On March 11, I will be speaking to the professional community of The East Side Council of the Aging (ESCOTA), a voluntary not-for-profit interagency interdisciplinary organization for professionals in the field of aging. ESCOTA brings together skilled practitioners from the public and private sectors. Among them are representatives of community, health, religious, and social service organizations, as well as other advocates for the elderly who offer diverse assistance to older people living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Their website is https://escota.wildapricot.org/.
My presentation is entitled ”COVID, Trauma and Building Resilience a Year Later”, and will focus on enhancing resilience in ourselves and in our clients during these challenging times. We are living through an unprecedented time of an international pandemic, a collective trauma of a kind the world has not experienced in recent memory. The situation represents also an individual trauma, and each of us is responding differently to their particular circumstances, fears and concerns. We and our clients are separated from loved ones, and prevented from participating in the social gatherings and activities that normally sustain us. Some of us have lost a loved one during this time, and have been unable to attend their burial or rituals that support the grieving family. Some of us are more exposed to risk than others, if our work requires direct client contact.
In addition, the recent months have also been a time of tremendous social and political upheaval. All of these coalescing crises have potentially increased stress and anxiety as, adding to the fear of contracting the coronavirus, there are feelings of uncertainty and trepidation about how it will all impact us personally, nationally and globally, economically and socially. We are all in this together, and my presentation will address how to enhance resilience among our clients and among ourselves. Sharing lessons from research about trauma and resilience, as well as from positive psychology, my presentation will offer pragmatic tools to help manage anxiety and increase our own adaptive functioning, so we can do our best to help our clients.
Attendance at the presentation is free, but pre-registration is required. More information about the presentation, including how to register, can be found by clicking on the image below.
Irit Felsen
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