Psychosocial support after disasters

The work I do at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research is chiefly focused on psychosocial support before, during and after disaster events. I’ve written about this extensively on my companion blog after the current sequence of Canterbury earthquakes began.

The videos I’m posting up now take you – dear interested reader – through a presentation I did three years ago (note the terrible beard) which walks you through the major issues to think about. In this series of videos, I cover:

• Foundations of Psychosocial Support
• The Principles of Psychosocial Support
• The IASC Guidelines / residual difficulties for people after emergencies
• Disasters and their impact upon mental well-being – Part 1
• Disasters and their impact upon mental well-being – Part 2
• Disasters and their impact upon mental well-being – Part 3
• Disasters and their impact upon mental well-being – Part 4
• Disasters and their impact upon mental well-being – Part 5
• Ordinary reactions to extraordinary events
• Psychological First Aid
• The process of helping
• Guidance on helping children and adolescents
• Assisting adults and older adults
• Individual and community supports after the Canberra bush fires
• Learning from the Matata flood and landslide
• Taking care of staff and yourself
• Staff and staff care
• Risk communication
• Some final tips and examples

This is the link to the YouTube Channel, and the whole suite of fact sheets and video files can be found here.

Let me know if you find it helpful.

What is coaching?

Coaching is a conversation that inspires you to create the life you want.

Unlike some counseling or therapy approaches, coaching doesn’t start with the idea that something is broken which needs fixing.

Coaching begins with viewing you as fundamentally whole, healthy and strong enough to deal with the challenges of coaching.

But coaching isn’t advice. We might discuss options or suggestions for you, but coaching helps to facilitate your own thought processes.

Coaching conversations helps your own inner coach to speak out more loudly. Less of that lecturing or hectoring inner voice you might sometimes experience – more of a calm, compassionate voice that keeps you on track with what you really value in life.