I believe that the wellbeing of care workers is intertwined with the wellbeing of the people they care for. Supporting care workers to metabolize the impact of their work improves their wellbeing and the quality of the care they provide. Organizing peer support spaces also enables care providers to identify structural causes of the distress they experience, in order to create healthier spaces for all to thrive.
I have developed three supportive offerings in collaboration with front-line care providers:
Flash Technique for Care Workers
“Trauma isn’t what happens to you, it’s what happens inside of you.” ~ Gabor Maté
An evidence-based and efficient trauma processing technique that allows self-identification of upsetting memories or memory fragments, and supports the processing and integration of the traumatic material without activating the distress associated with it. Flash Technique can be used as a more easily tolerated alternative to Critical Incident Debrief.
Trauma Responses and Collective Care
A workshop co-created with a group of nurses in the Massachusetts Nurses Association to address the experiences of nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of ongoing union efforts. With broader relevance beyond nursing and the specific pandemic conditions, we work together to:
- Identify distressing work conditions
- Understand how these impact the nervous system and stress cycle
- Articulate strategies for protecting ourselves from the resulting trauma, and
- Move from “self-care” to “collective care,” empowering care workers to envision systemic fixes and opportunities to advocate for a healthier environment for care providers and care recipients alike.
Care Work in the Context of Structural Abandonment
A support group that creates a safe container for collectively holding the weight of doing care work within the current landscape. This group is grounded in the idea that we need spaces to hold our grief, heartbreak, and rage collectively, and that there is medicine in the practice of turning to each other to be witnessed in our pain. A space like this allows us to find strength and hope together, in order to sustain a sense of aliveness in our work.
These offerings can be combined or tailored for the needs of participants. From unions and professional peer groups to informal and community-based care providers, groups interested in collectively processing the stress of providing care in an uncaring environment are encouraged to reach out and discuss which of these tools might support healing for your members.
Our wellbeing is connected: when those who care for others have the time and support to voice the distress caused by current conditions, and to dream together of human thriving beyond profit and productivity, we can all realize our healthy potential. I look forward to co-creating healing with care providers seeking support.
Jessica Kuttner, LICSW 