening more to young people, and what if we talked about our grief, guilt, despair and realised WE have the agency to use them to get through this rather than others making sure things stay looking ‘normal’ and business continues ‘as usual’ - until it comes tumbling down.

Whatever our overall criticisms of The Rapture at the top of this piece, one thing cannot be denied. Airing in this extreme summer of heatstorms, heatwaves, and elevated levels of death, it was a show about prophesy that was itself eerily prophetic. It foresaw this summer that we have just endured together, right down to the Labour government leaning back into drilling in the North Sea.

We need more of this. We badly need reality-based thrutopian dramas, threading a credible path between dystopia and utopia. We need stories that take seriously, as The Rapture at least sought to do, the existential burden that we all now face.

The Rapture is available to view now on BBC iPlayer.

What’s more important at this time of ecological crisis: strengthening our emotional resilience so that we can process eco-anxiety, grief, and fear without becoming paralysed or numb; or ensuring that external infrastructure and systems are resilient to the (more) extreme climate that we know is coming?

It’s a trick question, of course. It’s not an either/or - we need both, and more besides. We humans love to separate and define everything: inner vs outer, humans vs nature, me vs the rest of the world. But this thinking, and the world view it produces, isn’t just skewed - it’s dangerous. The disconnect it creates is exactly what permits us to keep extracting from and abusing the systems that support us.

The inner is the outer, humans are nature and I am/you are the rest of the world. A recent episode of the Sounds of Sand podcast offered a reminder of this oneness. Exploring how to shift the inward practice of personal healing to become “a rooted force for collective change”, social change strategist Rae Abileah suggests that inner and outer work are as inseparable as in-breath and the out-breath: “to breathe is to remember that we’re interdependent… every breath connects us to the trees, to the coral and the oceans, to the countless forms of life that replenish our supply of oxygen on this planet”.

At ICRA, our focus is the inner resilience we build as we confront ever more devastating ecological losses, alongside a creeping anxiety about what the future holds. When we build emotional literacy around climate distress, we’re far more able to stay engaged and take action - rather than disengaging through denial, disavowal or despair.

This couldn’t be more crucial right now, as we witness what might be called collective denial on a grand scale. As reported this week, nearly three-quarters of the 2,500 media stories about June’s record-breaking heatwave left out any mention of global heating or climate change - giving readers implicit permission to deny the connection between extreme temperatures and the crisis driving them.

But this inner resilience building doesn’t just happen on an individual level. It’s when it happens through conversation and shared spaces, in community with others who care, that we learn to integrate emotional tools into our response to the planetary crisis - and find the resources to reject the denial laid out so conveniently before us. This shared emotional resilience is also the fuel for collective change such as community adaptation, which in turn makes us feel more empowered and feeds the resilience in a positive feedback loop.

As we build a network of people practising inner-led change, that is the outer work too. Whether you’re connected to this work already, or simply curious about what we’re doing, come and say hi at our next Community Call on 23 July, or get in touch on hello@innerclimateresponse.org

ICRA news

Thank you to all who came along to our London Climate Action Week events, including Inside Out: Strengthening Inner Resilience and Community Ties in the Polycrisis, which had to be moved online due to dangerously high temperatures in London. It was so good to see around 60 people there despite the last minute change of plan and to hear from the community about what is needed in the inner resilience space now. We’re grateful to our co-hosts from the Climate Care Collaborative, Force of Nature, Six Seconds, The Resilience Project, and Youth Climate Collaborative who all helped create an open, nourishing space.

Another London Climate Action Week event that had to be shifted due to the heat: the launch of ICRA partner Climate Youth Resilience’s Dance 4 Change project, in collaboration with Just Us and The Advocacy Academy, where they co-create pathways of joy in policymaking with young people at the centre. The launch will be happening soon - stay tuned for more updates.

A new workshop this week: Organisational & Climate Psychology for People’s Emergency Briefing for Workplace Screenings.

Hosting a screening of The People's Emergency Briefing in your workplace can feel very different to a public screening - workplace culture, hierarchies, contradictions, narratives and rules all come into play. This new workshop to explore some of the dynamics and defences that show up in organisations, and that can impact how people respond to and engage with the climate and nature emergency.

Climate psychology workshops for the People’s Emergency Briefing (public screenings) are still running multiple times every week,

If you’re interested in joining one of these workshops, first sign up to host a screening with the NEB, then book your place.

These workshops are designed by Linda Aspey of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and delivered by trained CPA members. CPA is a partner of ICRA (the Inner Climate Response Alliance) which is part-funding these workshops.

Our last ICRA Community Call before a summer break is on 23 July. These online gatherings are for anyone interested in inner work, climate resilience and community adaptation.

Whether you’re an inner work practitioner, community leader or resident looking to bring this work to your local area, join us to meet others and help shape our growing community.

Autumn dates to be announced soon.

Find out more and book your free place

Community News

Events, workshops and other offerings - some from the wider ICRA network, others from outside that we think you might be interested in.

If you have something you’d like us to share with the community in next month’s newsletter, drop us a line at hello@innerclimateresponse.org.

Events and Workshops

Resilience Rucksack Workshop Join The Resilience Project for this free online workshop, exploring themes of climate anxiety, wellbeing and resilience. Learn how to face eco anxiety head-on and leave with tools that will help you to stay grounded, avoid burnout, and keep showing up for the planet. 21 July, 12pm – 1pm BST, Online

It’s Not Just You: An Evening with Tori Tsui
Join The Resilience Project for a special online conversation with climate justice campaigner and author Tori Tsui. This free event will explore the themes of Tori’s acclaimed debut book It’s Not Just You, a powerful reflection on climate anxiety, burnout, activism and collective care. 21 July, 7pm – 8:30pm BST, Online

Beyond the Noise: A 6-Week Online Workshop to Reclaim Connection, Sharpen Your Thinking, and Strengthen Democracy. A practical, collaborative course to understand the disinformation crisis, tackle division and build democracy, designed to move you from passive concern to active, confident engagement. 22 September to 27 October 2026, online.

Climate Resilience Weekender for young people aged 18–30 who may be feeling overwhelmed, or emotionally affected by the climate and wider meta-crisis. An opportunity to rest, recuperate and reconnect with the more-than-human and other young adults who care deeply about the world and its many tangled crises. This weekend is funded but food and travel are not included. 16-18 October, Derbyshire.

Hosting & Facilitating a Climate Café Listening Circle Help build emotional resilience in your own community by learning to host and facilitate a Climate Cafe Listening Circle in this three-session programme from the Climate Psychology Alliance. Starts 19 October, online.

