Hello, my name is Jane O’Rourke. I’m a Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapist, and a yoga and meditation teacher. Today we’re going to be doing a compassion exercise.
Showing compassion for others often comes a lot more easier than showing for ourselves. But research has shown that if we can show compassion for ourselves, our mental wellbeing can be really improved and we can also sustain higher levels of stress and anxiety if we’re showing ourselves compassion through times of difficulty.
So, finding a comfortable position to either sit in, perhaps feeling supported by a cushion or maybe you’d like to lie down. So whatever feels more comfortable for you, and just allowing yourself to feel more settled here, so just allowing your breath to move freely ant noticing any tension in your body, relaxing your shoulders, relaxing the face, softening the eyes. So you can either close your eyes of just lower them, whatever feels good, and allowing the earth to support you. Giving yourself permission to do nothing for the next few minutes.
So as the body settles, allow your mind to as well. And then bringing to mind somebody you know who is going through some difficulty at the moment, and visualising them and perhaps you’re standing near them and looking at them and taking them in and saying to them “may you be happy, may you be healthy, and may you live with ease and grace”.
And notice them looking back at you with gratitude and feeling your sincerity and your warmest wishes to them. And then visualising them, sending their compassionate wishes to you too, and them saying to you “may you be happy, may you be healthy and may you live with ease and grace”.
And then bringing to mind any other people that might have really been compassionate to you in your lifetime, or somebody that you consider to be a compassionate figure. It might be a religious figure; perhaps Gandhi, Jesus, Mohammed or Martin Luther King, perhaps Mandela, or it might be a pet, an animal who you know has been a trusted and kind animal in your life. So there might be one or two people now standing next to the person who you know you’ve given compassion to, so there’s a circle around you all wishing you well. And they’re saying to you and looking into your eyes, and saying to you “may you be healthy, may you be happy, and may you live with ease and grace”.
And taking in their good wishes and noticing how that feels. Sometime sit can be quite hard to accept compassion from other but noticing if there is a little bit of resistance there, and then sending out compassion to everyone else who you know needs it and perhaps everyone else in the world might need you compassion and good wishes, and saying to them “may you be happy, may you be healthy and may you live with ease and grace”.
And just allowing the breath to settle again, feeling the support of the ground around you, feeling the support of good wishes and compassion from so many others in the world, and your compassion and good wishes resonating throughout the world to anyone who needs it. And if you like it, you can remain here for as long as you like, allowing the breath to be steady and feeling some of the support from the ground, or whenever you’re ready, opening your eyes and coming back into the room in your own time.
Jane O’Rourke guides us through a compassion exercise for wellbeing and ease at times of difficulty. Jane is a Yoga and Meditation Teacher, and a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist with Children, Young People and Families. She teaches Yoga4Trauma within the Trauma Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #MoreFrantic #LessInterested #FeelingHopeless
Hello my name is Jane O’Rourke, I am a child, adolescent and family psychotherapist and a yoga and mindfulness teacher and today we are going to do a simple technique to help to embody the qualities of strength and courage.
So start by finding a sitting posture that feels comfortable for you, so it might be sitting on a chair, or you might find sitting on a cushion comfortable. The idea is that we start to embody the qualities of strength and courage. So first of all start by finding your sit bones, so you might need to take some of the flesh of the buttocks away a little bit, in order to find the bony bits to make contact with whatever you are sitting on. You might find that by finding that contact, it will start to help you give a really steady foundation to your posture.
So find your sitting bones on your cushion or on your chair and then start to rise out of that posture. So, you might find a little tilting forwards of the pelvis and so then your heart and chest can rise, and your shoulders can slide down the back and your neck is nice and long. So you’ve got a strong back and a soft open heart.
And then allow the eyes to close or just keeping them open a little, whatever feels most comfortable and start to do our internal weather check. So just noticing how you are feeling at this moment. So not pushing anything away, just allowing anything to arise, any feelings that you might be feeling, and just noticing these feelings perhaps as you would clouds passing by on a windy day, just coming and going.
And then start to give some attention to the breath and all the while allowing our spine to feel nice and strong, your neck nice and long.
And noting the breath now, and it might help you to focus the breath at the tip of the nose or perhaps in the chest or in the belly, so having a focus point. Noticing the rise of each breath and the fall of each breath, the texture of the breath at the tip of the nose, perhaps the warming of the breath on the out breath as it leaves the body.
And by embodying this strong posture and cultivating the qualities of strength and courage in your posture, it allows that feeling to become part of who you are in this moment. It’s not pushing anything away in terms of any difficulties or anxieties or worries, but allowing them to sit alongside the strength of the posture and the steadiness of the breath.
And every time your mind gets diverted as minds do, just gently bringing back the focus to the breath at the tip of your nose. Your spine rising tall, the chest is open and soft.
