By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Earlier this month, I was asked by Jenelle Janci, an editor and reporter at LNP in Lancaster, Pa., to comment on mental and emotional health related to the re-opening of the United States as we suffer and navigate the continuing effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. She excerpted some of my thoughts in today's article here, and I’m sharing the full interview below:

How are feelings of anxiety and other mental health issues around reopening different than what people might have experienced at the beginning of the stay-at-home order?

It’s easier to manage a difficult experience when we know there’s an end to the experience. With this pandemic, the stay-at-home order may be modified and eventually lifted, but the Coronavirus hasn’t gone anywhere. We are still asked to face this highly infectious virus with lots of uncertainties.
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People’s anxieties may focus on different parts of this collective experience. Some may feel anxious about their health and worry about 

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

People,  please don’t make fun of people who are scared. People are scared, and people who are scared respond in a variety of ways, and in this case, one of them is panic buying and another one is hoarding. They are attempting to protect themselves, and we do not know what other personal or family traumas may be reactivated within – which can contribute to unusually high levels of fear.

That said, this is apart from the fact that some people may be also shopping for elderly family, friends and neighbors as well as themselves, for group homes or other group settings, or people who may otherwise not have means or funds to get out and shop or are health compromised, or people who are using their available funds now, because they may be without jobs in a few weeks.

One of the best things that we can do for each other is to steady ourselves and support each other to stay calm, alert and present and to validate others’ feelings, even if they are not their own feelings, and encourage people to make wise decisions for themselves, their health and their communities. I have decided that I will be staying indoors for the next two weeks and working from home and reevaluate my plan at the end of the two that time.

 By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

You may have lots of feelings about the coronavirus, the new virus that causes a respiratory infection. I know that I do. It is easy to fear what we don’t know, and judging from reports of people emptying shelves of toilet paper and antiseptic supplies and the sharing of my own clients and others I work with, there is a lot of fear and tension out there.

As a health professional in my corner of the world, I am charged with the responsibility of protecting my clients and caring for myself.  I also strive to act as a role model about how to act and respond at times of stress.

I’ve already altered several of my habits, such as washing my hands much more frequently and thoroughly and practicing how to refrain from touching my face, a key way that the virus spreads. I'm also touching elevator buttons, door handles and other public places with my scarf, paper towels or tissues instead of my fingers.

First, breathe and stay calm.

The regular flu – influenza – kills thousands of people each year.  However, fear seems to travel faster than the actual virus and we are challenged to take practical steps to protect ourselves and our community while staying calm and alert.

Then, can we look at the virus with a curious eye? I like this meditation that I found on YouTube that nudges me to move away from fear and towards curiosity.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Here's a wonderfully personal -- and wry -- film story about the families, love and generations,  as told by a new father of a boy child. The "Orders of Love" in the title refer to the ideas and observations of Bert Hellinger, the innovative family psychotherapist from Germany who developed an extraordinary new way to understand how family systems operate.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Talk to me about groups and I’ll talk to you about the 78th annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, coming up April 1-4 in Schaumburg, Ill.

This year’s theme is “Here and Now: The Power and Effectiveness of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and Sociometry.” This longtime conference will continue its traditions of  internationally recognized speakers, workshops, ceremonies, entertainment, and silent and live auctions while introducing new cultural conserves, and this year there’s an extra emphasis focusing on the “group psychotherapy” part of  the organization’s name, giving attention to the importance of group process and group skills.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

As you know, I love offering resources to my trainees and others interested in learning and refining skills of action methods.
And this one is a good one!

My dear friend and psychodrama colleague Linda Ciotola, M.Ed., TEP, has created an online video series about the use of action methods to treat survivors of trauma and promoting post-traumatic growth with her colleague Nancy Alexander, MSW, LCSW-C, a retired psychotherapist and social worker in Maryland.

The series is titled "Introduction to Psychodrama for Trauma Survivors" and includes:

By Regina Moreno

Mommy was busy wrapping presents in the upstairs bedroom with door closed on this Christmas Eve.  I knew Daddy had bought something very special during our recent trip to the winter wonderland known as Macy’s Department Store in New York City. I couldn’t to wait to open the special package.

But first, it was time for me to get dressed. In this scene, I am five years old, and Mommy is helping me into my new red dress with the pretty swirling skirt. My wardrobe  includes a red coat and a matching hat with earmuffs, along with fancy boots decorated with pompoms. Finally, I have a little muff to keep my hands warm from the winter chill. 

Then all of the carefully wrapped gifts were placed into the rumble seat of our black car. I loved riding in that seat, but Mommy said we needed a safe place for the presents. Daddy carried a big bag.

“What’s in there?” I asked Daddy.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Here we are at the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This time, which we call the first day of Winter, might be my favorite holiday of the season because it involves no shop-till-you-drop consumerism and no 24-7 Christmas music.
The day simply asks us to look at wonder in the skies, notice and appreciate the natural rhythms of the earth and ponder the meaning of the temporary darkness before the return of the light

The Winter Solstice is certainly one of the planet's oldest holidays, the day when the Northern ancients noticed that the darkness overtook the light. Astronomically, it is when the North Pole is tilted farthest away from the sun, delivering the fewest hours of sunlight of the year.

When we are in the dark, we move more slowly and tentatively. We may feel more vulnerable and therefore more frightened. So my holiday wish for me and you is this: May we become comfortable with the darkness, learning what it has to teach us, before we return to the warmth of the light.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Here in the United States, Thanksgiving Day is our designated day of expressing gratitude.

Native American activists remind us that stories told about the first Thanksgiving – along with the Pilgrim hats and feather headdresses stapled from construction paper that children wear in elementary school skits – often continue to perpetuate harmful stereotypes, racism and a retelling of history that isn’t exactly true.

There’s a burgeoning movement in certain parts of our country to set the record straight on the facts of Thanksgiving along with indigenous peoples claiming their history, special foods and traditions. Sometimes people call

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

​In the past two decades researchers have discovered a tremendous amount of information about the human brain. As we learn these startling new details, we are forced to discard old assumptions about how the brain works and learn about the brain's amazing powers.

We now know about the delicate nature of the developing brain from the very beginning of life. Certain experiences – a stressed mother, a community trauma, a family crisis – appear to inhibit the circuitry of brain development even before the child’s birth.

Yet the brain is not “fixed” to any specific configuration for life. For instance, we now understand that the brain is “plastic,” continuing to constantly change, alter and adapt as it responds to new life experiences.