I come across De Groene Kliniek (The Green Clinic) at a circular festival in the Kotterbos nature reserve close to Almere. Two women in white coats invite the audience into a green tent. A sign says the following: Here you can talk to a climate psychologist about your minor and major climate worries and emotions with respect to the climate crisis. Is anything bothering you? Or is nothing bothering you? Either way, a visit to our clinic is just the thing for you! Pick a climate affliction and take a seat in our waiting room.

This piques my curiosity, which only grows when I read the cards listing the climate afflictions. It’s difficult to make a choice between such afflictions as avocado shame, landscape pain and waste abhorrence. And come to think of it, I also suffer from climate ambivalence, fossil addiction and nature bereavement. De Groene Kliniek is a pop-up installation, a ‘safe space’, where you can get help for minor and major climate worries. As part of the intake process, you pick a climate affliction. You then have an emergency personal consult with a specialised psychologist. And an activist pharmacist increases your resilience with a tailormade medicine! 

Gouden Haas theatre company created De Groene Kliniek in collaboration with climate psychologists, climate coaches and activists of platforms such as klimaatpsychologie.com. A number of afflictions from De Groene Kliniek have now been included in the climate psychology toolkit. The installation can be found at symposiums, sustainability events, knowledge sessions and festivals. With it, Gouden Haas aims to create space for emotions with respect to the climate crisis.

I talked to Marieke Nooren, programme developer at this small, inventive organisation. She says: ‘Gouden Haas has several theatre productions to its name. We often combine these productions with podcasts, to keep the stories accessible afterwards (what a smart idea!). For a while now, we’ve concerned ourselves with climate psychology and the question of what these times are doing to us. One thing we’ve noticed is that this also calls for a reconsideration of our vocabulary. It’s easy to be moralistic about it, but that doesn’t work. This is how the climate cards for De Groene Kliniek came into being. We’ve described sixteen climate afflictions, which allow you to talk about the impact the climate crisis has on you. And you can also use the cards outside the installation. Some concepts have made their way into the public sphere, such as climate ambivalence. We usually work on commission, for instance from nature associations, petting zoos and festivals. Audiences sometimes struggle to take things seriously at first, but as soon as they recognise what we’re doing they start expressing their feelings with respect to the climate. Our audience is often already involved in the climate. Sometimes people are active in this area as professionals or volunteers, but they don’t really stop to think what the climate issues mean to them on a personal level. What we’re really saying, is ‘Take a step back and reflect on how you feel about it’. We need to acknowledge that the climate situation is really difficult right now, tell the story like it is and discuss what we can draw strength from.’ 

Gouden Haas also has a few podcast series that are definitely worth listening to:

• In the podcast series De Groene (afkick) Kliniek (The Green (rehab) Clinic | Dutch-language), you hear how the main character, Capiten, is treated for his addiction to oil and growth. You listen in on the conversations he has with the members of his treatment team, including Professor in Transition Management Jan Rotmans, conflict study and indigenous law expert Chautuileo Tranamil, critical future thinker Yannick Dujardin and sociologist Ruben Jacobs. 
• The podcast series Expeditie Uitsterven (Expedition Extinct | Dutch-language) focuses on animals, plants and insects that have gone extinct. 75% of insects have already disappeared and we’re about to lose the broadnosed pipefish and the yellowish-white bladderwort as well. Gouden Haas theatre company looks for new mourning rituals that may sensitise us to this irreversible loss of biodiversity. And that, hopefully, encourage us to take action to combat this trend. These podcasts are filled to the brim with information and considerations that make you think.

When I tell Marieke about the GeenComp competences, including in the area of ‘Envisioning sustainable futures’, she reacts sharply: ‘The climate problem is so big that I really struggle to think about this. It’s not like the future is wide open. When people think about it, they’re often either very afraid or overly positive. Sometimes it even seems as though it’s easier for us to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. And which and whose future are we talking about anyway? Instead of future thinking, I’d advocate transition thinking. How can we create a better Earth? Our new interactive performance is called Verander ons (Change us). In announcing this, we pose similar questions: ‘Hey you, time traveller, have you been on the road for a long time? Where is it leading you? Are your feet tired already, or do you have strong hooves to stand on? Gouden Haas takes you on a path to the future. Verander ons is an interactive journey through time, on the threshold between future and present. In what kind of world do you want to live? Let’s talk about what skills you need to this end.’ 

Gouden Haas is extremely creative in delivering the urgent climate message. The company uses various theatrical forms, really making its audience think in a fun yet poignant way. This audience is usually made up of people who are already sensitive to the climate, which means the story falls on fertile ground. Marieke: ‘Perhaps we’re preaching to the choir, but I think that’s allowed given the times we live in. We need to find and reinforce one another, and build hope and trust together.’