Ask a Climate Therapist: How do I avoid getting trapped in the system I hope to change?

Dear Leslie,

I work as a civil engineer, and I want to change the way roadway projects are seen, from constant expansion to holistic community-led improvement — but I feel like I don’t have enough traction as an entry-level employee. I am scared I will get sucked into the system as it is now and never effect the change I envision. How do I make sure I don’t fall into this trap? 

— A Worried Engineer

Dear Worried Engineer,

While it might not feel like it, your concern is an asset: It signals that you’re aware of how systems suppress creativity and reward business as usual. You’re right that as an entry-level worker, you may need to take the long view and build credibility before you can shift your organization’s culture and policies. This approach is called strategic patience — an intentional practice you draw on while you’re working toward values-based change. (It’s completely different from capitulation, which involves rationalizing a particular story so you can feel OK about your workplace or industry as it is.) 

Think of this as a time for reconnaissance and field research on your part. Keep your eyes wide open to the specific challenges you think your organization needs to overcome in order to adopt the more holistic, community-based approach that you want to see in action — and write about it, to help keep yourself on track and hone your ideas about how to transform some of the established practices in your field. 

Ask a Climate Therapist tackles your questions about how to navigate the emotional side of climate change, with leading climate-aware therapist Leslie Davenport. Have a question? Ask it here!

The “trap” that you want to avoid also has a name: bureaucratic absorption, the gradual process by which people who enter systems intending to change them are instead changed by them. So, how can you avoid falling into that? 

Most climate psychology tools focus on increasing the resilience of our emotions, thoughts, and nervous system. That will always be foundational, but it’s not enough here. Because bureaucratic absorption works by dulling creativity, part of how you resist its pull is by intentionally cultivating creativity.  

For you as an engineer, this might look like reconnecting with the original impulse and innate skills that drew you to this work: your problem-solving imagination, your ability to plan forward, and your ideas about what a road can do for a community rather than to it. 

And keep your creativity growing by deliberately engaging with fields outside your own — art, history, fiction — to keep your imagination from narrowing into only what’s technically feasible under today’s constraints. 

You might also try building a “what if” habit: a small, regular practice of asking speculative questions with no immediate utility, almost like calisthenics for the creative mind.

Finding or creating a community of like-minded people inside or outside the workplace is also one of the most robust psychological strategies for keeping your values front and center. That could include joining climate-aware professional networks, seeking out mentors who’ve navigated similar frustrations, or forging a friendship with one or more trusted colleagues. This is exactly how social change has always occurred: by people who kept each other honest and imaginative.

Finally, don’t forget that your workplace exists within a changing world. Community-oriented approaches are gaining ground in urban planning, policy, and climate adaptation, which means that the window for this kind of creative thinking may be opening rather than closing. Keep an eye out for stories that inspire you — and ones you could share with leaders at your organization — that model the kind of work you want to do.

In this with you, 
Leslie

I’m Leslie Davenport, a licensed therapist, educator, speaker, consultant, and internationally recognized voice on the emotional and psychological dimensions of climate change. If you’ve got a question about climate and mental health, please consider submitting it for a future column.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Ask a Climate Therapist: How do I avoid getting trapped in the system I hope to change? on Jun 26, 2026.