We are currently living and working through a pandemic and this is impacting individuals in different ways. Some individuals are isolated and feeling lonely, others feel they have no space and have to juggle many family responsibilities. It is important as managers that we spend some time getting to know each of our staffs’ individual circumstances through this unprecedented time. During the pandemic everyone’s stress levels are heightened as we navigate uncertainty, we become disconnected from family and friends, and we have less access to many of our usual coping strategies.
Themes we have noticed from supporting staff over the last few months include, online fatigue, reduction in motivation and feeling disconnected and lonely. At FD Consultants we have been supporting organisations for several years and at this time of the year, we have noticed an increase in mental health struggles. We support the Samaritans and are aware that the numbers of suicides can increase during the December and January months. This year FD Consultants have seen an increase in the demand for regular supervision sessions for staff, to enable staff to focus on their wellbeing and remain resilient through this challenging time. We have been offering more individual mental health management coaching session to offer guidance to manager’s when supporting staff with mental health needs. Our ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ and ‘Trauma Awareness’ workshops have also been in great demand, as well as our ‘Psychological First Aid Peer Support Training’. Some organisations have been completing wellbeing plans with their staff, specifically during the Coronavirus period. We are aware of many versions of this plan and a great deal of inconsistency in how they are delivered to staff. We therefore decided to develop a simple ‘Wellness Action Plan’ for staff to complete and discuss further with their managers. We have been sharing this with our client organisations and we are happy to share it in this blog today. Some organisations complete this ‘Wellbeing Action Plan’ with all new staff, and it is reviewed every six months. Other organisations refer to the plan when a member of staff is in a mental health crisis. I would suggest completing this plan with all staff during this pandemic as we are all experiencing a crisis in one way or another and reviewing the plan every six months. The Wellness Action Plan is a useful tool to help identify what impacts our mental health and what keeps us resilient. It enables conversations to take place about mental health and challenge stigma in the workplace. Wishing you wellness and comfort throughout December. Best wishes, Fiona For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly.
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As human beings we do not like to feel things are out of our control. We like to feel prepared and make plans for the future. When we can’t do this, due to living and working through a crisis such as Covid-19, we may start to feel out of control, stressed, anxious or depressed. At FD Consultants we facilitate our trademark ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ half day workshop, where we refer to the ‘Locus of Control’ model; exploring ‘what do we have control over, and what do we not have control over’? We are forced to reduce our expectations and focus on the smaller achievements when living and working through a crisis. We need to learn ways to accept the things that we cannot control and invest our energy in the things that we can control. The three main characteristics of remaining resilient are; adaptability, finding meaning in adversity, and an acceptance of reality. The human race has shown how adaptable and creative it can be throughout this global pandemic; we have found ways to stay connected and create community remotely, we have improvised and adapted to new ways of working, and we have deeply appreciated our ‘key workers’ and all those that have shown ‘audacity’ and ‘kindness’ through these unprecedented times.
At FD Consultants we psychologically protect our ‘key workers’ and all the organisations that are on the frontline, often having to put themselves in harm’s way to support others. We have supported staff in the NHS, the humanitarian sector, emergency first responders, and mental health charities, who are at risk of experiencing burnout or trauma. We also support the staff that can be overlooked during a crisis, such as journalists, artificial intelligence and film industry personnel, researchers and data analysts reviewing traumatic material online, and fundraisers, who are all equally at risk of experiencing secondary trauma, often referred to as vicarious trauma. Our ‘Trauma and Vicarious Trauma Awareness’ workshop is currently in great demand, as organisations are becoming much more aware of this psychological health risk to staff. This was highlighted recently by a case made against Facebook, where staff sued the organisation for suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for being exposed to traumatic material via social media. At FD Consultants we support organisations managing critical incidents such as, pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, bullying & harassment, sexual violence, mental health crises, terrorist attacks and kidnapping & hostage taking. We have offered consultancy to organisations, when managing organisational change, with policy and procedure reviews, improving equal access to psychological services for all staff, researching mental health crisis pathways and investigating critical incident response. When FD Consultants are informed of a critical incident, information is presented to us in anxiety-fuelled chaotic chunks. We need to place all the pieces of the puzzle together to enable us to see the bigger picture. Depending on the nature of the incident this process can take hours, or even days, before we receive all the relevant information needed. We are skilled at transforming chaos into productive and supportive measures to protect individuals and the organisation. We are specialist in trauma care and understand the importance of the initial first stages of support and how crucial this is in someone’s recovery process. We advise and guide organisations in best practice psychological care for staff. Having worked in trauma for over 15 years, I believe that everyone can recover from traumatic events. I hold onto the light of hope when the individual may feel they are lost in the darkness. There is a wealth of research about ‘Post traumatic Growth’. I have seen this occur over and over again, working alongside individuals that have come through the most horrendous and painful experiences, whom become more resilient and use their experiences to help others. My own story is one of post traumatic growth, having come from experiencing developmental trauma in my childhood and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in my early twenties, to one of setting up FD Consultants a network of trauma specialist therapists wanting to support and help individuals and organisations that are impacted by traumatic events. I wanted to end by sharing some of the achievements FD Consultants has experienced over the last year. Our own story of Post Traumatic Growth and how we have grown and developed through this pandemic.
