The COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone differently. Some cope with the loss of a job. Some risk their lives and care for the sick. And others think deeply about existential questions about mortality and the meaning of life.
The pandemic could also exacerbate underlying mental health problems for some clients, notes Robert Haynes, a member of the American Counseling Association. For example, clients who have already had depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder may experience a significant amount of anxiety and stress in addition to COVID-19. Those who face social injustice because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability could also be more affected, he adds.
"People will be everywhere in the spectrum of what they do, what they do and how they are affected," says Haynes. "Don't accept anything even if you've been working with a customer for a long time. This [pandemic] could be a big setback for them."
Many people have not previously addressed this level of stress, and some have newly discovered fears that can be distressing, says Shainna Ali, a licensed mental health advisor (LMHC) in Orlando, Florida. The pandemic could also uncover an unaddressed mental health problem that could benefit from counseling, she adds.
People's ability to deal with stressful events has been and is being tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, when mental health is at the forefront of public awareness, professional clinical advisors are in a prime position to help clients deal with uncertainty and loss, build resilience, adjust their coping strategies and self-care routines, and personalize themselves identify and strengthen community. And advisors can of course help their clients best by remembering to take care of themselves in this challenging time.
Dealing with Uncertainty
Uncertainty surrounds this global crisis. Nobody is quite sure what to expect or what the next day will bring. The uncertainty, fear, and unknownness of COVID-19 creates the perfect formula for fear, says Haynes, co-author of the recently published ACA book Coping Skills for a Stressful World: A workbook for consultants and clients with Michelle Muratori.
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A common answer to this uncertainty is trying to find control, says Ali. During this pandemic, Ali, the owner of Integrated Counseling Solutions, kept reminding his customers, “Manage what you can. Let go of what you can't. "Fixing on what you cannot control only ruminates, but focusing on what you can manage is one way to deal with a stressful situation," she says.
For example, an adult client might be worried about their parents and how well they isolate themselves during the pandemic. The client may want to visit his parents, but is also afraid to make them sick. Ali would advise this customer to find another way to check them (one that complies with the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), e.g. B. call or have a video chat.
"If we focus on what we can control, we can feel more grounded," said Muratori, senior counselor at the Center for Talented Youth and faculty member at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Consultants can help clients set small, achievable goals and take time to think about what they have accomplished each day. For example, customers can ask: "What can I do today to achieve my goals?"
People can also control the type and amount of information they consume. As Stephanie Dailey, assistant professor for advice at George Mason University, emphasizes, overexposure to the media increases people's distress, fear and unrest in disaster situations, regardless of whether or not they were involved in the crisis.
"Accurate and timely information is important," said Dailey, a licensed professional consultant in Virginia. "However, if a customer is constantly on social media and accessing sensational or incorrect information, it will undermine their mental health." She advises consultants to inquire how much access (or access) to information customers could have.
Dealing with Loss
Not every loss is obvious. A couple mourns the cancellation of their vacation plans. A high school graduate is upset because he and his friends cannot graduate. A young child misses her first Broadway show. The neighbors can no longer relax and celebrate the end of a working week by having dinner in their homes on Friday evening. Baseball fans complain that the start of the season has been postponed.
The loss is annoying because it highlights what we no longer have or what we could have had, explains Ali, a member of ACA. It helps clients better understand what they are really grieving and confirms their appropriate emotional responses to the loss, such as sadness, anger, and frustration. But it also helps customers to identify opportunities to experience gratitude even in the midst of losses.
For example, if a client is upset that they cannot marry as originally planned, Ali first assures the client that the feeling is fine. She can then ask the client to think about something for which he is grateful. The customer can answer: "I still have my partner."
Ali, author of the Self-Love Workbook and the blog A Modern Mentality (hosted by Psychology Today), finds gratitude particularly valuable at the moment because “it is really easy to be distracted from the negative at the moment . “Encouraging customers to be grateful and look for the positive should not undermine or minimize negative emotions, she claims. Rather, it keeps customers from thinking about the negative.