And you can stay here longer if you like or when you are ready very slowly coming back into the room in your own time and knowing this is a resource that you can come back to at any moment, sitting tall in your chair or on your cushion or in your seat when you want to embody the qualities of strength and courage.
Jane O’Rourke guides us through a simple technique to help to embody the qualities of strength and courage. Jane is a Yoga and Meditation Teacher, and a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist with Children, Young People and Families. She teaches Yoga4Trauma within the Trauma Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #MoreFrantic #LessInterested #FeelingHopeless #RelivingTrauma
My name is Jo Williams and I am the Delivery Lead for the Practice Supervisor Development Programme and a Senior Lecturer at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
This podcast draws on some recent reflections from conversations with co-facilitators on the Practice Supervisor Development Programme, about the impact for supervisors in social work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the emotional landscape of social work practice wasn’t hard enough… the coronavirus onset has certainly increased the probability of fear, anxiety, tears, frustration and emotional meltdowns for practitioners in recent weeks…
What we have noticed, is that thinking is much harder to do, perhaps because the realities of our situation are sometimes too unbearable to think about…it is difficult for many of us to compute what is happening…this is a new experience for which there is no internal working model – yet…
We have found that our regular conversations on Zoom…in spite of the paradoxical feelings of ‘disconnected connection’…have provided valuable ‘thinking space’ where perhaps the familiarity of our relationship has provided containment… sufficiently enough to ignite new thought.
We are hearing from practice supervisors across the country, that during the recent onset of lock-down in the UK, many are adopting the practice of ‘checking in’ with their teams at the beginning of the day and ‘checking out’ at the end of the day
…this emerging practice will no doubt be serving as an essential ‘thinking space’ for them too…where stories can be shared…feelings can be expressed…made sense of and attended to…perhaps modelling a process for social workers to emulate with the people they support…
…the notion of uncertainty can seduce us into feeling that we must ‘do’ something…a theme of our conversations was to notice in ourselves and others sense of urgency to do something…a sense of ‘panic working’…and maintaining the status quo…
…we wonder if these reactive and instinctive ‘doing’ responses are perhaps a desire to mitigate our unprecedented experiences …and navigate adapted professional working practices…
…what is required first though…is for us to attend to our feelings…or our ‘being,’…there is a need to ‘pause’…to take a moment…to stand still and notice what arises for us within the intensity of the unfamiliar circumstances being encountered by everyone…
…by doing this, we can start to think more effectively about the sort of actions that might be most useful… …‘Being’ before ‘doing’ enables social workers and supervisors to more holistically understand the lived experiences of the people we support…
At the moment, the uncertainty and disruption that everyone is living with is extreme and ongoing and most people find high levels of anxiety hard to manage….we are all faced with the challenge of navigating how to look after ourselves and others in the face of something which is far too big for us to make sense of…
… for all of us in the sector, if there was ever a time to put our relational skills, experience and knowledge into practice, it is now…
…when the world becomes unfamiliar, it is all the more important to remember what is familiar…this situation requires us to hold on to the ordinary, everyday practices and ways of relating that we can rely on…this is the consistency that the people we support need…and what we can provide…
It is important to remember…that…when we are perhaps experiencing hopelessness ourselves…small acts of kindness and thoughtfulness…which are all within our agency…offer some comfort amidst the vast unchartered territory we find ourselves in.
So whilst we seek ways to process our feelings…and ways to think…we can a find new ways of being and doing…we all have the beginnings of a story within us, yet to evolve…and these unlived stories can take form through learning new ways of becoming and creating new ways to live…and new ways to practice.
Jo Williams is a Practice Supervisor Development Programme, Delivery Lead and Senior Lecturer, Social Care Leadership and Management Portfolio at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She discusses the impact for supervisors in social work during the COVID-19 pandemic. To accompany this podcast we share Jo’s blog on the Chief Social Workers for Adults, Guidance for the Support and Wellbeing of the Adult Social Care Workforce by the Tavistock, and a blog by Jo, Jerri Damman and Gillian Ruch entitled ‘Feeling, thinking, being: A call to mindfulness in times of crisis.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #LessInterested
Hello, my name is Jane O’Rourke, I’m a child and adolescent psychotherapist and I am a yoga and mindfulness teacher and today we are going to do the Butterfly Calming Technique. It is really good for when you are feeling stressed or anxious, and very easy to do.
So first of all, start by finding a comfortable posture, so just noticing where you might need to release some tension, perhaps the shoulders, or maybe the area around the jaw, or maybe even the root of your tongue.
And then notice how you are feeling today, I call it an internal check-in. So just noticing what thoughts are arising…
And then we are going to start to allow the breath to steady us. I like to say that the breath is like our life long companion because it is with us from the moment we are born. So imagine now that the breath is tenderly breathing through you, each breath giving us new life and helping us to steady.