During a crisis we need to work even harder at building and maintaining the resources that keep us resilient. Most of us have had to reassess what these resources are as our options have become more limited due to lockdown and the guidelines to remain Covid safe. Every time I facilitate one of our workshops it reminds me to take care of myself, as this does not come naturally to us. Many neuroscientists believe we have a negative brain bias, and when we are stressed berating thoughts, such as ‘I am not good enough’, ‘I am not coping’, ‘I am a failure’ make a great deal of ‘noise’ in our heads. As with Post-Traumatic Growth the current challenges will enable us to grow and develop. Spend some time creating positive mantras or counterarguments for the negative statements that become a repetitive ‘noise’ in our heads, and remember to offer yourself many acts of kindness during this challenging time. Wishing you a gentle end to a very difficult year. Best wishes, Fiona For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. Throughout July and August FD Consultants want to highlight the diverse expertise and professionalism amongst its associates. This week, Fiona Dunkley, the founder of FD Consultants, gives an overview of the specialisms and criteria required for the high calibre of associates. FD CONSULTANTS is a global psychological health consultancy and focuses on caring for the carers of our world. FD Consultants offer services to client organisations in the Humanitarian Sector, Emergency First responders, Mental Health Charities, and Journalists. We have recently supported the wellbeing of staff working for the Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence professions, due to the risk of exposure to online traumatic material. There is a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding in psychological trauma care. There are many therapists that say they work with trauma who are not specialists and are not trained in evidence-based models. FD Consultants are unique as the founder is a senior accredited BACP psychotherapist, trauma specialist, trainer, supervisor, mediator and author. This means FD Consultants are led by an expert in the field. We are not focused on becoming a large Employee Assistance Programme, as we want to offer a specialist and relational service. FD Consultants want to make the world a better place, alongside the client organisations we work for. Our values are Creativity, Compassion and Collaboration. We strongly believe in a collaborative approach to working and promote a multi-lateral, multi-sectoral service that works across prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services. FD Consultants is a network of over 50 global specialist therapists. All associates are highly skilled, experienced and qualified to meet the requirements to work for FD Consultants. We only take associates with over 10 years’ experience and have “accredited” status (country dependant). We offer appointments and training in over 20 languages. Associates have experience of working in the humanitarian sector, have worked or lived internationally, facilitate training, and have trauma expertise. Due to the high calibre of associates we have many qualified supervisors, senior accredited members, training of trainers (TOT), and management/leadership consultants. Additionally, some associates are trained in TF-CBT and EMDR (trauma specialist counselling recommended by NICE, WHO and APA) and work in crisis management. FD Consultants model of psychosocial support is well tested in the private, public and charity sector. We offer an evidence-based and tailored programme of psychological services that cover public health frameworks of wellbeing, i.e. across prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. As most of our associates have worked in other careers before retraining as therapists, we have a good understanding of the sectors we work in. Many associates have previous careers in, human rights law, refugee and asylum support, FGM, LGBTI+, civil unrest, gender-based violence, racial injustice, false imprisonment, sexual violence, slavery, human trafficking, natural disasters and pandemics, torture, prison services, police, ambulance and fire fighters, educational settings, forensics, journalists, and INGOs, to name a few. Some extracts taken from our previous posts over the last two months showcasing FD Consultants associates: I joined FD Consultants at the start of 2019 with an academic and professional background in the fields of human rights, international development and gender-based violence (GBV) and with a clinical focus on refugees and trauma. Having lived internationally, in the Middle East, Balkans and in Europe during these years, I also had some knowledge of the aid sector field context … At FD Consultants we attend to each of our clients with trauma specialist expertise and an understanding of the unique contexts in which humanitarian, human rights staff and first responders work. Most recently, as part of the COVID-19 humanitarian response, FD Consultants’ Associates have been carrying out consultations with humanitarian aid staff preparing to deploy, the majority of whom are well seasoned in epidemic emergency settings… By building relationships with these organisations, providing