I had my own path, and I knew what I wanted to achieve." He says, "I came into the field in an interdisciplinary way. Through those experiences, he learned about the issues and politics of conservation. He also worked as an environmental advocate for Greenpeace.
After college, he took off to the Pacific Northwest to work as a fisherman in Alaska, and then as a guide in wilderness therapy and whitewater rafting programs all over the West. He grew up in an urban environment in Buffalo, New York, but as an undergraduate English major at Columbia University in New York City, he loved reading adventure stories by writers like Jack London and Jack Kerouac. Working on the task force was a great learning experience, Doherty says, but his passion for nature has infused his entire adult life.
Doherty was the only clinically trained psychologist on the panel. We need to honor that," he says.Ī decade ago, Doherty, an APA Fellow and a past president of Division 34, served on the APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change, which explored human behavioral patterns that have created and exacerbated the problem, as well as its psychosocial impact. He believes it has profound healing powers, and he helps clients not only form a stronger bond with the natural world, but also work through anxiety they may have about the harm humans have done to it. Practicing with a specialty in "ecopsychology," which focuses on human interdependence with nature, he helps clients live well and responsibly in an anxious time.ĭoherty, who does counseling and psychotherapy in Portland, Oregon, has an abiding love of nature.
Clinical psychologist Thomas Doherty has coined a term - "climate hostages" - to describe people who feel the urgency of the climate change crisis but must cope with denial of the phenomenon among segments of the population.
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