Therapy in a Burning World: Staying Present Amid Collapse

The world is burning.

Forests aflame.

Oceans rising.

Systems collapsing.

The nervous system trembles under the weight of it all.

Grief, rage, numbness—

sometimes all in the same breath.

How do we stay present amid collapse?

Climate Grief as Collective Body

What you feel is not only yours.

The earth herself is crying through you.

Your despair is evidence of connection.

Numbness is not apathy,

but the body’s attempt to protect itself

from too much.

We are porous.

We are in relationship with the world’s body.

Anchoring in Embodiment: Staying Present

In therapy, we learn to stay with sensation

without drowning in it.

A trembling hand placed on the heart.

A slow exhale into the ground.

A naming of what is unbearable,

so it does not have to be borne alone.

Presence does not mean ease.

It means we remain here—

awake, responsive, tender—

even as the world shifts.

Meaning in the Midst

Collapse strips away illusion.

It asks us:

What matters?

What will you tend?

What kind of ancestor will you be?

Through the body,

we root into what is sacred.

Through relationship,

we remember we are not alone.

Legacy

You do not have to carry the burning world by yourself.

You only have to breathe,

to tend,

to love what is before you.

This, too, is therapy:

learning to stay human

in a world on fire.