individual services to their staff and, by providing vital monitoring and evaluation, FD Consultants directly contributes to achieving the goals and objectives of the humanitarian sector through enhancing its duty of care policies (Arianna Rondos, UKCP accredited psychotherapist with over 10 years’ experience). "I've been involved with FD Consultants from the outset and it has brought a really interesting variety of work my way. This has ranged from psychological 'health-checks' with young people setting off to volunteer overseas, to initial trauma assessments with organisational staff who have been involved in traumatic incidents, to psychological reviews with individuals returning from particularly challenging international assignments. Over recent months, working with individuals who have been relocated, or whose roles have changed significantly due to the coronavirus pandemic has been especially interesting (Felicity Runchman, BACP accredited psychotherapist with over 10 years’ experience). “Researchers have found that those using the Trauma Informed Care (TIC) approach within organisations have better informed staff on Trauma awareness, they provide more of an emphasis on emotional and physical safety, they promote opportunities to rebuild control and provide a ‘strengths-based approach – helping to support and identify strengths and coping mechanisms. During my work with FD Consultants, I have witnessed the TIR approach... Recognising the Covid-19 Crisis as another traumatic event in so many ways, I have been working with Fiona to roll-out a programme of trainings to help staff and managers work through their issues, from stress management through to a Crisis Management approach” (Claire Pooley a senior BACP accredited psychotherapist, Traumatologist, Accredited EMDR Practitioner, Supervisor and Trainer with over 30 years’ experience). “Fiona is an incredible and motivated individual with a true passion for supporting the carers of our world. I have had the pleasure to work with Fiona on a wide range of research projects, and Fiona's professionalism, attention to detail and willingness to go above and beyond to meet client organisation's needs are a rare find in the sector. Fiona challenges organisations to think bigger and be better in supporting their staff's mental health needs. FD Consultants provide high quality, bespoke and professional trauma informed mental health services, and consultancy” (Yasmin Lee, Public health Consultants, Mental Health, HIV & Covid-19). Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. Encouraging the growing momentum around staff wellbeing in the humanitarian and human rights sectors19/7/2020 Throughout July FD Consultants want to highlight the diverse expertise and professionalism amongst its associates. Arianna Rondos is a UKCP accredited psychotherapist. She specialises in refugees, trauma and psychological wellbeing of humanitarian and human rights workers. In addition to her psychological training she has an MA in Human Rights Law and has worked and lived internationally. Arianna offers psychological and research services for FD Consultants. “I found our session incredibly helpful! I had a post deployment assessment with another service provider back in 2015, and the person I spoke to then had almost no understanding of the type of work I did, and the unique stresses of the humanitarian environment. Your experience and deep engagement with the humanitarian sector is evident and really made the session meaningful to me.” (Humanitarian staff feedback) I joined FD Consultants at the start of 2019 with an academic and professional background in the fields of human rights, international development and gender-based violence (GBV) and with a clinical focus on refugees and trauma. Having lived internationally, in the Middle East, Balkans and in Europe during these years, I also had some knowledge of the aid sector field context. It was this experience which motivated me to broaden my clinical focus to include those who provide support to vulnerable communities and which led me to join FD Consultants as an Associate. I wanted to be involved in and to encourage the growing momentum around staff wellbeing in the humanitarian and human rights sectors. And, to acknowledge the value of my own struggle in appreciating how a desire to address the needs of the most vulnerable can lead one to neglect their own self-care. While my particular experience is not a prerequisite for this work, when significant in some way to the experience of the individual being supported, it can elicit what I have understood as a kind of ‘relief’. A relief, as some have described, in not ‘feeling like I have to spend most of the time explaining the way I live and work rather than what is actually going on for me’. At FD Consultants we attend to each of our clients in this way, with trauma specialist expertise and an understanding of the unique contexts in which humanitarian, human rights staff and first responders work. When meeting a person for the first time I will introduce myself with a little information about my background, which I provide as a way of letting them know that I can, in a way, speak the language of their work/life context. With each consultation I draw upon this experience and understanding of the sector