Active Hope: A qualitative evaluation

Climate change impacts mental health through exposure to traumatic weather-related events such as heatwaves, bushfires, and flooding; degradation of social, political, and economic determinants of health; and through the awareness of the climate and ecological crisis. It has been argued that it may be appropriate to conceptualize the combination of difficult emotions associated with awareness of the planetary crisis such as anger, guilt, fear, and sadness as “eco-distress". This study qualitatively examined emotions experienced in relation to climate change as well as an intervention designed to support coping with it called Active Hope.

Active Hope was developed by Macy and Johnstone and is a form of group work designed to help people build resilience and cope with ecological destruction and climate change. The method has its roots in systems theory, Buddhist philosophy, and deep ecology. It involves searching for and experiencing gratitude; naming and experiencing one’s negative emotions associated with climate and ecological change, finding new perspectives, and empowering action towards what one hopes for.



This study explored participants’ subjective experiences of Active Hope workshops. It aimed to uncover people’s experiences of climate change, the feelings associated with it, how they cope with these feelings, and subjective perception of how Active Hope has affected these feelings and coping strategies.