As more studies highlight the unconscious dynamics of environmental education it is important to understand how those dynamics impact the educators themselves so that we may better train educators and improve the efficacy of their work. Using a psychosocial and psychoanalytic methodology I explored the unconscious emotional lives of six environmental educators. The educators first participated in a professional development workshop and then in three in-depth interviews using the Dialogic, Relational Interview method. Data was analyzed using holistic analysis. The educators' employed a variety of conscious and unconscious protective measures to manage feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, fear, doubt, and grief over loss. The educators were largely unaware of the extent to which they employed protective measures and expressed an overall discomfort with exploring the painful aspects of their work. This study is a first step in understanding how educators' unconscious emotional experiences impact how they interact with their audiences.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore if there are emotional dilemmas in environmentally aware individuals, stemming from conflicts, resulting in their environmental personal transportation behaviour. This study uses the dialogic, relational interview method to explore possible conflicts in participants' personal transportation choices. The analysis seems to indicate that there is an apparent emotional tangle in individuals when confronted with possible double binds that put their environmental beliefs in conflict with other important aspects in their lives. The personal dilemmas they feel revolve around social pressures and their personal identities and leave them feeling conflicting emotions and strong amounts of guilt. The findings show the importance of reframing pro-environmental activities in ways that help negate the secondary injunctions that may people feel.