About Leslie

 An Intersectional Orientation

Leslie Davenport brings the role of psychology into interdisciplinary efforts that advance creative and effective solutions for climate change. Leslie is a founding member of the Institute for Health & Healing, one of the nations’ first and largest hospital-based integrative medicine programs. Her 25 years of medical experience developing an empowering and collaborative approach to resolving crisis has informed her community-oriented climate psychology model.

Leslie’s interdisciplinary background inspires innovative approaches. San Francisco dance critic Allan Ulrich reviewed Leslie’s early career as a professional dancer, describing her as endowed with “A superior sense of balance…and powers of communication that set her apart from the herd.” As a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in practice for thirty years, she understands the widespread health and cultural impact of perceptions, thoughts and emotions.

Leslie’s years of clinical experience culminated in the publication of the books: Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change, Healing and Transformation through Self-Guided Imagery, and Transformative Imagery: Cultivating the Imagination for Healing, Change, and Growth (Ed.). She was also a reviewer with the American Psychological Association, EcoAmerica and Climate for Health to help shape the document: “Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance (2017).” She has contributed a chapter to Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators, Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown, Integrative Rehabilitation Practice, and an essay for Parker Palmer’s book, The Heart of Higher Education.  

Supporting and Empowering Kids and Youth

Her latest books support kids and youth with tools for navigating a warming world by blending climate science, emotional resiliency tools, and support for engagement with a social justice perspective. All the Feelings Under the Sun, and What To Do When Climate Change Scares You: A Kid’s Guide to Dealing with Climate Change Stress, are published through the American Psychological Association’s children’s book division, Magination Press.

Currently she serves in a climate psychology advisory role to Project InsideOut, One Resilient Earth, Climate Mental Health Network, and  the Post Carbon Institute. She has participated in interdisciplinary climate think tanks hosted by the Post Carbon Institute and Institute for Policy Studies.

Leslie has extensive teaching experience at universities including Mills College, University of San Francisco, California State University Hayward, Holy Names University, Five Branches University, and she served as core faculty with the Transpersonal Psychology Graduate Program at John F. Kennedy University. She is a frequent featured speaker on climate psychology at conferences.

Leslie currently divides her time between the Tacoma/Seattle and San Francisco Bay areas with offices in both locations. She is Program and Faculty Lead of the nation’s first Certificate Training in Climate Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.