Imagining Thrutopias II A gathering to explore how we might navigate toward the best possible futures that are realistically achievable amid instability, collapse, and uncertainty. Rather than treating utopia as a perfect destination, the residency frames “thrutopia” as an ongoing, adaptive practice that embraces imperfection, drawing inspiration from thinkers like Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler. 23-28 September, East Sussex.

Active Hope free online training A free seven-week online course that takes you on a journey through seven areas that can nourish our ability to make a difference in the world. Ongoing, online.

Other useful and/or inspiring links

🌱 New government Youth Climate and Nature Panel designed to put the voices of younger people at the heart of climate and nature policies. Passionate young people aged 16-25 from across the UK who want to help shape the future of climate and nature policy, share their views, and inspire wider action are invited to apply.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Climate Action Leadership Programme (CALP) A free 6-month programme from the 2050 Climate Group to empower Scotland’s young people aged between 18 and 35 to lead action on climate change. Apply by 12 August.

🏢 Subsidised training and workshops available for schools, NHS services and non-statutory services Thanks to funding, the Climate Psychology Alliance is offering the following at subsidised rates:
- Training for teams on understanding and meeting children and young people's psychological and emotional needs in a time of climate and polycrisis
- Bespoke workshops for groups of young adults, aged 16-25 eg. Building resilience in a time of climate and polycrisis.

📃 Don’t Despair, Participate... On hope(lessness), action and collective power “Participation generates collective agency. Perhaps this is why despair is so often accompanied by distance — from one another, from place, from the practical work of making life. When we become spectators to history, despair begins to feel inevitable. Participation interrupts that. It reminds us that history has always been made by ordinary people deciding to act together.” This excellent piece by Amahra Spence is so worth a read.

🎧 Tending The Whole In this episode of the Sounds of Sand podcast, Nkem Ndefo and Staci K. Haines explore the relationship between personal inner work and collective change.

🎧 Beyond Ecological Grief A highly recommended six-part podcast series which investigates the emotional realities of living through a planetary health crisis through deeply moving personal stories.

🎧 What if it doesn’t get any better any time soon? Don’t be put off by the title, this is a nourishing episode of Climate Changed, in which Francis Weller and Autumn Brown explore how grief was never meant to be carried alone, and why communities need ritual ground where emotions can be held.

We hope you find something of use, inspiration or comfort in these shares - and we’d love to hear what you’ve been reading, watching or listening to. Don’t forget to send us any events or workshops you’re involved with that you’d like to share further.

That’s it for this month and we’ll be pausing the newsletter in August, so will be back in touch in September.

Warm wishes, The ICRA team

innerclimateresponse.org

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The Inner Climate Response Alliance is a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.

With record-breaking temperatures of 37°C now forecast, and likely to feel hotter still in central London, we have to put participant safety first, so our events this week are likely to move online (scroll down for full event details). If you’ve registered, or are still deciding, please register anyway and we’ll confirm the format by email as soon as we can.

It’s interesting to observe (and feel!) that even for many of us well versed in the facts of the climate crisis, the emotional weight often only lands when the crisis stops being abstract. It might be a worry about whether it’s safe to send the kids to school, whether we’ll be stranded somewhere if public transport fails, or whether our friends and family who might need extra support are okay. The shift from knowing to feeling becomes unavoidable.

And as is quite widely known now, the hot summers we’re living through now will very likely be remembered as some of the coolest of our lifetimes. A new “plausible” Met Office scenario for June 2056 suggests a heatwave like this one could look mild by comparison, with peak temperatures of 45°C and nine consecutive days above 40°C.

This is why the inner work matters as much as the outer work - staying present with difficult feelings and supporting each other in that isn’t separate from the action we need to take together - it is a crucial part of it. So please join us this week, in whatever form the events take. More details of them below. We hope to see many of you there.

Inside Out: Strengthening Inner Resilience and Community Ties in the Polycrisis

Wednesday 24 June, 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM - NOW ONLINE

​Join the Climate Care Collaborative, Force of Nature, Inner Climate Response Alliance, Six Seconds, The Resilience Project, and Youth Climate Collaborative at London Climate Action Week for an interactive workshop that bridges inner and outer climate work. This session is designed to offer a soft place to tend to yourself, build resilience, meet allies, and nourish connections with other change-makers.

Dance 4 Change

Wednesday, June 24, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Climate Youth Resilience is launching their Dance 4 Change project, in collaboration with Just Us and The Advocacy Academy, where they co-create pathways of joy in policymaking with young people at the center.

​In this session, we will facilitate discussions on the issues at the center of young people’s movements, their hopes and dreams, and how we practically embed joy and belonging in our processes. Did we mention there will be dancing? 💃🕺No dance background is needed to join!

Peace Building as Climate Crisis Prevention and Preparation

Wed 24 Jun 2026 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM - NOW ONLINE

The climate crisis is not only an environmental emergency — it is also a relationship and communication emergency.

People are not starting from the same place. Some deny the crisis. Some accept it but underestimate the timescale. Others do not yet grasp the scale of disruption climate impacts will generate here in the UK. And views are becoming increasingly polarised — even among those who agree there is a crisis but disagree on how to respond. Polarisation, in this context, is not just uncomfortable. It is dangerous: it blocks the collective action we urgently need.In this interactive two-hour session, participants will experience a sequence of short exercises that build the conversational skills needed to bring down the heat in the room, increase understanding, and connect in a way that enables collective action at many scales — families, communities, and institutions.

Looking for other LCAW events centering inner reslience and community? Check out our recent post here.

ICRA news

While we’ve been busy planning London Climate Action Week, regular events are continuing in the background:

Climate psychology workshops for the People’s Emergency Briefing are running multiple times every week, with around 40 workshops already delivered. This means over 350 people have facilitated or will be facilitating their PEB workshops with a better understanding of how to work with different emotional responses to the difficult information presented in the film.

If you’re interested in joining one of these workshops, first sign up to host a screening with the NEB, then book your place.

These workshops are designed by Linda Aspey of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and delivered by trained CPA members. CPA is a partner of ICRA (the Inner Climate Response Alliance) which is part-funding these workshops.

ICRA Community Calls are for anyone interested anyone interested in inner work, climate resilience and community adaptation.

Whether you’re an inner work practitioner, community leader or resident looking to bring this work to your local area, join us for a informal gathering to meet others and help shape our growing community.

Find out more and book your free place

Community News

Events, workshops and other offerings - some from people already in the ICRA network, others from outside that we think you might be interested in.