And then cross one arm over your chest and then the other arm, so that your palms are resting over your heart and the fingertips are rising up towards the collarbones and it is like you are caressing yourself as if you would a really good friend.
And then start to create the shape of a butterfly by interlocking your thumbs, so that the thumbs become like the body of a butterfly and the fingers are like butterfly’s wings and you can choose whether you keep your eyes open or gently start to rest them down.
And then very steadily start to move the hands one by one like the wings of a moving butterfly, so that the right hand taps down and then the left in a nice steady rhythm. Left hand, right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand, right hand.
Find your own rhythm that feels steadying and comforting and just keep rhythmically tapping in this way, almost like the pat of a hand on a new-born’s back. Nice, steady, comforting tapping. Like the gentle rhythm of a butterfly.
And continue to do this as if comforting and soothing a loved one, gently feeling the vibration on your heart… Each breath is slowly moving into your abdomen as it rises with each in breath and gently falls with each out breath. And then when you are ready just start to slow down the tapping so it just becomes a very very slow rhythmic motion.
And then gently placing your hands wherever they feel comfortable, maybe on your knees or thighs or just resting in your lap. Notice how you are feeling now.
If there are still feelings of anxiety or stressfulness then repeat this exercise again and know that it is something you can always resource back to, your breath is always your constant companion and just placing your hands over your heart is like a loving self-gesture of compassion and self-care.
Take a few more breaths here, feeling a steadiness in your posture, a rootedness, a groundedness. Allowing the breath to just breathe through you.
And then whenever you are ready gently opening the eyes and coming into the room in your own time.
Jane guides us through the Butterfly Calming Technique which is an easy and helpful technique to use when feeling stressed or anxious. Jane O’Rourke is a Yoga and Meditation Teacher, and a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist with Children, Young People and Families. She teaches Yoga4Trauma within the Trauma Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #MoreFrantic #LessInterested #FeelingHopeless
I have been hearing a lot about professionals in the public sector who are being redeployed and having to work in areas they do not normally deal with. With many people being exposed to things they had never been exposed to in their career before, like deprivation, death and like children at risk of harm. Even those who have not been redeployed are finding they are having to work in very different conditions, working outside of our normally tight guidance and governance rules. The phrase ‘We’re making it up as we go along’, comes up a lot, I’ve used it myself.
Many of us are working outside of our comfort zone. Delivering services without the right equipment, without the benefit of face to face contact, with fewer resources and less contact with the colleagues who usually brighten our day. Some of us perhaps do not have much choice about being on the frontline, about being exposed to risks that make us anxious. Many are doing this whilst worrying about colleagues, friends or family who may be at risk or unwell and bearing the financial pressures and other losses that lockdown has brought. Some are doing this without the benefit of someone to meet up with at the end of the day, without that reassuring hug, that offer of a cup of tea.
I wanted to talk a bit about what happens when we are pushed out of our comfort zone. In particular about what happens when we are exposed to distressing situations and pressures at work. I work in the Family Courts, and people often ask me how I cope with all of the upsetting things I see. To be honest how I respond usually depends on the day I’ve had. And this got me to thinking that the danger of giving messages to people about how to cope with difficult issues, is that it might give the idea that there is a right way to cope, that if you’re doing it right you should be coping, that coping means feeling fine and that somehow not feeling fine is not OK. What do we really mean by ‘coping’ anyway? How do I know if I am ‘coping well’ with something?
When I was thinking about this issue, I was reminded of a job interview, for my first job in safeguarding. I remembering being the waiting room, and the interviewer handed me a case study and left me to prepare. It was about an infant who had been severely injured. There was detailed description. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, my heart rate shot out of control, I thought I was going to be sick. Panic set in, the words on the page started to swim and I had the overwhelming impulse to leave. The over-riding thought in my mind was ‘I can’t do this’. In retrospect I think the only reason I stayed was that I couldn’t face that embarrassment of backing out at that point.
Ten years, and many, many sad and horrific stories later, whilst the stomach-punch panic response is not as strong, I have to be honest that the work still gets to me. In fact, I truly believe that to become immune to hearing about children being harmed, would be to lose my humanity. If I got to the point where I had no emotional response to such things, surely that would be a sign that I needed to leave. So how do I stay emotionally connected enough to stay compassionate without becoming overwhelmed by my emotions? As I say this, I notice, I’m back to this idea of a ‘right’ way of doing things.