to recognise and highlight the unique and meaningful ways a person is supporting their own resilience as well as where they might benefit from attending to themselves with more care. When working with trauma, I seek to convey that, while trained and experienced in this field, I am equally respectful of the uniqueness of their experience. Most recently, as part of the COVID-19 humanitarian response, FD Consultants’ Associates have been carrying out consultations with humanitarian aid staff preparing to deploy, the majority of whom are well seasoned in epidemic emergency settings. Much of their preparation and expectation, which I hear reflected in their calm yet adrenaline infused tone, is relevant to the COVID context. Some have already been on the frontlines at home, ‘facing shortages, infected colleagues, family members and an array of unknowns’, as one staff described. Others are prepared for these realities once on the ground. In support of this, our consultations focus on strengthening innate resilience. And, as I listen and inquire, I encourage the importance of self-care and boundaries by reinforcing responsibility for oneself, including taking breaks, not pushing beyond breaking point, as well as openly voicing concerns with the team leader. Given the global nature of the humanitarian and human rights sectors, our work often involves crossing cultures, ethnicities, religious affiliation, gender, sexuality and, when supporting young volunteers, generations. It also often involves crossing boarders, at the least, and, more often, continents, through video link or audio, and not always with an ideal internet connection. Yet, whether I am asking someone who has never undergone a psychological evaluated to share their experience or I am assessing someone following a traumatic incident, I am regularly struck by the openness with which I am met. And, how, whether speaking to national staff or deployed internationals, they will often describe a sense of personal responsibility, not only towards their work, but towards the wellbeing of their team’s, colleagues, organisations and, most of all, the communities they work in. With each of these interactions, I find myself both exponentially impressed by the work of humanitarian and human rights organisations as well as conscious of the work that still remains in destigmatising and normalising the inherent psychological stresses that accompany their efforts. FD Consultants appreciates the multifaceted nature of this responsibility and understands how organisations, which are increasingly committed to the wellbeing of their staff, can foster healthy working environments, which in turn support the communities they work with. By building relationships with these organisations, providing individual services to their staff and, by providing vital monitoring and evaluation, FD Consultants directly contributes to achieving the goals and objectives of the humanitarian sector through enhancing its duty of care policies. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. Having three sisters that are all teachers I hear a great deal about what is occurring in schools. All around the world schools are trying to get back to some normality, with various levels of success. My community carried out a project asking children what they will miss when the ‘coronavirus period’ ends. “Being with family and doing things as a whole family” “Cycling, walks and having shared meals” “Free time and lie ins” “Spending time being more creative” “More time to do drawing, playing games, baking cakes” Acknowledging the hardships many of us are experiencing through the Coronavirus period, (and at FD Consultants, our focus is to support anyone who is struggling psychologically), in this article we have decided to focus on the positive lessons Coronavirus has taught us as individuals and organisations. Creativity – I continue to be amazed at the creative ideas that have sprung up since Lockdown. At FD Consultants we facilitate a ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ workshop for organisations and individuals. We help participants to create a wellbeing plan referring to the RESPECT model of Resilience (Dunkley, 2018). Creativity is one of the factors we discuss to increase our resilience levels. The part of the brain that is activated when we are creative reduces the body’s stress response. As our social interactions have had to change dramatically people have tuned into online theatre, orchestra, and musical performances. People are learning instruments, languages, improving DIY or gardening skills. Individuals in our workshops have shared their resources such as, writing, photography, painting, sewing, cooking, dance off videos, and growing fruit and vegetables. Organisations are thinking creatively about how to stay productive in these unprecedented times. See if there is one thing you can include in your wellbeing plan that is a creative activity. Patience – I was walking down my high street last week reading over and again the signs in the shop windows, ‘closed until further notice’, often followed by messages of hope and pictures of rainbows. During the 2011 London riots I was living in west London. I remember carrying my bike down one road as it was littered with shards of glass from smashed shop