If you have something you’d like us to share with the community in next month’s newsletter, drop us a line at hello@innerclimateresponse.org.

Events and Workshops

The Eternal Song Film and Discussion Series

A discussion series on ‘The Eternal Song’, a series of twelve deeply moving films which invite us into a space of remembrance, honouring Indigenous resilience and sacred wisdom, while bearing witness to the intergenerational trauma of colonization, cultural erasure, and ongoing inequities. Online, 25 June, 7.00-8.30pm BST | Find out more

The Spiral Calls – Stepping Into Your Facilitation Path

A free 90-minute introductory session about the Work That Reconnects Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program, titled “The Spiral Calls“. We will be exploring the structure, rhythms, and spirit of the program — including mentorship, practice facilitation, and the inner work that supports wise and grounded leadership. Online, 27 June, 9.00-10.30am BST | Find out more.

We could have prepared, but we didn’t. What’s the response? | with David Shukman

Join The Climate Majority Project for a breakfast webinar conversation between David Shukman, former BBC Science Editor and author of the new book The Response, along with Rupert Read of the Climate Majority Project and special guests. Online, 1 July, 8:15-9:45am BST | Find out more.

Hosting & Facilitating a Climate Café Listening Circle

Help build emotional resilience in your own community by learning to host and facilitate a Climate Cafe Listening Circle in this three-session programme from the Climate Psychology Alliance. Online, starts 9 July | Find out more

Generation Regeneration Online Global Summit

Free 3 day summit from Future of Cities to help you reconnect with yourself, your place, and your people. Online, 10-12 July | Find out more

Imagining Thrutopias II

A gathering to explore how we might navigate toward the best possible futures that are realistically achievable amid instability, collapse, and uncertainty. Rather than treating utopia as a perfect destination, the residency frames “thrutopia” as an ongoing, adaptive practice that embraces imperfection, drawing inspiration from thinkers like Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler. East Sussex, 23-28 September | Find out more

Active Hope + Work That Reconnects Facilitator training

A nine-month blended programme building capacity for Active Hope and facilitation of the Work That Reconnects in Ireland. For facilitators, community leaders, activists, and changemakers across Ireland who are working within the complex realities of social, ecological, and economic uncertainty. South Galway, Sept 2026 - May 2027 | Find out more

Active Hope free online training

A free seven-week online course that takes you on a journey through seven areas that can nourish our ability to make a difference in the world. Find out more

Other useful links

PAID OPPORTUNITY | Climate Action Fund Panel Member

The National Lottery Community Fund is recruiting 2 young people aged 18–30 to help decide how millions of pounds are invested in community climate action across the UK.

💷 £1,962 a year plus travel and subsistence

⏳ 9 days a year, initially for up to 2 years

💻 Most meetings online, with one in-person meeting annually

✅ No previous panel experience required

Apply with a short statement of up to 800 words explaining your experience, perspective and why the role matters to you.

⏰ DEADLINE 11.59pm Friday 3 July 2026. More info.

Subsidised training and workshops available for schools, NHS services and non-statutory services

Thanks to funding, the Climate Psychology Alliance is offering the following at subsidised rates:
- Training for teams on understanding and meeting children and young people's psychological and emotional needs in a time of climate and polycrisis
- Bespoke workshops for groups of young adults, aged 16-25 eg. Building resilience in a time of climate and polycrisis.

More information and express your interest here.

That’s it for this month’s newsletter. If you are out and about in the next few days at London Climate Action Week or elsewhere, please do take care and equip yourself with the knowledge to help others if needed.

Warm wishes, The ICRA team

innerclimateresponse.org

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The Inner Climate Response Alliance is a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.

If you’re drawn to the inner dimensions of the climate and ecological crisis - the resilience, emotional depth, and community connection that sustainable action requires - you might, like us, be on the lookout for relevant events at London Climate Action Week.

With over 750 events taking place over nine days from 20th to 28th June, there are fortunately some pretty good filters on the LCAW website - just not one for inner resilience.

At the Inner Climate ResponseAlliance, we work with individuals and communities to build the inner (emotional and relational) resilience needed to face the climate crisis. We’re keen to connect with others doing similar work, so we’ve put together a list of events focused on inner work and community, including several we’re co-hosting with some brilliant partners.

Event organisers and hosts include , The Resilience Project, Six Seconds, , Force of Nature, and Climate Care Collaborative.

It’s not a definitive guide - new events are still being added to the official calendar, and we’d love your help filling any gaps. If you know of something that should be on this list, drop it in the comments.

And LCAW, if you’re reading this, an ‘inner resilience’ filter for 2027 would be very welcome!

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That’s it for our round up, but as mentioned, we’re sure there are more inner resilience related events - if you know if any please add them in the comments.

Are you going to any of these events? Let us in the comments, we’d love to connect with as many of you as possible.

The Inner Climate Response Alliance is a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.

The depth and scale of the climate and ecological crises facing us can feel overwhelming. Opening ourselves to the emotional toll can feel frightening, especially when we fear we may not be able to cope. Yet when we don’t tend to what is arising within us, this shapes how we care for ourselves and those around us, and our capacity to effect change.

Those of us in activist and change-making spaces may be familiar with the burnout, overwhelm, despair, conflict and relational ruptures that can arise. And those of us not working in these spaces might also resonate with feelings of hopelessness, paralysis, denial, anger, or something else entirely. It can be easier to push away these uncomfortable feelings - leading to that collective paralysis we’re all too familiar with: “there’s nothing I can do about this” - or looking away - “it’s too depressing to talk about”.

It’s not ‘just’ climate and nature losses we’re dealing with. The crises we face are behavioural and cultural too, shaped by a dominant narrative that tells us we are not enough, that we don’t belong, and that we are separate — from our bodies, each other, and the rest of nature.

We’re all shaped by histories of colonisation, extraction and disconnection in different ways. These beliefs become internalised, meaning that we often recreate the same harmful structures and patterns we are trying to change, despite our best intentions. As we try to find our way through the crises of today, inner work can support us to look at these old patterns, with accountability and compassion.

We see ‘inner work’ as the practices that help us navigate all this. Inner work helps us to be in healthier relationship with ourselves, each other and our communities, and the rest of nature. It helps us build emotional, relational and civic resilience: our capacity to collaborate, navigate different perspectives, make sense of what is happening together, and make collective decisions in times of uncertainty and disruption.

