Trauma‐Informed Climate Education in Couple and Family Therapy Training and Supervision

ABSTRACT Climate change and environmental justice impact mental health directly and indirectly through exposure to traumatic events and subsequent traumatic stress symptoms. This is especially relevant for marginalised groups, who are disproportionately impacted by climate change and are more vulnerable to traumatic stress. We propose integrating discussion of the impact of climate change via systemic trauma education in couple and family therapy (CFT) training. The authors are based in the United States and Canada and specifically address programmes in this continent. However, readers elsewhere may still find our paper relevant. Exploring the connections between climate change, environmental justice and trauma, we identify moments for ‘when’ to teach about climate change and mental health in CFT training. Next, building on research from clinical fields, we propose utilising a trauma‐informed pedagogy for ‘how’ to have these discussions with care for trainee mental health. We propose embedding discussion about climate change within trauma education in CFT training so that future generations of systemic practitioners can grasp the relevance of climate in their clinical practice early in their development.