I still think that we collectively carry a notion that we somehow can become ‘OK’ with pain, abuse, death and loss. And we do as human beings have a tremendous natural ability to heal from both physical and psychological wounds. But often part of that healing process is about recognising the wounds, and feeling the pain. Often our natural healing processes are disrupted by being in too big a hurry to ‘be OK’, or at least, look ‘OK’. I think it’s also important to remember that healing doesn’t necessarily equate to feeling no pain. Rather it often means learning to carry on living, alongside the pain.
The pressure to be ‘stronger’, to ‘cope better’ often triggers us into feeling even worse. I often hear people in therapy talking about how they feel others ‘cope better’, mistaking people’s outward calm as ‘better coping’. Very often these are the very same people who are hiding their emotions from others for fear they will be seen as being weak. Enter our old friends, the inner critic and, it’s close cousin, the guilt monster.
Many people have an inner critic, for some it’s just a nagging voice pointing out that the tablecloth isn’t straight enough, or that you really should have eaten that extra biscuit. For others, it is a relentless slave driver, beating the drum, constantly propelling you to work longer and harder, whilst always moving the finish line further and further away.
The inner critic generally feasts on our fear that we not good enough, and our guilt monster believes that our entitlement on this earth is really only measured in what we do for others. Doing things for others is a great thing, but feeding the endlessly hungry guilt monster is a one-way road to exhaustion. And, here’s the snag, because the inner critic and the guilt monster are driven by fundamental fears about our self-worth, the more we feed them, the hungrier they get.
When our self-critical inner voices take over, they often over-ride what your body is screaming out at you. These unforgiving voice will often tell you to carry on, be strong, don’t make excuses and never, never call in sick. And then you find that, despite feeling exhausted, when someone asks you to do that one more thing, you mouth is saying ‘yes’, even if your body is screaming ‘no’. In these moments we over-ride hunger, tiredness, pain and distress to our detriment. And that’s when we risk doing the real harm to ourselves. The paradox is that our belief that it’s better to be ‘strong’, is actually what risks making us sick.
However, the inner critic and the guilt monsters are wily creatures. Sometimes, I have actually found myself criticising myself for criticising myself. The issue is that when we try and battle with, or push these voices away, a bit like a wasp at a picnic, they kind of get more insistent. In reality, what we really need to do is let them be, but not take too much notice of them. Like a slightly irritating and judgemental relative at the dinner table. Hear what they have to say, perhaps even give a polite response, but then let it go.
Often, in the context of managing work stress, we hear a lot about self-care. Taking breaks, talking to colleagues, engaging in mindfulness, eating well and sleeping well. All of these things are immensely helpful in refuelling our tank. We know that working under stressful conditions has a cumulative impact on our bodies and we know these things are proven to be helpful. We are literally bombarded with advice on social media about being mindful, eating well and focusing on ourselves.
However, many people, me included, often find themselves ignoring that advice. Again, the self-critical and self-sacrificial parts of our minds tell us that that advice is for other people. That we are made of steel and we can, and therefore should, just keep going. Or, we really feel that we should follow the advice, but somehow don’t manage it, giving us another reason to beat ourselves with the criticism stick for not ‘taking care of ourselves better’.
I’m not knocking good advice. It’s really helpful. But at the same time, it’s important to recognise why we don’t always follow that advice, and how that then makes us feel.
An example of this is when people tell you ‘don’t take it home with you’. Now I absolutely believe we should try and keep good boundaries between work and home. But this instruction suggests that we have some kind of water tight airlock in our minds that we can activate at the end of the working day. Now some people are great at that, but not everyone, not always. And sometimes, no matter how hard you try to detach from work, an image, a feeling, a painful detail, will follow you home. This is another moment to go easy on yourself and recognise that this happens sometimes. That we shouldn’t feel bad about it. We should just feel human.
Often the feeling that follows us home, is a feeling that we didn’t do enough, a worry that the person we tried to help, is still in pain or at risk. It is really important to recognise that, however brilliant you are, there is a limit to what you can control. There is also a limit to how much you can do with the resources you have. The outcome of any situation is the result of many factors, not just how good a job we did.
When we work in high risk or high need situations, we can feel terribly responsible for things that simply aren’t our doing. And this can be more acute when we are faced with vulnerable and distressed people. I always to say to my teams, imagine you are in A&E responding to a train crash, absolutely try your best to help people, but always remember, you didn’t cause the crash and you cannot save everybody.
Strong emotion, particularly anxiety, triggers powerful impulses to act. When we see something terrible happen to someone else, a part of us says ‘that could you be you’, ‘that could be your child’, and activates our threat system. Our mind, detects the alarm and screams ‘do something’! The more frightening and shocking the situation, the more the force of our emotions can pull us into feeling we must act. But action is not always what is needed. Sometimes our compassion, our calm presence is more important than anything.
