Acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of the Everyday Earth Care program for supporting the mental well-being of adults experiencing ecological distress

Everyday Earth Care Program: The Everyday Earth Care program is a structured, self-guided, online psychoeducational intervention comprising five weekly modules over a 5-week period. Content is delivered via a combination of written psychoeducational materials, guided reflective exercises, and behavioural action tasks. The intervention draws on Tronto's (2013) stages of care and principles consistent with cognitive-behavioural and acceptance-based approaches (e.g., meaning-making, behavioural activation, reflective awareness), adapted for ecological distress. Participants are instructed to complete one module per week (approximately 20-30 minutes per module), in sequential order. Each module includes between-session activities requiring approximately 10–20 minutes per week. Program adherence is supported and monitored through the online learning platform (Gnomio LMS), which records module access, progression, and completion, as well as engagement with embedded activities where applicable. Module 1: Attentiveness (caring about). This session will focus on normalising ecological distress and reframing it as an appropriate response, which provides morally valuable information. Psychoeducation will be provided on the stages of care, relational values, and how these can support well-being. Activities will ask participants to reflect on times when elements of the natural environment felt like companions/significant presences in their lives. The between-session weekly task will involve observing their local environment and noticing a small ecological need. Module 2: Responsibility (Caring for): The focus of the session will be helping participants move from hypervigilant attentiveness to environmental degradation to intention for action. Psychoeducation will explain the dual role of nature engagement in the context of the climate crisis and normalise the experience of intensified environmental concern arising from focused engagement with it. Responsibility will be presented as a way of choosing how to respond to ecological needs that can support an emotional shift from overwhelm to a sense of agency. Participants will be invited to plan a small care action that responds to the ecological need identified in the previous module and to briefly identify the act's meaning/purpose. A safety and feasibility briefing will be provided, emphasising that actions should be small-scale, physically feasible, and avoid extreme weather, heavy tools, and chemicals. The between-session tasks will involve performing their chosen care activities and an optional journaling activity. Module 3: Competence (caregiving). This session will focus on the direct well-being benefits of performing the meaningful micro-care actions. The objective will be to enhance participants' embodied engagement in their care activities. Psychoeducation will be provided about the importance of agency and competence to psychological well-being through the concept of response-ability. Participants will be invited to reflect on any cognitive, emotional, or physical shifts they may have noticed in themselves while performing their micro-actions or as a result of doing them. Mixed feelings, ambivalence, and weather constraints will be normalised through an ethics-of-care and relational-values lens. The between-session tasks will involve completing the care-action and an optional journal reflection task: “What changed in me while I worked?” Module 4: Responsiveness (care receiving). This session will focus on observing the environment's response to the care actions. The aim of the session will be to support participants to convert the experience of “cannot unsee” environmental damage from rumination into attunement that facilitates learning. Psychoeducation will emphasise that care is not linear and care processes are rarely symmetrical, give-take arrangements. Rather, listening, learning, responding, and adapting are vital parts of the care practice. Participants will be invited to reflect on what responses they have noticed in their environment resulting from their care action. Reflection questions will include: what have you noticed? What has surprised you? And what needs adjusting? Observations of no change will be framed as important data that can be learned from and support responsiveness and flexibility. The between-session activity will include completing the micro-action (with adjustment if desired) and noticing one sign of change, such as improved soil moisture, new growth, changes in insect/animal behaviours or numbers. An additional optional activity this week would be a 2-minute count of animals, insects, and birds in the site of the micro-care action. Module 5: Solidarity (Caring with). The focus of this session will be planetary belonging and everyday ethics. The objectives will be to support participants’ sense of local and planetary belonging and to embed an ongoing rhythm of Earth-care into their everyday lives. Psychoeducation will cover everyday ethics, providing examples of sustainable care rhythms, as well as reciprocity of care and mutual flourishing. Participants will be invited to reflect on how they know they are part of an ecosystem and to think about ways they might extend their care actions into collective activities that could deepen their sense of belonging. The session will close by asking participants to reflect on something that felt like hope throughout the intervention. Embedded Process evaluation: An embedded process evaluation will be conducted to assess participant engagement, acceptability, and perceived impact of the intervention. This component will occur concurrently with and immediately following the intervention period. Platform analytics (e.g., module completion, time spent on modules) will be used to provide objective indicators of engagement. Further, reflective journal entries will be reviewed to assess engagement with between-session activities. Finally, participants will be invited to take part in optional semi-structured exit interviews (approximately 30–45 minutes) to explore their experiences in greater depth, including perceived benefits, challenges, and suggestions for refinement.