Navigating Climate Emotions in K–12 Education: A Qualitative Study of School Counselors and Environmental Educators Supporting Youth Amid Ecological Distress

Climate change is a psychological challenge for children and adolescents, with youth reporting anxiety, grief, and helplessness in response to ecological uncertainty. Although schools represent a context wherein young people first encounter climate information and begin forming emotional responses, limited research has examined how school-based professionals support youth climate emotions or what their approaches might offer counselors. This constructivist qualitative study explored the experiences of school counselors and environmental educators supporting K–12 students’ climate emotions within U.S. contexts. Fourteen participants were purposely recruited and interviewed using a narrative inquiry approach; data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Grounded in Relational Cultural Theory (RCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), findings revealed two themes: a relational pull toward students’ emotional worlds, expressed through responsive attunement among school counselors and intentional pedagogical design among environmental educators, and a shared commitment to fostering agency through internal coping capacity and tangible action, respectively. Five interrelated forces shaped these themes: developmental prevalence, student ambivalence, role-boundary tensions, institutional school contexts, and political-social climates. Findings suggest that these relational and agentic practices offer a framework for counselors supporting youth navigating climate emotions and highlight collaboration between counseling and environmental education as an untapped resource for student well-being.