Elephants, Ecological Grief, and Art Therapy

Abstract

Climate change is a well-documented challenge for human societies where human actions have spurred global warming leading to climate breakdown. Ecological disasters are already affecting the mental health of many people, and this is escalating. By painting elephants, I address ambiguous loss and demonstrate the power of art therapy to inform grief work and ecological grief as humanity’s shared trauma. Seen through the lens of elephants, one realizes the many connections between elephant and human societies, including ancestral memories, experience of attachment and trauma, and capacities to heal. Maintaining a consistent art practice helps one make sense of the senseless and deal with grief as an act of resilience, self-and-planetary care, and ethics, thereby having implications for art therapists.

Keywords:

• Ambiguous loss
• climate crisis
• ecological grief
• elephants
• mental health

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge Madeline Miana for helping take some of the photographs that appear in this manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jayashree George

Jayashree George, DA, ATR-BC, LMFT, SEP, is Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in Edwardsville, IL.