In Times of Uncertainty; Clinical Practice
H. Colodro and J. Oliver provide sound advice in their new book, A Guide to Self-Care for Practitioners in Times of Uncertainty. This 2020 New Harbinger publication is loaded with helpful 
suggestions on surviving, even thriving, in our time of struggle. Their core questions include: What do my clients need most now? Am I able to provide what is needed and do so effectively? What might I do regarding my own uncertainty and struggles? Here are some of their suggestions.
- Spend some time daily practicing self-compassion.
- Know what you are facing, and if you are in a position (emotionally) to provide what is needed.
- Recognize the effects of chronic stress on yourself and your clients. Make adjustments as needed.
- Work smart! Work with only what you have some control over and not what is beyond your control.
- Be sure to take good care of yourself: sleeping, eating, attending, worrying, being aware, obtaining social-emotional support, meditating/doing yoga, and holding onto a strong sense of consciousness.
- Check in with yourself. Ask: How am I doing right now? Why did I react emotionally to that? etc.
- Release yourself from a “fix-it” mentality. Rather focus on emotion regulation, stability, and safety.
- Be there with your own, personal losses, sadness and fear. Deal with these and seek help when needed.
- If appropriate, include happiness-enhancing activities and skills in your therapy.
- Recognize the reality of impermanence in all things, including current problems and yourself.
- Settle into a more self-caring flexible outlook. If possible, work less. Take breaks! Do not over-extend.
- If you experience psychological exhaustion or failure in behavioral activation, seek support and consider doing more telehealth rather than live, person-to-person therapy. Cut back if necessary.
- Follow all guidelines regarding masks, gloves, social distancing, disinfecting, etc.
- Consider using “good enough” standards in your work in these times. See D.W. Winnicott for details.
- Remain safe, calm, competent, and helpful in your work.
- Consider using the same breathing training techniques you teach to your clients on yourself.
- When you feel stuck or sucked-into the craziness of the times, use CBT-M (CBT with mindfulness) on yourself.
- If you feel overwhelmed, hopeless, etc. seek your own clinical help.
Refer to Colodro, H. and Oliver, J. (2020). A Guide to Self-Care for Practitioners in Times of Uncertainty. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC
From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha
Author of Mindful Happiness
unhelpful. So I stopped recommending this form of journaling to clients years ago. If you suffer from anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions and/or eating problems, I would not recommend negative problem solving journaling as a practice. Our limbic brain sets us up for overdrive when dealing with negative emotions and experiences, so no need to add more cognition and attention to it all. Better to work on positives!
reality of no-self, or a static, permanent and inherent self is a core teaching of Buddhism; however, humans do experience life in Samsara via their perceived self – the experiencer of events and circumstances. Sensory awareness and mental formation make our realities. It is important to know yourself well, thus it is important to go deeper and deeper into the sources of your self-experiences. Negative emotions and feelings cause great suffering; fears and internal turmoil prevent happiness. To move beyond suffering, we need to understand and experience self-compassion and self-love. Our best hope may be the regular practice of 
“experience near empathy” (Kohut), “unconditional positive regard” (Rogers), “hovering attention” (Freud), “the holding environment” in “intersubjective space” (Winnicott), and compassionate awareness to emotional distancing, separation, and dispassion is no easy task. In more in-depth clinical interactions, the process of projective identification between therapist and client may drain your emotional resources; sometimes being “as if” you were the experiencer of your client’s pain and suffering can take a serious toll on your own emotional resources. At time the therapist’s own emotional life lacks the quality of connection experienced in the therapy session. Success in setting emotional boundaries is a very important self-care skill. It may determine your success, failure, joy, or misery in the clinical work you do. It will definitely prevent most case of “burn out.”
helping skills. We suffer just like other people do. Hopefully, our training and experience have given us a bit of a positive edge here. Here are some things you may wish to consider to improve your own level of self-compassion.