Decades of civil war and natural disasters like a
tsunami hit Sri Lanka socially, politically, economically and psychologically.
When the country struggles to settle with its past losses Covid-19 viral has
attacked physical and mental health as well as the well-being of individuals.
Sri Lankan communities have been threatened with this
pandemic which has required long-term lockdowns, quarantine, social distancing
and hospital treatments. Duration of the impact is continued since its spread
is continuing worldwide and it could damage the social conditions, mental and
emotional health of people. When people are facing a crisis, it is natural that
the first thing that gets negatively affected is their mental wellbeing. People
are experiencing distress due to the deep economic crisis with unemployment,
financial difficulties and loss of loved ones. Quarantined individuals may
experience long-term consequences such as alcohol dependence, stress, anxiety,
poor concentration and other depressive disorders. The pandemic has produced
alarming increases in domestic violence, intimate partner violence and
gender-based violence as well. In the meantime, COVID-19 may adversely affect
patients who have prior psychiatric illnesses and they experience greater
psychological distress than the wider public.
This crisis has affected mental health care workers
such as counselor’s well-being as well. Counselors’ roles and responsibilities
have changed since they also experience similar fears and frustrations same as
their clients. Counselors have to manage stress in their professional and
personal lives during this crisis. They must cope with losing clients, family
issues, financial difficulties and emotional stress that the virus has brought.
To manage these difficulties they have to develop new methodologies and adapt
remote technologies to provide proper care within social isolation and safety
guidelines.
“Counselling
Psychology is an active, collaborative relationship which can both facilitate
the exploration of underlying issues and empower people to confront changes”
(Sims, 2010, p.454, as cited in Open University of Sri Lanka, 2018). Counselor
is a profession that allows diverse individuals, families and groups to
accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals (Gladding,
2017, as cited in Open University of Sri Lanka, 2018). Counselors in Sri Lanka
attached to many local and international non-governmental as well as
governmental organizations are trained on how to offer service to an individual
who is undergoing problems and needs professional help to overcome them. Counseling centers are developed around the
country to improve the overall well-being of the respective communities.
Due to the spread of COVID-19, it increased the
demand for counseling worldwide. In Sri Lanka, some teams of counselors who are
working under the supervision of the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs and
the Ministry of Social Services do their best to help anxious Sri Lankans
(Ferdinando & Jayawardena, 2020). People seek help from counselors for a
variety of reasons. Some may enter counseling to adapt to major life changes
such as divorce. Others may seek help in handling mental health conditions,
like depression and anxiety. But many of the issues that clients bring to
counselors now are relating to day- to-day problems and they have forgotten the
primary concerns that originally brought to counseling. Even if the counselor
has been working with a client for some time, the counselor cannot assume the
client’s current situation as this pandemic may be a huge obstacle for them.
Most of the psychological issues that clients have been suffered are already
changed to day-to-day crises. As an example, a client who visited his counselor
to seek help to overcome his relationship issues with co-workers at the
workplace now has lost his job. He may now suffer from financial difficulties
and visiting a counselor with a new set of daily issues which are hard to solve
by counseling. The counselor cannot always save his clients from unhappiness
and guide them to unrealistic expectations since most of the opportunities are
hard to access during this pandemic.
When counselors are navigating their client’s issues they also have to manage their own anxieties during this extraordinary situation and its potential impact on the counselor’s health, their loved ones. Counselors have the chance of developing those psychological consequences when they experience some devastating threats such as the risk of COVID virus infection, feeling of helplessness, stigmatization, financial issues and worries about family. If the counselor's boundaries are not stable, he or she is more likely to have difficulties controlling himself/herself and may respond to a client's transference reaction with countertransference. Most of the Sri Lankan counselors assigned to the government cannot access a proper working environment which makes both counselor and client feel safe during this pandemic situation. Work-related traveling also becomes a huge burden due to safety precautions. The vast increase of recent client base counselors have to do more documentation and their workload also goes up. The transition to remote technology has required many counselors to adjust their counseling methods and routines. When they have to work from home it requires proper and private spaces free from family disruptions and external noises. With time being those adaptations make them depressed. However, these overwhelming drawbacks make the counselor dissatisfied with the counseling process and it becomes a challenge to overcome his anxieties and stress during this COVID period.
Because of COVID-19, life won’t just go back to normal. All the crises are going to disappoint people’s routines. Therefore counselors should have prepared to take a more directive position with clients and focus on their life skills during the transition toward a “new normal.” Counselors may need to provide guidelines, instructions, demonstrations or have to help clients to identify new skills. For example, some clients who have been dismissed from work need a new job search or applying. And else may need guidance on how to get back to their workplace safely. When dealing with a trauma crisis it is essential to develop new plans and strategies to facilitate the grieving and healing process. This is called crisis counseling. To make sure the clients are safe, counselors should have kept them connected to the resources and social support. After that, to reduce the crisis impact, the counselor should immerse into the client's life and assisting in the development of resources. (Miller, 2012, as cited in Open University of Sri Lanka, 2018). Therefore Sri Lankan counselors need specialized training, some policies and tools to handle client’s sensitive issues that they face during this pandemic.
In many countries, clinical supervision or mandatory
therapy sessions for mental health professionals such as counselors are common.
But in Sri Lanka, however, support systems for state counselors, to provide
guidance and ensure that they have somewhere to turn when the job gets
overwhelming, didn’t exist (Ferdinando & Jayawardena, 2020). Therefore all
the burden of rectifying counseling job-related issues would eventually fall on
the counselors. Counselors should consider their own feelings when protecting
their clients and study more about them. At the same time, the counselor should
keep in mind that the feelings clients evoke in a counselor are likely to be
feelings that clients are repeating in their daily interactions with others.
Counselors need to apply the same surviving strategies and tools to themselves
that they offer to clients such as having proper sleep, exercising, make
networks with others, taking breaks and handling their emotions. Set up of
peer-support mechanisms may give counselors a safe space to meet in small
groups and discuss difficult cases and share the pressure they endure. Those
supervision help counselors to achieve a sense of safety to redirect on their
work with clients and the impact it has on themselves, to challenge their own
biases and beliefs (Ferdinando & Jayawardena, 2020). Stress and burnout of
counselors due to the overload of work can be mitigated by sharing with
supervisors and peer groups. However, counseling in Sri Lanka needs more
standardization in supervised training and practices with a national code of
ethics.
The main objective of counseling is psychological growth. Counselors feel they have to present themselves to the community as strong, competent and self-confident professionals. Therefore sometimes they carried their burdens silently and rarely share their difficulties with others due to the stigma. During this pandemic, counselor’s service is needed more than ever. In Sri Lanka there several ministries and institutions conduct guidance and counseling programs to help people. However, the counselors need to remember that they are affected directly or indirectly by this pandemic too. While counselors focus on addressing their patients’ mental health needs, they must also follow and recognizing their own vulnerabilities and making time for self-care as well. It is highly recommended that counselors seek out professional supervision support during this stressful time. Counselor’s personal values and beliefs during this hard time are more important to carry out therapeutic procedures. Therefore core conditions such as congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy can be used as attributes of a counselor to understand the situation and client in a deep manner.
References
Ferdinando, M., & Jayawardena, K. (2020, September 16). Counseling
the Counselors amid Covid-19. The Asia Foundation. https://asiafoundation.org/2020/09/16/counseling-the-counselors-amid-covid-19/
Open University
of Sri Lanka. (2018). Introduction to
Counseling Psychology. Faculty of Psychology and counseling, Department of
Health Science.