Inner work helps us build the capacity to feel it all - the fear, anger, grief and vulnerability - yet not be defined and consumed by this. We can learn to stay connected to ourselves and others even through conflict, disagreement and relational rupture. In doing so, we become more able to collaborate, respond with care, and act in ways that are healthy and generative for ourselves, each other, and the wider living world.

As Starter Culture - a collective supporting inner-led change - says, through inner work we can “co-create the healthy, relational and just cultures our hearts long for — and which our current social and ecological collapse demands.”

The form that inner work takes reaches far beyond psychotherapy, mindfulness or meditation. While these are important, we see inner work as a much wider spectrum of individual and collective practices. It might be nature connection, grief tending, Work That Reconnects, somatic practice, climate café listening circles, arts-based approaches, spiritual inquiry, group dynamics, relational skills or collective imagining.

The ways in which we attune to and resource ourselves feel different for each of us. For some, sharing our feelings with others is helpful, for others it’s movement, time spent outdoors, making things with our hands, or sharing food together that nourishes us and helps us to process our feelings.

ICRA is particularly interested in the many ways that these practices are woven into community action and collective care - perhaps through faith practice, shared meals, singing together, collective decision-making, or other forms - because it is through relational and collective approaches that we are able to build true community and create the meaningful change we need.

By , ICRA Community Lead

We’d love to hear from you

What do you think? What does inner work mean to you?

And if inner work, action, activism and/or resilience-building is happening in your community, we’d love to hear about it and share your stories in a future newsletter.

If it’s not happening yet, and you’re interested in inner work in response to the climate crisis, join our emerging network and come along to one of our upcoming online Community Calls (more on those below).

Read on for news and resources from ICRA and the wider community…

ICRA News

A very warm welcome to our new Partnership Lead, Tony Li

We are delighted to welcome Tony Li as the new Partnership lead for ICRA. Tony brings with him a wealth of leadership experience from his time at Mind, as well as brilliant energy, warmth and wisdom. Exciting times for ICRA.

A few words from Tony below.

“I am excited to work with the fabulous ICRA partners and communities across the UK to develop strategies to help build the emotional and psychological resilience of everyone working for a better climate and environment.

I have spent most of the last 14 years at the national mental health charity Mind. Much of that time has been spent stewarding large programmes aimed at supporting people to be more active and get outside into nature to feel good. I also co-chaired Mind’s internal climate emergency group and have sat on the steering group for the Climate Minds Coalition.

I am committed to working towards a more inclusive society and empowering the voices of marginalised communities and those with lived experience of dealing with climate-related thoughts and emotions to be the driving force of ICRA.”

Shaping the ICRA Community of Practice and building the ICRA map - your help please!

The ICRA community of practice will come into shape through participatory design, emerging according to the community’s wants and needs, so if you…

• are holding space for people facing the climate crisis, and/or

• would like to be better equipped to foster inner resilience in your community or work environment, and/or

• want to link inner work with local climate action and adaptation efforts

…we’d love to hear a little more from you. Please take a few minutes to complete our short ICRA Community form - your input will then help collectively shape the community of practice.

We’re also collecting information for the ICRA map which will be a tool to facilitate connections with community groups and inner work practitioners.

Take me to the form

We’re looking for ‘Community Connectors’ to work with - people who are well-connected across different communities or contexts, and who may be able to help build bridges and harvest insights to shape a radically inclusive Community of Practice.

Do you, or someone you know, have strong, trusted relationships within communities that are often underserved, underrepresented, or excluded—whether in wider society and/or within mainstream climate action or activism spaces?

This might include (but isn’t limited to) communities shaped by different socio-economic backgrounds, race or ethnicity, faith, geography, or political perspectives, and those involved in community-led work such as mutual aid, food growing, migrant and refugee support, work addressing poverty and economic inequality, racial justice initiatives, or other social and environmental action.

If you’d like to put yourself or someone else forward, please add details to the form (via the button above).

Next ICRA Community Call: 21 May 🌱

Join our monthly online gatherings for anyone interested in inner work, climate resilience and community adaptation in any combination 🙂

Come along to:
- meet the ICRA team and each other
- explore together what this new community of practice could look like
- share how you may be integrating inner work in a diversity of ways, and its significance in responding to the climate crisis and broader polycrisis.

Find out more and book your free place

Climate psychology workshops for the People’s Emergency Briefing - update

Since 27 March, there have been 31 Climate Psychology for People’s Emergency Briefing Facilitators workshops, with a total of 220 participants.

This workshop is run in partnership with the National Emergency Briefing for those hosting People’s Emergency Briefing screenings, and covers the psychological context, a practical facilitation framework, and tools for handling difficult group moments.

To register for the workshop, first sign up to host a screening with the NEB, then book your place

These workshops are designed by Linda Aspey of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and delivered by trained CPA members. CPA is a partner of ICRA (the Inner Climate Response Alliance) which is part-funding these workshops.

Community News

Events, workshops and other offerings - some from people already in the ICRA network, others from outside that we think you might be interested in. If you have something you’d like us to share with the community in next month’s newsletter, drop us a line at hello@innerclimateresponse.org.

Events and Workshops

People, Planet, Pop-Ups

The Resilience Project is hosting a free pop-up event every Saturday throughout May for young changemakers in London aged 18-28. These drop-in events have been designed for joy-loving, community-spirited young people who feel sad, tired, angry, or burned out about the state of the world.

Sat 16th May — Resilience Rucksack Workshop

Sat 23rd May — Hopeful Climate Book Club

Sat 30th May — Zine Making Workshop

London | Find out more

Council of all Beings: An Exploration of EcoAwakening

Join a Council of all Beings to speak on behalf of the beings who have called out to us from the wider web of life. “The Council of All Beings is a communal ritual in which participants step aside from their human identity and speak on behalf of another life-form. A simple structure for spontaneous expression, it aims to heighten awareness of our interdependence in the living body of Earth, and to strengthen our commitment to defend it.” – Joanna Macy. Facilitated by Frieda Nixdorf. Online, 17 May | Find out more.

Difficult questions call: climate vs polycrisis?

How should climate action evolve in a world increasingly understood as a polycrisis — and what might be gained or lost by shifting focus from climate breakdown alone to the wider set of interconnected challenges shaping people’s lives? A structured dialogue event from The Climate Majority Project, facilitated to be pragmatic and grounded, with the aim of reaching statements that have meaning and integrity and appeal to a broad, concerned audience. Online, 19 May | Find out more.

Rob Hopkins: Time Travel for Unlocking Collective Imagination

Join Rob Hopkins, author of 'From What Is to What If' and ‘How to Fall in Love with the Future’, in conversation about why & how to spark collective imagination in times of injustice and collapse. Rob will also be sharing his time travel practice with us, so get ready for a trip to the future! Online 19 May | Find out more.

