As the nation moves into winter with rising rates of infection from COVID-19, the prospect of sheltering in place looms, and once again we face unbelievable rates of disappointments and loss. We will miss celebrations of holidays and will miss family and friendship activities such as birthdays, weddings, graduations and all the ways we mark and celebrate life events. We will also be limited in the ways we grieve and hold funerals. The rituals of life transitions have been upended, and many clients do not recognize how disappointments and forestalled grieving affect their levels of anxiety or depression, so they cannot correct for losses. This session will describe how lost everyday rituals create feelings of disorientation and the Corona Time Blur that so many of us are noticing. Participants will take away ideas to utilize the power of both everyday rituals and special ceremonies that hallmark important occasions in our lives. We will discuss how to help clients identify the impact of death without familiar processes to grieve and teach them to utilize technology to access their community to develop rituals and heal. This session will focus on concrete, pragmatic tools to minimize our clients’ pandemic anxiety and depression and keep their emotional balance during these turbulent times.

Learning Objectives

1. Utilize the power of everyday rituals to help anxious and depressed clients feel more secure and grounded.
2. Apply 3 virtual tools to work through grief in the absence of close community and prevent rising anxiety and depression through therapy methods like 11Contain Your Grief in Time”
3. Apply the model of disappointment management with clients at various ages.