From headlines to healing: A journalist’s second act

In her early 20s, Dr McLean was torn between pursuing a career in journalism or psychology.

“Journalism won out, mostly because the course was shorter,” she admits.

What followed was 15 years working as a print news journalist, covering everything from crime and politics to natural disasters and medical breakthroughs.

“It was fast-paced and fascinating, but eventually I reached a point where I didn’t just want to write about people’s experiences — I wanted to be part of helping them,” Dr McLean says.

This outlook change led her back to her original career decision. Instead of her three children being a barrier to her career change, they were her motivation.

“I also wanted to show my kids what it looks like to work hard for something meaningful, even if it means starting over.”

Dr McLean enrolled at Massey and graduated with a Master of Arts in psychology in 2022. She then received one of the coveted spots in the Doctor of Clinical Psychology programme. The programme is rigorous, requiring students to learn hands-on therapy skills, work in placements and complete an internship, all while writing a research-based thesis.

“The programme was demanding, especially in the final year — and juggling that with three tween/teen kids at home was no small feat. One thing that helped was making Sundays a non-negotiable study-free zone. That weekly reset made all the difference.”

Dr McLean’s thesis research examined the relationship between climate anxiety and pro-environmental behaviour. This topic paired well with her desire to contribute to the limited understanding of the psychological impacts of climate change. Her particular interest was how anxiety shows up in different ways, such as in social situations, around health, following trauma, or in panic or phobias.

To conduct her research, Dr McLean surveyed 700 adults in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand four times over five months to learn more about their climate anxiety and pro-environmental behaviours, and any connections between them.

The results were unexpected.

“We found that, surprisingly, there was no evidence that climate anxiety caused people to behave more sustainably, or that sustainable behaviour reduced anxiety. This challenges some common assumptions that anxiety leads to action, and that taking action will make you feel better.”

These results suggest that doing eco-friendly things might not actually ease climate anxiety. This gives clinicians a clearer picture of where to focus support, as climate action, while still hugely important for the environment, may not always be the most effective treatment for people feeling overwhelmed.

“It also became clear that while a lot of people talk about having climate anxiety, we still don’t really know exactly what that means or how it shows up. We need better definitions and clearer measures before we can say for sure how it affects people — and how it might influence behaviour in return.”

Dr McLean’s doctoral supervisor Associate Professor Matt Williams says the findings make a valuable contribution to knowledge about the psychology of climate change.

“It's often been claimed that anxiety about climate change can motivate people to engage in sustainable behaviour, and that engaging in sustainable behaviour can reduce climate change anxiety. But even though plenty of studies have found a correlation between these two things, almost none of the previous studies have had designs that allowed them to test for cause and effect,” Dr Williams explains.

“Tamara completed a preregistered longitudinal study with a large sample of participants and found no evidence that climate change anxiety affected sustainable behaviour, or vice versa. Her study makes a significant contribution to the literature by substantially improving upon the methods used in most prior studies.”

With her studies completed, Dr McLean is now working as a clinical psychologist in the public health system, supporting adults dealing with mental health challenges like anxiety, depression and trauma.

Like her recent study, she says it’s demanding work — but it’s also incredibly rewarding.