The Spiral Calls – Stepping Into Your Facilitation Path

A free 90-minute introductory session about the Work That Reconnects Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program, titled “The Spiral Calls“. We will be exploring the structure, rhythms, and spirit of the program — including mentorship, practice facilitation, and the inner work that supports wise and grounded leadership. Online, 23 May | Find out more.

Learning to Reconnect - Expanded ‘Work That Reconnects’ Spiral Series

An online, six-week exploration of the Work That Reconnects. An invitation to reconnect with our deepest selves, each other, and the Earth. Online, from 28 May | Find out more.

Togetherness: Show & Tell Session from Lifehouse and Fabric

A series of online community ‘Show and Tell’ gatherings to hear and discuss what groups and organisations across the UK will share about building togetherness in the face of growing crises, societal and systems breakdown, environmental and social problems. Online, 7 June | Find out more

Spiritual Ecology Festival at St Ethelburga’s

A three-day festival interweaving storytelling, peacebuilding and ecology. With talks, live music, storytelling, workshops, panel discussions, contemplative spaces and an overnight planting pilgrimage. London, Sat 13 Jun 2026 - Sun 14 Jun 2026 | Find out more.

Becoming Trauma-Attuned

A four-day immersion from the Starter Culture collective for space-holders, facilitators and guides to cultivate the embodied relational capacities needed for radically inclusive groups and communities. Devon, 24th - 28th July 2026 | Find out more.

Political Generation gathering

Today’s young people are among the most politically disillusioned generations in living memory. In a world shaped by crisis, fragmentation, and institutional failure, many of us struggle to have faith in meaningful collective change.

The Raft, incubated by the Climate Majority Project, is hosting a gathering on September 3-8, for 18-35 year-olds who haven’t given up, to explore these questions with depth, honesty and connection. Alongside holding dialogues about what it means to be political today and learning from a regenerative land project, we will explore practices like ecstatic dance, tai chi, and community living. Embedded in the beautiful Furnace Brook (2 hours south of London), join us to share your questions and stories and build our political agency in the deepest sense of the word: the art of living well together. Early bird price £270. Near Hailsham, September 3-8 Read more and sign up.

Reading and inspiration (and other useful bits)

Natural objects as a prism for feelings- a reflection on Climate Cafe Listening Circles

Have you ever taken part in a Climate Cafe Listening Circle? If not, this beautiful poem from Matt Sowerby of The Resilience Project will give you a flavour.

A Local National Emergency

A podcast episode from Carbon Copy connecting which tells the story of one local screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing documentary and shows how the groundswell of awareness around the climate crisis can be channeled into community action.

Life is Woo

Article shared by community member & facilitator Samantha Gibbons who says: “I often feel like communicating the inner work is dismissed as ‘woo’ - often a projection and fear of judgement. I appreciate how this article challenges that fear and celebrates the value of ‘woo’!”

Grants for Good

Funding from the Matthew Good Foundation for local charities, voluntary groups or social enterprises that are making a big impact on communities, people or the environment. (To be eligible, you must be a UK-based local community group, charity, voluntary group or social enterprise, have an annual income of less than £50,000 and have a bank account in the organisation’s name.) The next funding round closes on 15 June 2026. More info.

In those years by Adrienne Rich

To close this month’s missive, we share Adrienne Rich’s poem In those years, which speaks so strongly of the shift from ‘I’ to ‘we’ that we are all working with.

A reflection on the loss of collective community that is hitting us hard right now, and a reminder that it is in these years now that we can remember and reconnect with the ‘we’ that is our natural state of being and the path towards a different future.

Warm wishes, The ICRA team

innerclimateresponse.org

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The Inner Climate Response Alliance is a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.

Below, Co-chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance and ICRA member reflects on her personal experience:

“I went to the Westminster National Emergency Briefing (NEB) in November last year, and listened carefully to the expert talks about overlapping extreme weather events, food shortages, unliveable temperatures, and social unrest that we can expect as climate change hits the UK.

It was a lot. I’ve been in the climate movement for fifteen years and I know the facts, but hearing all of it together raised my anxiety levels noticeably.

I knew I was anxious because I got somewhat over-energised and active, and badly wanted to connect with others around me. (Sound familiar to anyone? A colleague who was also there had an opposite reaction - she wanted to avoid others for several days while she processed the material. We all have different ways of dealing with this kind of impact.)

When I talked to others present I could feel their efforts to manage their emotional responses too. It felt hard to connect - we all had emotional work to do in addition to the cognitive response and in a big event like this there wasn’t really space to deal with our emotions. Mostly people with significant knowledge of climate change, we were still experiencing the weight of hearing it all at once.

Fast forward to April and there is now a film based on these talks, called the People’s Emergency Briefing (PEB). The idea is that communities screen the film and talk with their local leaders and representatives about how it would be if we treated the climate crisis as the emergency it is. How would we act to ready ourselves for what is likely to be coming, and what steps would we take to reduce the likelihood?

I am so delighted that this is happening. I think it’s a significant national moment. And I wonder, what kinds of strong emotional responses will the film evoke in those watching, many of whom will be hearing its tough messages for the first time? We know that humans’ first response to difficult news that makes us anxious is often a defensive one. We say it can’t be true, or it’s not as important as something else, or we seem to accept it and then do nothing to act on the news.

Defences are useful in protecting us from the impact of the news while we absorb it, but if we are not supported to do the absorbing part, we might stay in the defensive phase. And with the huge pressures many of us are facing around cost of living, too much work, discrimination, health challenges and everything else, it’s not surprising if the climate stays in the ‘too-frightening’ box.

It was the experience of the emotional impact of the November briefing, and our reflections on it within CPA and ICRA, that made me so grateful for the volunteering work that my colleague Linda Aspey has been doing since last year with the NEB leadership team on the Westminster briefing and PEB screenings to build climate psychology into the offerings. Linda has also produced facilitator guidance materials and is running scores of free climate psychology and facilitation skills workshops so they can help audiences to absorb the facts emotionally as well as cognitively, and is training more CPA facilitators to deliver them. CPA is now an official partner with the NEB, and ICRA is part-funding the additional facilitators.

Last night I saw the film. It wasn’t even at a proper community screening - it was a private gathering of those planning to screen it, in my home county of Oxfordshire. The big room was full, and several people had been to Linda’s workshops and were talking about the value of looking after people’s emotional needs in their screenings. I felt the anxiety (and grief, and fear) all over again, but this time with a sense of the connection to others and emotionally-attuned momentum that we need.”

