Climate disasters aren’t just flooding our homes and burning through Canada’s forests; they’re fuelling a massive new mental-health crisis. Eco-anxiety, the chronic worry or overwhelm about the future of the planet, is a phenomenon that’s becoming impossible to ignore in this country. Nearly one million Canadians now experience climate stress so severe it disrupts their sleep, concentration and overall day-to-day functioning. At Cherry Tree Counselling in Dundas, Ontario, I treat people with severe anxiety and depression. The number of referrals we’ve received specifically for climate anxiety has surged in the last three years.

My climate specialization is rooted partly in training and partly in identity. I’m a member of Nipissing First Nation, located west of North Bay. In my culture, land, plants and animals aren’t viewed as resources or scenery—they’re nations we live alongside. When the Earth is in distress, the people connected to it are in distress too. I regularly sit across from clients who are so afraid for their children’s future, or so overwhelmed by images of flooded neighbourhoods, that they struggle with meeting their daily needs, like eating and sleeping. Many of them have had to take leave from their........

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