Elizabeth Kasujja, Executive Coach and CEO of Clear Yo Mind, promotes affordable access to mental healthcare in Kampala, Uganda. She will provide emotional care to participants during our upcoming Mending Earth learning journey.
In our interview, we discuss the weight of climate anxiety, how climate leaders can find strength in sensitivity, and how our relationships shape resilience.
Niels Devisscher: What does climate anxiety mean to you?
Elizabeth Kasujja: To me, climate anxiety feels like love with nowhere to go. When I sit with clients who are struggling with it, I see the same pattern over and over: they feel deeply, they care profoundly, and then they feel ashamed of their own sensitivity. But I think this anxiety is not a disorder to diagnose. I think that is the nervous system responding truthfully to a world that is genuinely uncertain and changing.
In my own life, I have felt that familiar weight of knowing too much and feeling too small to make a difference. The overwhelm that comes when you realize the scale of what we face. What I have learned, both personally and professionally, is that this anxiety holds wisdom. It tells us we are still connected to something larger than ourselves. It reminds us we have not become numb. I think it is also a reminder that no matter the state of the world, we can still act, create, and build community to achieve positive change.
Niels Devisscher: I’m curious about responses to climate anxiety that can truly shift the culture around mental health and climate change, which is often steeped in an individualized, reductionistic, and Western understanding of psychology and indicators of health and wellness. How can climate leaders address their own and others’ climate anxiety, without relegating it as a personal issue to be solved alone?
Elizabeth Kasujja: I think the first step is to move away from the idea that climate anxiety is an individual failing. We have been taught to pathologize normal responses to abnormal circumstances. Someone feels anxious about the future of their children on a warming planet, and we hand them a self-help book. Someone grieves the loss of forests and species, and we suggest mindfulness apps. I think that too often, people are told to self manage their distress, which isolates them further. I believe what we need is community care, peer groups, mental health circles, etc, where we listen to each other, validate each other’s fears, and remind each other that we do not carry this alone.
True healing usually happens in relationships. When I work with climate leaders, I encourage them to create what I call “brave spaces” where people can speak their fears without being immediately redirected to solutions. Sometimes we need to sit in the discomfort together before we can transform it.
Also, I have seen the great mindset shifts happen when leaders share their own struggles openly. When they normalize the very human experience of feeling small in the face of something so big. This creates permission for others to stop performing strength and start accessing their actual resilience.
Niels Devisscher: In this learning journey, we try to help participants imagine approaches to leadership different from the rather aggressive, masculine, externally-oriented, “move fast and break things” approach. Do you see new leadership styles being advocated by African women, and if so, what are their characteristics?
Elizabeth Kasujja: Yes, absolutely! I am inspired by how many African women are leading in the climate space. Generally speaking, in Africa, community leadership centers relationships over transaction, process over product, wisdom over speed, and I see that being applied on a global scale by the climate leaders. In Africa, we are more about circular leadership over hierarchical, and in most local communities you will find that there is an emphasis on listening before acting, building consensus, and holding space for many voices. The methods have their shortcomings but I think they will come in handy in a space where many of the leaders are hurting.
I think this leadership style holds complexity without rushing to false solutions. It understands that the same systems that harm the Earth also harm marginalized communities. It leads with a kind of fierce tenderness that Western leadership models often struggle to hold.
I see leaders who create space for grief and celebration to coexist. For example, when we lose a loved one, there is a great emphasis to celebrate their life amidst our mourning. African women climate leaders know that caring for their communities and caring for their own wellbeing are both super important work.
Niels Devisscher: What message do you have for young climate resilience leaders who may be experiencing difficult emotions and eco-anxiety?
Elizabeth Kasujja: Your feelings are valid. They are evidence of your humanity. I know how it feels to carry more than seems possible, to feel responsible for fixing what you did not break. I know the exhaustion that comes from caring this deeply in a world that often rewards numbness.
But you do not have to earn your right to rest. You do not have to prove your commitment through burnout. The Earth needs you whole, not depleted. The movement needs your unique gifts, but it also needs you to survive and thrive within it.
Find your people. The ones who understand why you cry when you see certain documentaries, why you feel angry at systems that prioritize profit over life, why you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what we face. These people exist, and they need you as much as you need them.
Your sensitivity is your superpower. The world needs people who feel deeply enough to act, who care enough to persist, who love enough to keep showing up even when the path forward is unclear.
It has taken me so long to learn how to do this, but at every moment of time, learn how to keep your nervous system regulated. Get support from a mental health professional whenever you can. All forms of your health are important, physical health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, etc. Allow yourself to be cared for, even as you care for our Earth! I am rooting for you!
If you want to learn more about Elizabeth Kasujja’s approach to mental health support and climate anxiety, join +200 fellow young climate leaders in our Mending Earth learning journey. Learn more and register here.
Elizabeth Kasujja is a certified Executive Coach and Mental Health CEO, from Kampala, Uganda. She focuses on helping young professionals thrive in the workplace while championing affordable access to mental healthcare using technology. Her start-up, Clear Yo Mind, directly connects people to the mental health professionals they need while reducing the stigma of mental healthcare. Kasujja is currently training to become a clinical psychologist at Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital. You can join the waitlist for her new book, The Psychology Behind Never Feeling Good Enough, here.