windows. As I felt tears well up in my eyes, I read a sign on a boarded-up shop window, ‘We will be back, stronger and better’. I have kept a photo of that message and refer to it every time I need a boost of reassurance. It teaches me patience. We are a world that is operating at great speed, with a ferocious appetite for reduced cost and quick fixes, habitually throwing quality to the wind. Coronavirus has forced us to slow down, press the brake pedal and take a deep breath. I have witnessed clients arrive in my counselling room stating that they feel they haven’t breathed properly for years. I have experienced participants attending our workshops rushing from one meeting, and as soon as the workshop finishes, rushing to another. Where is the pause button? If you don’t have one, create one, give yourself permission to book in pause moments between meetings, take some deep breaths, and experience the healing power of good quality breathing. Staying connected – I am logging into family get togethers and social nights with friends via Zoom. I have family all over the world, but we haven’t connected on this level before, and perhaps this is something we will continue to do after this period. My social nights have included, pampering nights (group of girlfriends wearing facemasks), wine tasting, sharing music, silly performances (trying to teach my puppy to jump through a Hola hoop - unsuccessful as yet!), and face painting, to name a few. My street has setup a WhatsApp group, and I now feel a sense of community that I hadn’t felt before. Social connections are another factor we discuss in our RESPECT resilience model (Dunkley, 2018). As a therapist I am most concerned about an individual who is becoming isolated. Watch out for your local neighbours, colleagues, or friends who may be disconnecting. Acts of Kindness – This month at FD Consultants we are focusing on Acts of Kindness and sharing some of the projects we have been involved in since the Coronavirus period began. Research shows that ‘kindness’ is good for us. It gives us a sense of purpose, increases our empathy and self-worth. Some research has even suggested it keeps us young and reduces our stress levels. Kindness stimulates the production of serotonin, endorphin and oxytocin, our feel-good hormones. It heightens feelings of compassion, consideration and warmth. Some of the acts of kindness we have witnessed over the last few months include, care packages to the vulnerable, donating produce to food banks, knitting hearts and rainbows for the NHS, and promoting small local businesses. Kindness also relates to being kind to ourselves. There is a mindfulness exercise you can download on our website to practice self-compassion called ‘compassionate mindfulness’. If you wish to practice it use the following link: https://tinyurl.com/yabvvsue Flexible Working – Many organisations didn’t believe working from home would be productive. In some circumstances the Coronavirus period has proved otherwise. A great deal of work has been successfully adapted to online and remote home working for staff. Another benefit of working from home is the reduction in travel time to work and, for some, more flexibility to juggle childcare with workload. As organisations plan to return to the workplace and develop risk assessments, flexible working may become part of the new normal. As individuals we have all had to learn to adapt and become more flexible, in our work and home lives. Continue to build on these skills as research states that one of the virtues of resilience is being adaptable. Open Leadership – As therapists we have been challenged in a way that we have never been before, we are living and breathing the crisis that we are supporting our clients with. This has led us to share more of how we are personally impacted, with an attitude that we are all in this together. At FD Consultants we offer consultancy to leadership and senior management teams. We have found good leadership refers to, not just emotional intelligence, but being able to translate ‘emotion as intelligence’ (Dunkley, 2018). This means listening to the emotional voice of staff within an organisation and having the skills to translate this into intelligence about the work and the organisational culture. Additionally, good management includes relational skills and being able to share something of ourselves. As Brene Brown states in her video ‘sympathy verses empathy’, to be truly empathic we need to connect to a similar feeling within ourselves to connect with the other; empathy “is feeling with people”. This type of leadership is built on strength rather than power and creates a more resilient workforce. Appreciation – At this time, displays of gratitude for key workers has been unparalleled. Gratitude improves our wellbeing, empathy for others, creates a sense of community (we are all in this together), and increases our resilience. Many people have stated how much their appreciation for the smaller things in life has improved, including, a smile, being in nature, and the beauty of our environment. Note down all the smaller things in life that you have learnt to appreciate over the last few months. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. Get in touch today |
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