Poetry therapy and Eco-Anxiety – a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the possible role of Poetry Therapy in the treatment of a young adult with Eco-Anxiety. The subject is a 21-year-old male from Vienna, Austria, suffering from a severe form of Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Depression. Poetry Therapy with 10 sessions was conducted on a 14-day rotation in 2021, with each session lasting 90 min. Through Poetry Therapy, patients can better understand themselves and repressed psychological content, learn, and find new creative ways to cope with Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Depression, and focus on the anxiety antagonist Hope. The analysis shows that Poetry Therapy helps to view anxiety as an externalized object in a more detached way, to gain new insights into how to deal with it. Furthermore, the patients’ words, when read frequently, have a powerful effect on his psychological well-being. Poetry Therapy improved the patient’s quality of life and helped him to cope in everyday life again.

KEYWORDS:

• Eco-anxiety
• eco-depression
• poetry therapy
• coping
• creativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).