So when we get home, whether the stresses of the day have followed us home or not, it’s helpful to allow ourselves the space to feel what we feel. To let our inner critic chatter on like a radio in the background, without getting too involved. Whether we find ourselves using mindfulness, or crying, or binge watching box sets, or reorganising the fridge. To be aware that we all cope in our own ways, and the most unhelpful thing we can do is beat ourselves up for how we are coping.
Some days are awful, and leave us feeling terrible. But if we can accept that and be kind to ourselves about it, more often than not the feelings pass. Like a plane bumping through turbulence, it can be uncomfortable and scary, but rarely dangerous. You can’t control the turbulence, all you can do is keep flying through it. And know that it’s not necessarily about flying the plane better. You are already doing the best you can. And that is good enough.
And if the turbulence doesn’t pass. If you find that the awful feelings are still there the next morning, and the next and the next, if they are keeping you awake night after night, if your inner critic won’t leave you alone, if you feel numb and cannot connect with people and you feel like you are losing sight of the good in the world. Then yes, that is that time to seek more help. And again, another time to be kind to yourself, because if you feel this way it is not your fault or failing, what you’re dealing with is just too much. As professionals we are not immune to depression and anxiety but we can often expect ourselves to be. Again, accepting how you feel without judgement, frees you up to seek the help you need. Berating yourself for not coping better, will make things much, much harder.
I hope you find some of these thoughts helpful, but if you didn’t, or if you find you can’t sit with your feelings, or you can’t ignore your inner critic, or you do agree to that extra shift, please remember, that’s OK too.
Sheena Webb is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Service Manager and Joint Clinical Lead for the Family Drug and Alcohol Court Team, at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She speaks about what happens when we are pushed out of our comfort zone in response to distressing situations and pressures at work, and how to manage our inner critic.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #FeelingHopeless
I’m Robyn Vesey, Organisational Consultant at Tavistock Consulting, talking in this podcast about leadership and management in health and social care during the COVID-19 crisis.
Building on much of what has already been said in this series of excellent podcasts I want to highlight a few of the areas particularly relevant for leaders and managers, and for each area offer practical pointers for leaders and managers in their role.
First of all, we know this is an unprecedented, intense period of time, with a range – a kaleidoscope – of different feelings, particularly feelings of anxiety, grief, and helplessness. All of us are managing our personal feelings about our own family, friends and living situations, and many people’s work in health and social care has been hugely impacted. Redeployment into new roles or having new staff join a team, usual routines and expected career plans disrupted, not being able to support people in the usual way when working remotely, and – most painfully – witnessing the distress and suffering of people, whether in intensive care with pneumonia, grieving for a lost family member, or someone struggling with their mental health now that face to face services are on hold.
At a time of such real crisis, the role leaders and managers play in practically supporting their teams is paramount, and in this communication is key. Leaders need to be able to listen to staff concerns, especially where there are inevitable difficulties in the system and failures to provide what is needed, such as, in some trusts, PPE. Leaders need to be transparent about what is happening, why, what is being done to address the situation, and tell staff when they will next be updated. Responding to concerns, even when leaders are not able to provide the response they, and their staff wish, is crucial, so that staff can see what it is leaders and managers are doing to support them, and make some sense of the wider systems in place, as challenging as these may be.
Secondly, in this context of a global health crisis, the function of leaders and managers as emotional containers cannot be underestimated. Many leaders and managers know and understand this, and that it will be managing and holding a particularly intense emotional load at this time. Leaders and managers need to continue to be aware of this crucial role and keep in touch with whatever they need to enable them to feel contained and supported themselves.
In particular leaders and managers need to be present and responsive to staff’s emotions, model empathy and kindness, validate what staff communicate and listen to difficult things without becoming defensive or retaliatory. In doing so leaders and managers can create an environment where others feel safe to talk about the challenges and worries they are facing, so that staff teams feel more supported and connected to each other.
Leaders and managers need to give staff a message that their work – whatever it is – is valued, and to support staff in what they need in order to maintain relationships and feel connected. For example helping a member of staff to take part in a team meeting with their usual team, even if redeployed
And leaders and managers need to resist the urge to do, to rush, or to fix things out of anxiety, and instead seek the support that the time that is needed. For example, taking the time to think, talking something through with a colleague. Recognising one’s own limits in this way models self-care and means that better decisions are made.
Finally, leaders, like staff can recognise that they are operating in an imperfect system, and resist the pressure to be a heroic leader. One helpful idea, especially in the time of a global pandemic – is that of tolerating the contradictions, and dissonance that are thrown up in this situation.
Just because there is anxiety, loss and even overwhelming feelings, does not mean there isn’t effective and productive work. Every day people are carrying out important and valuable work across health and social care.
Just because there is conflict or anger doesn’t mean there isn’t collaboration and solidarity, with staff able to support and follow leaders and managers.