Read on for information on the new workshop, our new ICRA Community Calls, the Climate Courage Schools campaign and community news...

ICRA News

Community Calls

If you are engaged in or interested in inner work in response to the climate crisis or would like to learn more, we warmly invite you to join our upcoming Community Calls.

These are monthly online gatherings where you can:

- meet the ICRA team and each other

- explore together what this community of practice could look like

- share how you may be integrating inner work in a diversity of ways, and its significance in responding to the climate crisis and broader polycrisis.

Find out more and book your free place

Responding to the People’s Emergency Briefing documentary

The People’s Emergency Briefing documentary will be screened across the UK by volunteer facilitators to bring the information presented at the National Emergency Briefing at Westminster last year to people in communities across the UK.

This new workshop for those hosting the screenings covers the psychological context, a practical facilitation framework, and tools for handling difficult group moments.

✍️ To register for the workshop, first sign up to host a screening with the NEB, then book your place (multiple dates in April and May).

These workshops are designed by Linda Aspey of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and delivered by trained CPA members. CPA is a partner of ICRA (the Inner Climate Response Alliance) which is part-funding these workshops.

ICRA partner the (CMP) is also supporting the National Emergency Briefing and in this video talk about how they are mobilising communities around local adaptation - preparing neighbourhoods, schools, and families to depend on one another through an increasingly unstable world. In partnership with ICRA, the CMP also addresses the emotional toll of the climate crisis.

Help bring schools to the heart of community resilience

You might have come across the Climate Courage Schools campaign from the Climate Majority Project, which has been working with educators to help shift climate education into the useful, caring and potentially transformative support it could and should be.

In its next phase this vital campaign will aim to support all teaching staff across the UK with climate, nature and emotional resilience training so that they can teach climate truth with honesty and care. Climate Courage will be working in collaboration with ICRA and other key partners. You can donate to help make this happen - the crowdfunder closes on Sunday, April 19!

Community News

We’re delighted to share here a mix of events, workshops and other offerings - some from people already in the ICRA network, others from outside that we think you might be interested in. If you have something you’d like us to share with the community in next month’s newsletter, drop us a line at hello@innerclimateresponse.org.

Good Grief Festival

This festival will explore grief, resilience and hope with thoughtful, honest conversations about living with loss. Guests include leading grief experts Julia Samuel MBE and David Kessler, former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho OBE and resilience researcher Dr Lucy Hone. Online. Friday 17th to Sunday 19th April | Find out more.

Facing Fragility: Toward Building a Culture of Coliberation

An advanced anti-racism course for white-bodied folx, offered in seven sessions along the expanded, decolonized spiral of the Work That Reconnects. Designed to deepen emotional, somatic, cognitive, and social capacity, this course builds the tools needed to confront white supremacy and systems of oppression—while staying engaged without overwhelm, burnout, or shutdown. Online. New Cohort will start in April 2026 and run through October 2026 | Find out more.

People, Planet, Pop-Ups

The Resilience Project is hosting a free pop-up event every Saturday throughout May for young changemakers in London aged 18-28. These drop-in events have been designed for joy-loving, community-spirited young people who feel sad, tired, angry, or burned out about the state of the world. Every Saturday in May 2026, London | Find out more

Moth Festival of Ideas

The More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to the advancement of rights and well-being for humans, nonhumans, and the web of life that sustains us all. London, May 14-16th 2026 | Find out more.

Spiritual Ecology Festival at St Ethelburga’s

A three-day festival interweaving storytelling, peacebuilding and ecology. With talks, live music, storytelling, workshops, panel discussions, contemplative spaces and an overnight planting pilgrimage. London, Sat 13 Jun 2026 - Sun 14 Jun 2026 | Find out more.

Free training on developing trauma informed practice

Thrive LDN has partnered with Nicola Lester Psychological Trauma Consultancy to offer free, pre-recorded trauma-informed practice training to support individuals and organisations. Online. Self-paced course, start any time | Find out more

Embracing Grief

Embracing Grief support circles, taster events, community days and more from Sarah Pletts, Tony Pletts and others in collaboration with The Psychedelic Society and Embracing Grief. London and online. Various dates | Find out more

Leading through storms Climate Circles

Monthly, in-person gatherings “where we choose to lean in and stay, rather than look away. We believe that we need a community of supportive others and regular intentional practices in order to do this.” London and online. May 13, 2026 and monthly thereafter | Find out more

Support Space for Young Adults

CPA offers free, online spaces offer deep listening, warm care and resilience building for young adults aged 18-25 living in a time of crisis. Online. Next date 13 May, 2026| Find out more

We hope this newsletter has been useful - feel free to drop us a line to let us know what you’d like to see more (or less) of. And we look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming community calls.

Warm wishes, The ICRA team

innerclimateresponse.org

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The Inner Climate Response Alliance is a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.

The Inner Climate Response Alliance (ICRA) is an emerging UK-wide network and community of practice that exists to support, uplift and resource those doing the crucial work of holding spaces to process difficult truths, and connecting with honesty and care around the challenge of this historical moment. Our new monthly Community Calls are online gatherings - a space where you can meet the ICRA team and each other; where we can hear your thoughts about what a Community of Practice could look like, how you may be integrating inner work in a diversity of ways, and its significance in responding to the climate crisis and broader polycrisis we face.

If you’re curious but are not sure where you fit in, but are interested in finding out, you are welcome.

ICRA’s vision

There are countless practitioners and communities all over the UK doing some version of this work: coming together through making art or music, in faith practices or in a myriad of other ways - tending to the grief and heartbreak of these times, creating healing through healthy group processes and reciprocal relationships with the land.

ICRA offers infrastructure and support to these people and projects - we are holding a vision of interdependence and connection where everyone engaging in these practices can feel part of a wide and growing movement, where we can connect with and learn from each other, building capacities and facilities to show up in service to life across these islands.

What to expect at a Community Call

The calls will include

• Grounding and connecting exercises

• Break out rooms for small group connection and sharing of projects

• Harvesting sessions to share dreams and ideas around what the Community of Practice could be

• Time to ask questions and hear from the iCRA team.

They will be held by Hannah Leigh Mackie from Climate Psychology Alliance and Harrie Ayliffe from Climate Majority Project, two of the projects in the partnership.

