Much of Darcy’s work has focused on non-death loss and grief, as well as the social norms and messaging that shape our understanding of loss and how we respond to significant losses. Most recently, she has explored the concept of sociopolitical grief as an intersection of these two topics, identifying what political grief entails and its unique aspects. Environmental grief overlaps with political grief in that much of what is lost environmentally is due to the effects of human activity that is bolstered by social messaging and political laws, policies, and goals that have a direct negative impact on the Earth.

Caroline is an integrative psychosynthesis psychotherapist and lecturer at the University of Bath. Caroline’s work is centred on how to make sense of and talk about the mental health impacts of the climate and biodiversity crises that humanity is currently facing as emergent psychological stressors. How to pay attention to individual distress within an ecological frame that also recognises the generational differences as children and young people grow up in a world very different to that of their parents and grandparents. She is interested in exploring the question of how to face the difficult truths of the climate emergency, seeing it as an apocalyptic disaster or transformational moment in history?

As a nature guide and eco-health practitioner, Emily uses cross-sectoral approaches to rekindle our self-knowing as part of the living world. A founding Director of EcoWild, working in health, education, spiritual ecology and community engagement, she is a facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, on the steering group of the Nature and Health Practice Network and part of the Nature and Health Strategy Group for West of England Nature Partnership.

Caleb Parkin is a renowned eco-poet and educator whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Rialto, The Poetry Review, and he has also been featured as a guest poet on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please. He was Bristol City Poet 2020-22 and his debut collection, This Fruiting Body (Nine Arches), a collection of queer love songs for the earth, was longlisted for the Laurel Prize. Caleb is an experienced tutor, holding an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, and is currently a practice-based PhD researcher at the University of Exeter as part of the RENEW Biodiversity project. His forthcoming collection, Mingle, delves into our complex relationships with the natural world, highlighting both the unsettling and unruly aspects of our environment and ourselves. You might even hear a sneak peak of this during the panel.