Ali could also ask the client angrily about his postponed wedding: "How can you still honor what you have?" This question would help the customer focus his energy back on what can be managed (e.g. revising his wedding plans or planning an appointment at home) instead of struggling with what is beyond his control they.
Building resilience
Haynes and Muratori say that resilience is one of the key components for dealing with stressful events. Some people mistakenly assume that resilience is innate, but it can be learned, claims Haynes, a clinical psychologist and producer of psychology video programs for Borderline Productions. "Resilience is more what you do than who you are," he explains. And like any other skill, it gets stronger with practice.
Counseling techniques that help clients connect with others, adapt their thinking and beliefs, become more optimistic and flexible, practice self-care, take care of the spiritual dimension of life, or promote self-compassion can increase resilience says Haynes.
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In coping skills for a stressful world, Haynes and Muratori share an exercise to strengthen customer resilience. Customers follow their reactions to stressful events for two weeks and ask themselves some questions: What did they feel and think about the situation? What measures have you taken to solve the crisis? How effective were these measures? What did you learn? The exercise encourages clients to consider their own strengths and how to deal with stressors. Customers find that they can use the same tools they already have in future crises, Haynes and Muratori explain. (Using exercises and activities outside of the session like this is a major focus of her workbook.)
Ali works with clients to create their own toolkits for general self-care and coping skills that can be helpful in difficult times. It is important that people establish a general self-care practice rather than waiting to focus on coping skills during a crisis, Ali notes. She says everyone's coping skills will be different during a stressful event, but she advises clients (and consultants) to break into their "emergency coping kit" and find activities that help them deal with stress.
Dailey, an ACA member who specializes in psychological disasters, finds ways to leverage their clients' strengths to promote resilience and coping. For example, if a customer likes art, Dailey may recommend painting or drawing as a possible coping tool. If a customer is a natural helper, Dailey can make him think about how he can help others during the COVID-19 crisis, e.g. B. make masks or volunteer virtually. Spiritual or religious practices also offer tremendous strength to some clients, she adds.
"Communities and individuals are inherently resilient," says Dailey, co-author of the 2014 article, "Shelter-in-Place and Mental Health: An Analog Study of Wellbeing and Need" for the Journal of Emergency Management. "Everyone has strengths, and this crisis can be an opportunity to find those strengths."
As Muratori, an ACA member emphasizes, learning coping skills and resilience is not just something that helps customers manage the current COVID-19 crisis. It will also prepare them for future major or minor crises.
Adaptation of coping and self-care strategies
"One of the skills to be resilient is also a certain flexibility," says Muratori. This is particularly relevant now because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to constantly postpone and reschedule their schedules while creating new routines.
It goes without saying for people who are in challenging times to engage in rigid thinking like "I can't stand this", says Muratori. She advises the advisors to remind clients that they can take this. they adapt and adapt.
Many of Ali's customers live on routine, but these routines have been repeatedly disrupted by physical detachment, quarantine, and gradual re-entry. Some of their customers were used to making a clear distinction between their private and work lives. The fact that they were forced to work from home presented them with new challenges to set and maintain boundaries.
Ali works with these clients to recognize their personal limits and establish a new routine for themselves. She encourages clients to use a semi-structured routine in which to set their day's intentions, but also remain flexible to cope with new circumstances as they arise.
Dailey also advises customers to keep a regular routine as much as possible. She encourages her to focus on the basics like waking up, showering, eating and going to bed at the usual times.
Ali says social connectivity remains an important coping strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Social distancing and social isolation are not the same thing," she emphasizes. Ali advises clients to think of creative ways to continue to meet their social needs. For example, if customers previously dealt with a stressful week of work by going out to dinner with friends, they could potentially host a virtual dinner party.
Likewise, customers may need to adjust their self-care systems now. After the initial definition of self-care, according to Ali, counselors can help clients develop self-care techniques that have worked for them in the past, and then examine how they can adapt these strategies (if necessary) to fit in a physical environment Distance or gradual reentry. For example, if a customer had previously dealt with stress by going to the gym, how could they still meet that need while the gyms were closed? Could you take a remote fitness course or run instead? (For more information, see Ali's ACA blog post, "Self-Care & Social Distancing: Helping Customers Adjust During COVID-19," at tinyurl.com/ACAMemberBlogAli.)