Book your place

The dates and times for community calls (BST), including links for booking, are:

• Thurs 23rd April, 6-7.15pm

• Thurs 21st May, 1-2.15pm

• Thurs 25th June, 6-7.15 pm

• Thurs 23rd July, 1-2.15pm

Please click on the date to book your ticket (free). You are very welcome (and encouraged!) to join multiple calls as these are intended to be a regular drumbeat for us to build community together.

We look forward to seeing you there.

If you have any questions you can email hannah@climatepsychologyalliance.org or harriet@climatemajorityproject.org.uk

We heard back in January that people were nervous and worried about this report - the government itself had thought that it might lead to negative feelings among the public, and made the decision not to publish it. It came out after tenacious activists used Freedom of Information laws to force its publication.

It matters too that the people who wrote this report were not activists or climate scientists - as part of a national security assessment it was written by the joint intelligence committee behind MI5 and MI6. This matters not just because of the robust methodologies that they bring to work like this, but because their opinion holds more weight with governments. It is national security, and so actually the messenger becomes part of the message.

But as we know now that report missed much of the detail of the original. A new investigation by ITV News, led by the reporter Martin Stew, uncovered even more stark modelling. Language in the report includes the words ‘mass mortality events’ and it predicts huge shocks to the economic system, as well as increased nuclear tensions.

Just writing those words causes an emotional reaction in the author, and of course reading them or watching the ITV report is likely to lead people to feel a range of emotions and feelings that may feel deeply worrying or overwhelming.

We notice, in ourselves and in the people we work with, that news like this lands differently depending on whether you have somewhere to put it. We know that when something feels too big, responses can range from fear, anger, bleak vindication, or nothing at all. A numbness might arrive when something is too large to land.

All of that makes sense, and should feel normal.

But when those feelings go unprocessed - the overwhelm, the grief, the anger - something tends to happen. We end up being more prone to burnout, despair and even paralysis. Relationships and groups that get stuck or fracture. Not because people don’t care, but because caring without somewhere to put it has a cost.

This is why ICRA exists.

ICRA grew out of years of conversations with people practising inner work in response to the planetary crisis. What came up again and again was the distance between the number of people doing powerful, often underfunded work in this space, the many who could benefit from it, and the limited public awareness that such work even exists.

By inner work, we mean practices that help people to process and cope with feelings like overwhelm, fear, grief and anger in the face of climate and ecological breakdown. It helps us to be in healthier relationships with ourselves, with others, and with change and uncertainty in the world around us. Practised alone or in community, it might look like mindfulness or meditation, somatic or movement practice, grief tending, arts, nature connection, music, spiritual or faith practice, climate cafes, listening circles, work that reconnects. It goes beyond personal wellbeing and western psychology to include relational, interpersonal, social, spiritual and cultural dimensions.

Inner and relational work builds the capacity to stay present, take care of ourselves and others, navigate difference, build and repair trust, and make decisions to move forwards together even amongst uncertainty and volatility.

We’re a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.

We’re not building from the outside. We’re here to strengthen and grow with the communities already rooted in this work, and to help new connections emerge.

Since our last update in October, we’ve been mapping and connecting with community groups working on climate action and adaptation, understanding how they’re integrating inner work and what support they need. We’re preparing to run focus groups with both community groups and inner work practitioners, and continuing to build and map the practitioner network.

What keeps coming up is how many people are doing this work in relative isolation, without connection to others navigating the same territory. That’s exactly what we’re here to change.

We’ve also been busy establishing a Youth Forum as an intergenerational space where young people will shape the direction of building our network, ensuring that youth voices remain central to ICRA’s activities and community engagement.

If any of this resonates, there are a few ways you can help right now:

Do you know community groups who might need support integrating this inner dimension into their work? Are you an inner work practitioner, or do you know one? Are there gatherings, organisations or projects you think we should be connected to?

Reports like this ITV news one will keep coming out. Climate change is forcing us to have more and more difficult conversations, about coping, about adaptation and about risk. But you are not alone. There is somewhere for that caring to go.

We’d love to hear from you - comment or reply here, or email hello@innerclimateresponse.org

OTHER NEWS

We’re excited to share that Climate Youth Resilience (CYR), a project of one of our partner organisations, is opening a UK chapter of their Ambassadors for Inner-Led Change programme.

The UK cohort of this global programme is an ICRA project run by CYR and forms part of ICRA’s work of integrating emotional resilience into community climate action and adaptation.

So, if you’re a young person aged 18-35, interested in nourishing the inner worlds of young people and learning to embody leadership for a just future, while contributing to growing the UK youth climate movement… you are warmly invited to apply.

Apply by 25 March. Find out more.

If you’re outside the UK, applications for the global programme are also open at the same link.

We’re delighted to welcome the newest members of the ICRA team, who are welcoming connections on Linkedin if you see possible synergies. Here’s how they’ll be contributing to our mission of building a UK-wide network of community groups and practitioners integrating emotional resilience into climate action and adaptation:

YOUTH

Amber Amoo-Gottfried, CYR UK Regional Convenor, Ronke Ayoola, CYR UK Regional Convenor and Saleh Mohamed, CPA ICRA Youth Coordinator

Amber, Ronke and Saleh are supporting the development of our Youth Forum, fostering youth-centred collaborations and sharing learning across impact networks.

COMMUNITY

Harriet Ayliffe, CMP Inner Adaptation Community Lead and Hannah Leigh Mackie, CPA ICRA Community Resilience Coordinator

Harriet and Hannah are focussing on community engagement, stewarding community-informed strategy and integrating insights from these relationships into our evolving vision.

MEDIA AND ADMINISTRATION

Pamela Welsh, CMP Media Officer and Kam-Mei Chak, CPA Communications Coordinator

Pamela and Kam-Mei are building public awareness of the inner dimension of the climate crisis, through print and digital media to disseminate the concept of “inner climate response” and grow our community.

Katie Pitts, CPA Membership and Administration Coordinator

Katie is supporting the structure behind ICRA’s work, shaping and maintaining administrative systems.

Lastly, we’ve also been busy planning some more Community Calls - online gatherings to meet people who are already integrating inner work into climate action and resilience, or who want to. These calls will be about building community and connection, as well as hearing from you about the work you’re doing. More on this soon!

Warm wishes, The ICRA team

innerclimateresponse.org

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p.s. Has the way the information from the national security assessment reached the public affected you? We welcome your thoughts in the comments.

We are looking for a new Partnership Lead for the Inner Climate Response Alliance (ICRA) - a National Lottery-funded project addressing the emotional impact of the climate crisis.

We are looking for someone who deeply understands our mission, has strategic vision, and will be able to coordinate conversations and operations across the partnership (composed of The Mindfulness Initiative, Climate Psychology Alliance, and Climate Majority Project.)

