Finding the Pearl in the Grit of COVID-19: Understanding how mental health and well-being processes can hold during a long-term critical incident.

Introduction

As therapists we learn to managing our emotional responses to the tensions inherent in the anxieties of living in a fast-paced world. Still, for many of us, we can treat ourselves unkindly as we strive to balance the challenge of being effective in work, parenting, our studies, volunteering, and caring for others. Life through the prism of a pandemic is no usual anxiety. As the tension deepens between social-distancing and connection, survival and death, freedom and responsibility, and resilience and overwhelm, demand for therapy is increasing. Clients are seeking refuge from the ambiguous anxieties of the pandemic, and we are in high demand. Yet living in a pandemic is new to us too. So how do we manage all the usual anxieties of living within the challenging shadow of a pandemic, and stay a step ahead of our clients? This online workshop aims to explore how pandemics complicate our anxieties, allows space to share professional challenges with others, and offers a range of therapeutic responses designed to gently address these complications.

Course Content

The course will cover:

• Understand the impact of a pandemic on Mental Health and Well-being
• Gain insight in the covert processes of Anxiety.
• The psychological impact of social-distancing and movement restrictions
• Explore boundaries and self-care.
• Consider counselling as a cultural resource
• Gain from hearing and sharing lived professional experiences of working with clients during a pandemic.