Just because there is helplessness and guilt about what cannot be achieved doesn’t mean there are no spaces where decisions and actions can helpfully be taken.
And just because leaders do not know what the next steps are, does not mean there cannot be trustworthy and competent leadership, responsive to the reality of the current context.
The more leaders and managers are able to bear the uncertainty and tolerate the contradictions, the better they and their teams will be able to work within the uncertainty and challenges of this crisis, with less need to take up unhelpful ways of functioning and so being able to continue to do their work effectively.
Robyn Vesey is an Organisational Consultant at Tavistock Consulting. In this podcast Robyn offers practical pointers for leaders and managers in their role during this challenging time, and how they can support their teams as well as themselves. To accompany this podcast we have added three resources; Managing Anxiety, Keeping a Gratitude Journal, and Coping With Nightmares And Sleep During Covid-19, we hope you find them useful.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #LessInterested
Hello my name is Jo O’Reilly. These are extraordinary times and our health services are under great strain. The wellbeing of an organisation is fundamental to the staff that work within it and to their ability to carry out their work. I’m going to be talking in this podcast about how all staff can contribute to supporting the mental health trust in a simpler way as possible during the coronavirus pandemic. In ordinary times, anxiety is managed and dilemmas are thought about in discussions with colleagues, supervision, meetings from clinical teams to trust board level. In a well-functioning organisation there is a hierarchical framework of activities, proving containment for anxiety in a multi layered way, which enables staff to perform their specific roles within their team. Support for the process of thinking is embedded within the fabric of the organisation, through these activities. These are extraordinary times however; COVID-19 brings a unique fear and level of threat related to survival. There is no blueprint to draw from; we are learning as we go along; there are few certainties.
The place of work and contact with our patients has become a potential source of danger. The ability of the mental health trust to manage anxiety has never been more important. So what can help the mental health trust to function in a healthier way as possible during the current crisis? I have 10 points to suggest.
Dr Jo O’Reilly is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Medical Psychotherapy at the Camden and Islington Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Service. She is also a member of the British Psychoanalytic Society. Jo talks here about the kinds of familiar and potentially unhelpful processes that get going in organisations at highly challenging times like these, with some suggestions about how we can try and respond from wherever we sit in the organisation. Her starting point is a mental health trust, but the difficulties are shared across working settings and being better prepared to manage them can make a big difference. To accompany this podcast we have added three resources; Using Controlled Breathing During Covid-19, Using Grounding Techniques During Covid-19 and Coping With Anger And Irritability During Covid-19, which we hope you will find useful.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #MoreFrantic #MoreIrritable
Hello, I’m Irene Henderson, Race Diversity Champion at the Tavistock. I just wanted to make a few brief observational comments about Coronavirus and race. It is really interesting to note how many people have very entrenched views around this pandemic, including how the virus came about and who is responsible, especially bearing in mind that so little is actually known about the virus, its actual origins and its eventual lasting legacy on us all as individuals, but also the wider society.
Who is this pandemic affecting the most?
The current ever changing statistics clearly suggest an increased prevalence of Coronavirus related deaths in the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community, with the Guardian Newspaper this week quoting “that people from minority groups appear to be over-represented among the coronavirus deaths, by as much as 27%” (Source: The Guardian 22nd April 2020, 8pm). A very worrying trend if accurate, with no obvious answers as to why the BAME community are so disproportionately affected in this way.
There are of course many possible reasons for the virus to be affecting these specific communities such as:
BAME people are heavily represented in most areas of public service and healthcare, so perhaps it is not so surprising when a health crisis hits, this community is firmly placed in the frontline.
It is encouraging however, to hear that the government is planning research in this area.
Has this pandemic increased the airing of racist views and how will this impact on healthcare staff?
I would argue that it has, as many healthcare workers are from minority Asian communities. It seems Coronavirus is the new Brexit, fear fuelling racism.
There have also been many recent reports of racist attacks on people who others assume to be Chinese and therefore ‘responsible for this pandemic’, including the widely reported attack on a young Singapore national on 24th February, who was physically attacked and beaten up by a group of men, on Oxford Street, Central London in broad day light. A very sad state of affairs. (Source: BBC and online 4 March 2020)
The media too must take care with its language when reporting on this crisis. More than ever, people need to remember how very powerful and potentially dangerous their words can be and that their words have the power to help or hinder.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) advised those in positions of power or influence, against using divisive or clumsy language especially when on the world stage, and still we have seen very derogatory difficult language used by some world leaders, which is extremely unhelpful and can set the tone to enable open racism.
When this language goes unchallenged at international level, it can filter down and set the scene for what is played out in our work places, on public transport, in shops and throughout the few remaining social interactions permitted.
So what can we do when we encounter racism?