The Partnership Lead will:
- Provide overall strategic, relational and operational stewardship for ICRA
- Hold the partnership’s purpose with clarity and care, balancing its commitments to both inner and outer work
- Nurture a healthy, reflective organisational culture while ensuring effective governance, financial sustainability, partnerships and delivery

Need to know:
👉 3 days a week at a salary of £26,880/year (£44,800 FTE) for up to 4.5 years
👉 Starting March 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.
👉 Applications due 11 February 2026.
👉 To apply, please read the applicant pack
and then complete our online application form, linked in the pack.

🙏 Please share widely with your communities.

Questions? Please email hello@innerclimateresponse.org

~With thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund.

We are looking for someone who deeply understands our mission, has strategic vision, and will be able to coordinate conversations and operations across the partnership (composed of The Mindfulness Initiative, Climate Psychology Alliance, and Climate Majority Project.)

The Partnership Lead will:
- Provide overall strategic, relational and operational stewardship for ICRA
- Hold the partnership’s purpose with clarity and care, balancing its commitments to both inner and outer work
- Nurture a healthy, reflective organisational culture while ensuring effective governance, financial sustainability, partnerships and delivery

Need to know:
👉 3 days a week at a salary of £26,880/year (£44,800 FTE) for up to 4.5 years
👉 Starting March 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.
👉 Applications due 11 February 2026.
👉 To apply, please read the applicant pack
and then complete our online application form, linked in the pack.

🙏 Please share widely with your communities.

Questions? Please email hello@innerclimateresponse.org

~With thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund.

Inner Climate Response Alliance youth coordinator (8 hours/week)
Are you a community facilitator or psychologist with knowledge of the intergenerational aspects of the climate crisis? Could you use your psychological knowledge and community experience to foster connection, support and understanding of the needs of young people among peers working with climate activists? Come and be the youth coordinator for the Inner Climate Response Alliance (ICRA).
More details of the role and how to apply here

Inner Climate Response Alliance community resilience coordinator (11 hours/week)
Are you a community facilitator looking to play your part in the collective response to our worsening climate crisis? Could you use your psychological knowledge and community experience to foster connection and support among peers working with climate activists? Do you have a deep understanding of the links between social justice and the climate crisis? Then please apply to be CPA’s ICRA community resilience coordinator!
More details of the role and how to apply

The appointees for these new posts will be employed by the Climate Psychology Alliance (one of the three ICRA partner organisations, along with the Mindfulness Initiative and the Climate Majority Project) and will play a central role in ICRA.

ICRA has been established in the recognition that:

• we need greater community cohesion to support adaptation as the climate crisis escalates;

• the emotional impact of engaging with the climate crisis results in barriers to climate action at individual, community and national levels; and

• many people attempting to support psychological or ‘inner work’ in their local

  communities feel unsupported and under-resourced.

By ‘inner work’ we mean a diverse range of approaches that support individuals, groups and communities to process the feelings and thoughts that come from engaging with the climate crisis, such that they can build stronger, more resilient relationships and better engage in action without becoming overwhelmed. We recognise that ‘inner work’ cannot be separated from the relational and socio-material contexts in which individuals and communities live.

The CPA is also recruiting for other roles - find out more about all the roles here.

Important information

• Closing date 31 October 2025.

• Interviews in November.

• All roles available immediately, for one year in the first instance with the possibility of renewal.

• These posts are remote but UK-based, and require the right to work in the UK. Please see individual application packs for details.

• We seek to acknowledge systemic oppression, challenge assumptions and support an inclusive and diverse community. We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are from marginalised groups

If you any of these roles appeal to you, we warmly welcome your application - and please do share further if you know anyone else you think would be a good fit.

If you have any questions, drop us a line.

With thanks and warm regards.

The ICRA Team

Thanks to National Lottery players, we are deeply grateful to have funding for this new project to support communities with the emotional impact of the climate crisis over the next five years.

This comes from the Climate Action Fund, a £100 million commitment over 10 years from The National Lottery Community Fund to support communities across the UK to take action on climate change and involve more people in climate action.

Thank you to all of you who got in touch via our contact form recently. Having received well over 300 responses in just a few months, it’s exciting to know that so many people are already engaged in this work and eager to deepen it further. We’d love to tell you more about our new beginnings as ICRA - who we are, what we’ve been working on, and where we’re headed.

Who we are

The Inner Climate Response Alliance (ICRA) is a new partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative , the Climate Psychology Alliance, and the Climate Majority Project. With support from the National Lottery Climate Action Fund, we are at an exciting early stage of shaping, planning and seeing what emerges from taking this initiative into the wider world.

Why we exist

ICRA grew out of years of conversations with people practising ‘inner work’ in response to the planetary crisis. What we heard again and again was the gap between the number of people doing powerful, often underfunded work in this space, the many who could benefit from it and the limited public awareness that such work even exists!

What do we mean by ‘inner work’? We understand it as the practice of deepening self-awareness by facing our feelings with compassion. Practiced alone or in community, it may take the form of mindfulness, spirituality, faith, being present in nature, art and more. It helps build emotional strength so we can act with clarity and connection even in difficult circumstances.

ICRA seeks to bridge the gap between the depth of this work and its current limited reach. Our goal is to create a community of practice that holds the inner dimension of the climate/meta crisis, building recognition, support, connection, and innovation across the field.

What we’ve been working on

Community is at the heart of ICRA. We’re not here to “build from the outside,” but to strengthen and grow with you, the communities already rooted in this work. We’re here to help new connections emerge and make inner work accessible to more people across the UK.

This summer, we’ve been deepening ICRA’s mission through conversations with some already immersed in this field. If you’d like to join these ongoing conversations, or know someone who should, do drop us a line.

We’ve also been busy preparing to recruit for some positions to support the project - keep an eye on social media for updates on that in early October.

Be part of ICRA

Here are a few ways you can get involved:

• Come along to an online community call - regular gatherings to connect, share, and learn together - details coming soon.

• Spread the word in your own networks so that people and communities already active in inner work and climate action across the UK can connect to this larger network.

• Engage with us online: Share one of our posts on Linkedin, Instagram or Bluesky, tagging contacts who may be interested.

Thank you for your support, we’re excited to grow this community with you.

Warm wishes

The ICRA team

innerclimateresponse.org

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p.s. Are you engaged with ‘inner work’ as a response to the climate/meta crisis - whatever that means for you? Tell us about it in the comments if you like :)

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