"All tools that support relaxation are currently very important," emphasizes Dailey. Mindfulness is an effective technique to help clients regulate their emotions by encouraging them to pause for a moment and let their bodies catch up with their brains. In turn, regulating emotions helps customers successfully treat their symptoms, focus on daily problem solving, and take care of physical needs such as eating, sleeping, and taking the right medication, says Dailey. Customers can write diaries, go for walks, spend time outdoors, play sports, meditate, do breathing exercises, or do grounding exercises to relieve their fear, she adds.
Consultants can also help make self-care fun. To encourage self-sufficiency, Ali encourages customers (and themselves) to combine different coping strategies. For example, a customer could broadcast a fitness class live with a friend, or a family could reflect on gratitude over dinner.
Coping as a community
Muratori says the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of common trauma – a traumatic event that directly, indirectly, or vicariously affects an entire community. The good news is that community members find ways to support each other.
In Dailey's community, neighbors stood on their verandas one night and clapped into the empty room to demonstrate their support for healthcare workers. They also placed stuffed bears with hearts on the chests in their windows to show their love for each other. Members of Haynes' neighborhood also put stuffed bears in their windows so that children could go “bear hunting”.
Consultants can encourage clients to look around their communities and notice these resilient actions, Dailey says.
Ali specializes in personalized psychological counseling, so her clients usually come to her to work on their individual concerns. But since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Ali has noticed that her clients are also more concerned about the mental health of those around them, including family members, friends, and neighbors.
Ali's customers share their coping skills with others. A customer noticed that a roommate was concerned and suggested that they dye together because the dyeing previously helped the customer deal with stress.
Some of Ali's other clients have modeled the coping and communication skills they learned while counseling their children at home. This includes using ego statements, taking breaks and practicing self-care.
Ali also found a way to use her expertise to serve her community. Ali noticed a pattern of increased stress among people in her life (including herself) due to the pandemic, but as a counselor, she also knew that the response was normal. However, she realized that others in her community may not understand the emotions they were experiencing or how to deal with the increased stress.
“This [pandemic] not only exacerbates the mental health problems of people who are in counseling. This also highlights mental health problems for people who are not in counseling, ”she says.
Of course, Ali could not advise her entire community, so she and two other LMHCs, Candice Conroy and Sanya Matani, offered a free virtual lesson to help people better understand and deal with the stress that might arise due to COVID -19. The three LMHCs made it clear that the lesson was not a substitute for advice and provided resources for people to seek professional help.
Coping as a consultant
Haynes and Muratori raise concerns about the level of stress that advisors may experience during the pandemic and even after the initial threat has subsided. "You need to take better care of yourself than ever before," said Haynes, author of Take Control of Life’s Crises Today! A practical guide.
Consultants need to apply the same coping strategies and tools to themselves that they give their clients, says Haynes. This includes sleeping properly, playing sports, connecting with others, taking breaks, processing their emotions, switching off the messages and going outside.
Ali admits that she has had the stress of dealing with her own fears and worries about the pandemic while maintaining her current number of cases. In the beginning, the pandemic was the main topic for all of her customers, but that is evolving, she says. After most of their clients have adjusted to a new routine, they again discuss their main concerns that originally brought them up for advice. Nevertheless, Ali believes it is important to quickly discuss with customers how to deal with the ongoing stress of COVID-19.
Self-care becomes even more important for consultants when all sessions deal with the same topic and give clinicians only a few breaks to break away from it, says Ali. She coped with her stress by writing diaries, doing yoga, dancing, walking with her dog, practicing mindfulness, reading, video chatting and training.
Consultants must remember that they are also affected (directly or indirectly) by this pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, most of Ali's clients used traditional counseling, but with physical distance rules in place, they are now primarily using telehealth health. Ali admits that it was a burden for her to stare at a screen for an extended period of time.
