Trauma Expert Champions Resilience in the Face of 2020 Holiday Blues

Today, the world is faced with common trauma. Associate Professor Danielle Rousseau, an authority on the roles trauma and mindfulness play in personal and social well-being, writes in Psychology Today that the ongoing global pandemic has brought about greater than usual burdens this holiday season, as many struggle with experiences of alienation amid the loss of the comforts of tradition.

“Families are not able to travel to visit. Illness is pervasive. Jobs have been lost. Many have lost loved ones. Systemic disparity means that not everyone experiences pandemic impacts equally,” she writes. “Fear and anxiety abound.”

To combat these stressors, Rousseau says, people must embrace the principles of resilience. And that means finding ways to be kind and considerate to themselves.

“Wellbeing and resilience, particularly in challenging times, are rooted in self-compassion and self-care,” Rousseau says. “Radical self-care includes the ways in which we hydrate, nourish our bodies, move, connect with nature, think, rest, and connect with others. We cannot give what we do not have.”

Approaches to managing the mental health challenges of loss inform both Dr. Rousseau’s latest book, Yoga and Resilience: Empowering Practices for Survivors of Sexual Trauma, and her course, Trauma and Crisis Intervention (MET CJ 720), which provides criminal justice practitioners with tools for understanding and navigating trauma in volatile law enforcement and correctional environments.