Episode 014 | Dr. Wendy Pentland: Coping with Climate Fear and Anxiety

In this episode I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Wendy Pentland, a personal coach, and a recently retired professor of occupational therapy at Queens University. 

I’d been thinking for some time that it would be worthwhile doing a podcast that explores the anxieties and fears that so many listeners are telling me they are experiencing around the emerging realities of Climate Change, and how they might better cope with them or channel them in a positive direction. 

Wendy has worked as a professional coach for more than 15 years, coaching over 500 people in all walks and spheres of life -  professionals, academics, executives, in the private sector, public sector, large organizations, small businesses, private practices, academia, healthcare and medicine. With all that experience, I thought Wendy would be the perfect person to help us explore our climate-change worries. 

Wendy’s coaching approach is grounded in the belief that people are motivated primarily by two desires: to fulfill their own potential and to make a meaningful contribution to the world; to make a difference. People frequently have difficulty fulfilling these desires because they govern themselves with beliefs and fictions that hold them back and blind them to what may be greater possibilities. 

I thought I would interview Wendy, but in the end, she interviewed me. It turned out to be the best approach. Instead of listening to Wendy and me talk in very general terms about how we might all deal with our common climate-change worries, you get to hear a world-class coach help me with my own personal climate-change worries.  So, I am standing in for you, the listener, because for coaching to work, it has to be very personal and specific.  However, I am pretty sure that everyone listening will find something they can apply to themselves from this interview on my fears and sadness about the state we are in.  As with all the interviews in the series, we end up agreeing on the importance of hope, even in the face of the wicked challenges now on our doorstep.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

You can find show notes at: http://bit.ly/Wendy-Pentland

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