Taking breaks off the screen and using a semi-structured schedule for both her personal and work schedule were helpful coping strategies. When she feels particularly overwhelmed, she also practices "digital detox" by putting her digital devices away for a day and focusing on self-sufficiency to find her balance. When complete digital detoxification appears intimidating to advisers or customers, it encourages them to create small, manageable digital boundaries, such as: B. away from their devices for a few hours or set a timer to minimize the use of electronics.
Isolation can be another significant risk for consultants in private practice during the pandemic, Haynes emphasizes. He strongly advises advisors to visit colleagues for advice, support and monitoring during this stressful time.
Similar to how advisers advise their clients to look for individual and community strengths, clinicians can look for examples of client resilience, Dailey says. This can lead to proxy resilience, a concept developed by Pilar Hernandez-Wolfe, David Gangsei and David Engstrom, in which therapists experience their personal growth by observing and recognizing the growth of their clients.
Adaptation to a new normal
Even if the number of COVID-19 cases declines, life does not simply return to normal. The re-entry process will again disrupt people's routines, Haynes predicts. For this reason, he and Muratori advise the advisors to prepare to adopt a more forward-looking stance with some clients and to focus on their life skills as they move back to a “new normal”.
Consultants may need to provide clients with guidelines, instructions, or demonstrations, or they may need to model or teach clients new skills, Haynes and Muratori say. For example, some laid-off customers may need help applying for unemployment, finding a job, or applying for new jobs. Others may need instructions on how to get back to work safely for the first time in months, or how to physically interact with family, friends, and community members.
Consultants also need to help customers meet their expectations, Dailey says. For example, many customers may now dream of going back to work, but when this finally happens, they could very well get stuck in meetings again and wonder what their kids are doing at home. Likewise, parents who feel impatient when their children return to school may have forgotten what the old morning struggle was like to get everyone to school and work on time.
It will take some time to reset to something that is similar to the previously normal routine when canceling orders for staying at home. Dailey believes the adjustment will take place in phases. People who return to work will be an adjustment round. Then there will be another adjustment phase as schools try to reopen in the fall.
It is also important to note that customers do not simply "work normally" again, says Dailey. Even if they return to the same workplace and the same physical place of work, things promise differently according to COVID-19. These differences can cause some clients to feel relief while others experience a new round of fear and anxiety.
Dailey compares these adjustment phases with a flip book. Everyone has their own story about the pandemic, and each side of flipbook represents a new experience, a new adaptation. Consultants can help customers process and manage these adjustments by “leafing through” their stories, pausing at certain points, and evaluating how customers responded to and dealt with that part of their story. The tools that they deal with – making art, meditating, sewing, training – can be used again in the future if they adjust to a new phase, says Dailey.
The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to change the advisory field and the way professional advisors work with clients now and in the future, says Haynes. Since the turn of the century, the United States has experienced major crises such as September 11, major natural disasters, and the great recession, but, as Haynes emphasizes, there has been no global crisis like COVID-19. This experience could shift the focus more towards prevention and preparation (both for individuals and for systems at national level) to future crises, he says.
The adjustment to this new normal does not only have to be negative. Once we come back into society after the COVID-19 threat has subsided, we can celebrate the recovery of some of our old coping strategies and the acquisition or discovery of new strengths along the way.
Consultants are able to help clients gain perspective and self-confidence while coping with the stress and loss caused by the pandemic, Ali says. In order to support this process, she sometimes asks customers who have already adapted and successfully deal with this stress and loss: "What are you learning during this time?"
When Ali asked this question, he found that some of her clients now understand how the coping skills they had previously learned in counseling have helped them deal with this stressful moment in history.
How we deal with the stress factors of COVID-19 can tell us a lot about ourselves, says Ali. Although it may be uncomfortable, we can use these times as insights that will help us to adapt and manage stress factors in the future.
But now just take a deep breath.
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Lindsey Phillips is the author of Counseling Today and a UX content strategist. Contact them at [email protected] or through their website at lindseynphillips.com.
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It should not be assumed that opinions and statements in articles that appear on CT Online reflect the opinions of the publishers or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