I think the task remains the same – Don’t be silent – call it out. Record and report all incidents of racism wherever you encounter them. A brave but necessary path.
We can try and think about how we are treating other people. I noticed when I was catching the last rescue flight home from Spain in early March, how quickly things change. The usual local staff smiles enjoyed by holiday makers were replaced by hard stares as we became the potential carriers of a living viral infection, who were therefore no longer welcome. A natural but sad reaction – maybe in itself not obvious racism, but connected to the same roots that stem from fear.
Early years teachers are to be encouraged to teach children empathy for all, intended to reduce the growth of racist views – a big ask really considering children are only in school for a very short while, and most of their social conditioning will be done in the formative years at home. And in adult work settings too, showing and encouraging empathy can still educate.
Here at the Trust there are numerous ways you can register a concern around racism, including:
Out in the community, there are numerous resources available online including Citizens Advice and in extreme cases it is essential to report incidents of racism to the police.
Of course seeking information online has its own issues. During these unprecedented times social media has played an amazing role in enabling people to keep in touch with friends, family and the outside world generally. However, online anonymity can also enable a platform or dangerous tool for those previously without a voice, to get their hate fuelled speak publicised.
Try not to expose yourself to this and do not respond to trolls or negative comments.
It is important to check your posts before sharing – know who and what you are promoting.
The old adage remains, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!
The Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how much society depends on our healthcare system and those who provide it and this is an opportunity to ensure the services we have now recognised to be vital to the core of our society’s wellbeing, are well supported going forward.
I would also hope that the contributions of BAME citizens within the healthcare and public service sectors are acknowledged and reflected equally when covered in the media offering the nations’ thanks.
It is more than ok to be afraid, it is only natural for us to be afraid, but it is not ok for us to be racist! The virus does not discriminate and neither should we.
Thank you.
Irene Henderson is the Clinical Governance & Quality Manager and Race Diversity Champion at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Irene shares some observations about where race and racism seem to have featured in the unfolding story of COVID-19, and some ideas about what any of us, whether from a BAME background or not, can do to challenge assumptions and practices about race when we see them.
Hello, my name is Sally Higginbottom, I’m a GP at the James Wigg Practice in Camden. I was asked to put together a few thoughts about our emotional journey during this difficult time. I’ve been really struck by the strength of my own emotional reaction to the work we’re doing and the impact it’s having on us. It feels like the pace of change is just completely overwhelming. The way we work one day will be very different to the next day; an email you sent a week ago will no longer be in any way relevant because everything has changed; there are new IT systems at the rate of several a week; and the way we relate to our patients seems to be changing in front of our eyes.
In all that it feels I have been going through something of a grief process and it feels like that’s something that’s been happening to me individually and also through the system. It felt initially like there was a denial phase where it felt like we decided things were different in China, it couldn’t possibly happen here, we wouldn’t go into lockdown like Italy. Yet here we are with 20,000 people who have died in hospital and we estimate many, many more outside of hospital.
I feel I’ve been very unreasonably angry with family and with colleagues, because they are the only people I can get to talk to at the moment and because I’m angry with the situation. I feel very sad about what we’ve lost. It feels like some aspects of primary care are never going to go back to how we were, a sense that we would have face-to-face interactions as our primary means of work has probably gone forever and that feels like a huge loss to me and it feels now like I’m bargaining with family and with colleagues about how we go forward from here.
There are other feelings too. I feel guilty about not being closer to the frontline, whatever that might be, and being removed from my patients’ frontline because I’m not with them and I’m only communicating, or overwhelming communicating, over the phone or by video. I feel really disconnected from what’s going on in their lives and also concerned for my hospital colleagues. I feel a loss of identity really as a doctor, who am I if I’m not seeing patients? What do I do when I go to work and it’s just an endless telephone list? It feels very odd and I think there’s been a big challenge to our boundaries consulting from home as many of us have done, either intermittently or on the medium term, it’s very difficult, it makes it much more difficult to contain your emotions, contain patients emotions, without immediate access to our colleagues, and in your living space it’s very difficult to have some of these consultations.
We’re also not saints and I feel very uncomfortable about the applause on a Thursday night. It feels better now that it’s more widely focused at the whole range of keyworkers who are keeping the country going at this very odd time. I think I’m a professional who is paid to do a job, which I’m doing to the best of my ability, but I think the way the NHS is currently being seen, it’s like a pendulum has swung radically to a slightly deification, and I’m not sure that’s very helpful for the NHS. I think it’s possibly helpful for the country as it enables people to feel a bit safer if the NHS is omnipotent but I’m not sure it’s very helpful for us.
