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Hello. My name is Michael Monahan. I’m a clinician with Thriveworks in Reston, VA. But with all the recent issues going on in the country, I’ve been tasked with answering the question, “Is it normal to have anger around COVID-19?”
In addition to the other challenges that my clients are dealing with COVID-19, it’s brought out some different emotions within clients. And I think one of the things that I started with, with my clients, is that it is a normal process to experience emotions. And so part of the work that I’m doing is around normalizing it, but it’s also helping the client to understand more about the emotional part of the brain, the limbic system, and how to actually also deal with the emotions in a way that’s not internalizing or projecting that emotions onto someone else. Because those things are more destructive.
What my focus is, is try to work with my clients in trying to learn how to express the emotion in a healthy manner and also learn to cope with that experience and not just a high level of anger to try to get to a deeper understanding. That’ll be a little bit more curious. I’m gonna allow different parts of the brain to process the experience.
This can be done through either meditation, it can be done by being in the moment and being, being in, staying present. It could be in journaling or different activities that the client finds beneficial to work through the experience of anger.
The other areas to really look at limiting the amount of time that’s being spent in either social media or looking at the news clippings revolving around COVID-19 and allowing my clients also to have some to really focus on being compassionate towards themselves as well as being empathetic towards others who are experiencing difficulties and challenges with the emotional experience of COVID-19.
So there’s always definitely work that can be done to help the client to experience emotions and as long as we do it from a six feet distance. So, all right. Take care.
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