HONOURING ADRIAN TAIT

“It’s possible that if Adrian Tait, representing Climate Psychology Alliance - United Kingdom, had not reached out to some North Americans back in the Spring of 2017, CPA-NA may never have been born. Those North Americans were: Elizabeth Allured, Susan Bodnar, Renee Lertzman, Richard Pauli, Susan Spieler, Lise van Susteren, Benjamin White, and myself. Bonnie Bright joined the group a month later.

It’s likely that some other organization would have been birthed, given the rising consciousness in the last decade of the environmental crisis and its interface with psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and psychology, but, who knows how much later, and it was already late enough.

I felt it was time to honour Adrian and his instrumental role in helping to midwife our organization into the world. He worked for 26 years as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, teacher, and supervisor for the UK’s National Health Service, and in private practice. Adrian brought his lifelong interest in the more-than-human world to the co-founding, with Paul Hoggett, of the Climate Psychology Alliance - UK.

This founding process spanned 2009 -13. Adrian has written extensively for CPA- UK, including a monthly newsletter for several years, and also given many talks and interviews. He contributed a chapter on Climate Psychology for the book, “Deep Adaptation – Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos”, edited by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read (Polity 2021).

This brief review is but a glimpse of Adrian’s pioneering service to the field of climate psychology. No doubt other CPA-UK members, like Judith Anderson, were supportive to Adrian, though it was Adrian’s sensitive, respectful, and nuanced guidance, and many hours of meetings and emails, that was primary to inviting CPA-NA into being.

Lise and Renee, who were North American members of CPA-UK, and had preliminary discussions with Adrian about beginning a similar organization in North America, also deserve acknowledgement. My hope is that this honouring of our history will inform, arouse curiousity, and deepen our connection to origins and to CPA-UK.

To lend a flavour of that early midwifing, here’s an excerpt from one of Adrian’s first emails on March 30th, 2017:

‘Thank you all for agreeing to exchange e-mail addresses, contacting each other, and collaborating in the development of climate psychology in North America. The working name of the proposal is CPA-USA, although Anthony is in Canada, so it might need revision.

We in the UK group are also aware that names can arouse issues of professional definition and allegiance (we spent months agreeing to our own name!), but what I guess we can all readily agree upon is that alliances of trust and co-operation have never been more necessary in the face of escalating climate and ecological crisis, and unprecedented political adversity.

I, and other colleagues, will try to be of further help. And it’s a privilege to connect with you all. I have struggled a bit with this e-mail because I don’t know most of you, but my impression is that you are as diverse a group as we are in the UK. My experience is that this brings challenges, but great richness too.’

Thank you, Adrian, and those other members of CPA-UK, who supported the emergence of CPA-NA, now a burgeoning collective that is creatively engaged in The Great Work (Thomas Berry): the personal and psycho-social-political effort to reimagine lifeways that are guided by the principles of interbeing, humility, and gratitude.

We are deeply grateful.

Anthony Wilson

on behalf of Climate Psychology Alliance-North America”