It’s really tricky, because the path forward isn’t clear and that makes us uncomfortable, and the number of unknowns across all of our personal and professional lives are now huge. We’ve all probably been through our diaries crossing things out over the next few months but we don’t know when that will stop, when do we start experiencing some things we would consider to be ‘normal’ in life? It feels much more unknown than I have ever experienced, I think that’s true for a lot of us.
I think it will be helpful to think about the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s hard when you can’t see exactly where that is, because we don’t know how long the tunnel is and we don’t know quite what the world is going to look like on the other side, but someone much wiser than me suggested that just because we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, doesn’t mean it’s not there, but just that perhaps it’s round a corner. And I wonder if that’s where we are, that we will come out the other side of this, it will be different, but we don’t quite know how and that does feel uncomfortable. I think it’s just best to say that it feels uncomfortable and then that perhaps will help us to get on with our day. Bye bye.
Dr Sally Higginbottom is a GP at the James Wigg Practice in Camden. She is also the Programme Director for the GP SPIN Scheme and a trainer and appraiser. Sally shares her thoughts about our emotional journey during this difficult time, from the perspective of General Practice.
Hello, my name is Jane O’Rourke, I’m a yoga and mindfulness teacher as well as a child, adolescent and family psychotherapist and today I am going to show you how to do a simple breathing exercise to calm your mind and body.
How we breathe has a big effect on our physical and mental health. Whatever we happen to be doing, our breath is automatically responding all the time. For example, if we are feeling quite rushed the breath quickens, and if we are feeling in a panic the breath shortens, and if we are feeling relaxed the breath lengthens. So whatever we do or feel, our breath is responding to it. I like to think of the breath as our constant companion on our life’s journey, and we can use this constant companion to help us change how we feel emotionally and physically by watching the breath as well as using techniques that have been developed over thousands of years in ancient wisdom traditions. So breathing well helps the body regenerate itself by receiving good amounts of oxygen, and it enables our mind to be calm and present. It also reduces the bodies stress chemical, cortisol.
So this breathing exercise I’m going to show you helps slow down the heartrate, which allows the body to begin to relax and release tension.
You can sit on the floor and perhaps use a cushion so you can sit nice and comfortably, or you can use a straight backed chair. Having a good posture is important to breathing well and this will allow the breath the flow really well, so sit tall and imagine a golden thread at the top of your head being gently tugged so your spine grows a little and the chest expands, or you can lie down on the floor and keep your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor so you can feel your back is nice and relaxed.
Now bring your attention to your shoulders and allow them to soften and relax, soften the jaw, soften the root of your tongue and allow your gaze to soften, or you can close your eyes. This technique is called Four Square Breathing or Box Breathing, it helps balance your nervous system and so helps us calm by breathing in and out in equal proportion. You breathe in fully for a count of four, you hold it for a count of four, then you breathe out fully for four seconds and also hold for four seconds again. I’ll show you now.
So on your next in breath, breath in for a count of 4… 4, 3, 2, 1, hold the breath: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing out: 4, 3, 2, 1, pausing: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing in: 4, 3, 2, 1, holding: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing out: 4, 3, 2, 1, pausing: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing in: 4, 3, 2, 1, holding: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing out: 4, 3, 2, 1, pausing: 4, 3, 2, 1.
We are about half way through.
Breathing in: 4, 3, 2, 1, holding: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing out: 4, 3, 2, 1, pausing: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing in: 4, 3, 2, 1, pausing: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing out: 4, 3, 2, 1, pausing: 4, 3, 2, 1.
Last time.
Breathing in: 4, 3, 2, 1, holding: 4, 3, 2, 1, breathing out: 4, 3, 2, 1, holding: 4, 3, 2, 1.
Now just allow the breath to just flow as it likes, not trying to change anything, and just noticing how you are feeling… and give yourself a few moments here if you like just to be able to relax, and give yourself some time just to be alongside yourself. Allowing the breath to just flow in and out. And then whenever you are ready coming back into the room in your own time.
Jane O’Rourke is a Yoga and Meditation Teacher, and a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist with Children, Young People and Families. She teaches Yoga4Trauma within the Trauma Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. How we breathe has a big impact on our mental and physical health. Jane guides us through a breathing exercise called the ‘box technique’ to calm the body and mind.
Wellbeing Quiz Profile: #MoreFrantic #FeelingHopeless
Podcasts are regular, short messages from wellbeing and mental health practitioners within this network. They will be directly responding to what we are hearing from you through both the Wellbeing Quiz and the ‘How Are You Today’ survey, as well as offering more specific presentations for targeted staff groups, for example social workers.
Once you have completed the Wellbeing Quiz, keep an eye on the hashtags underneath each of podcasts to help identify those which might be most helpful for you.
Keeping Well NCL is a wellbeing and mental health project that connects and supports the North Central London health and social care workforce during the Coronavirus outbreak.
