Join Dr. Kaethe Weingarten, director of the Witness to Witness Program for the Migrant Clinicians Network, to learn more about the emotional impacts of the pandemic on providers and to engage in a community of providers.

Participants are invited to participate in all three events, though each will serve as a standalone learning event.

We warmly invite all behavioral health providers to participate, including school- and community-based mental health; private practice; primary care and hospital settings; and state, regional, and local mental health professionals. We recognize that the early start time may make it challenging for providers in Pacific Island regions to attend; we apologize for the inconvenience, and will share the recording links soon.

(Thursday) 2:00-3:30 p.m. PT / 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. HT / 10:00-11:30 a.m. American Samoa (Friday) 9:00-10:30 a.m. Marshall Islands / 8:00-9:30 a.m. Pohnpei, Kosrae / 7:00-8:30 a.m. Guam, Chuuk, Yap, CNMI / 6:00-7:30 a.m. Palau

Behavioral health providers are overexposed to stories of trauma. This distress may result from the stories they are told by clients or interactions they observe directly. Providers may also experience distress when interacting with those who set and administer the policies (e.g., insurers, legislatures) that affect the people they serve. The pandemic has amplified the conditions that produce distress in both clients and providers. Providers may also have their own challenging histories. Current situations may activate providers’ memories of difficult personal experiences, making it harder to cope with contemporary stress.

This seminar provides a framework for conceptualizing causes of provider distress; discusses strategies for building provider resilience; and identifies “reasonable hope” as a source of inspiration in the current context of behavioral health provision.

(Thursday) 2:00-3:30 p.m. PT / 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. HT / 10:00-11:30 a.m. American Samoa (Friday) 9:00-10:30 a.m. Marshall Islands / 8:00-9:30 a.m. Pohnpei, Kosrae / 7:00-8:30 a.m. Guam, Chuuk, Yap, CNMI / 6:00-7:30 a.m. Palau

Worry, anxiety, demoralization, and languishing are some of the emotional responses to the pandemic that many are experiencing. This online seminar will review these responses and offer efficient strategies to deal with them.  A primary focus will be on the witnessing model, developed by presenter Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, that describes four different witness positions that can affect behavioral health providers in their daily lives. Ways of moving into the only effective position will be suggested. Dr. Weingarten will describe concrete ideas for remaining in one’s resilient zone – not stuck too high, not stuck too low. She will also share an approach for preventing the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

(Thursday) 2:00-3:30 p.m. PT / 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. HT / 10:00-11:30 a.m. American Samoa (Friday) 9:00-10:30 a.m. Marshall Islands / 8:00-9:30 a.m. Pohnpei, Kosrae / 7:00-8:30 a.m. Guam, Chuuk, Yap, CNMI / 6:00-7:30 a.m. Palau

Many of us are experiencing confusion, fear, anger, and sadness as losses mount with the ongoing pandemic. Grief has also been a dominant emotion. During the pandemic, there have been constraints on public, shared expressions of grief.

In this online seminar, Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, presents materials about grief generally and grief in the circumstances of the pandemic. Discussion points will include the particular challenges of grief following estrangement or ambiguous loss. What are some ways to support others – clients, friends, colleagues, family members – without becoming overburdened? Throughout the seminar, Dr. Weingarten will open space for participants to share their experiences and form a felt sense of community. There is a need to balance despair with hope, and hope is something best done with others.

Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, directs the Witness to Witness (W2W) Program for the Migrants Clinician Network. The goal of W2W is to help the helpers, primarily serving health care workers, attorneys and journalists working with vulnerable populations.

Dr. Weingarten received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1974. She has taught at Wellesley College (1975-1979), Harvard Medical School (1981-2017), where she was an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston and then Cambridge Health Alliance, and at the Family Institute of Cambridge (1982-2009). She founded and directed the Program in Families, Trauma and Resilience at the Family Institute of Cambridge. Internationally, she has taught in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and New Zealand, where she was a Fulbright Specialist.

Dr. Weingarten’s work focuses on the development and dissemination of a witnessing model. One prong of the work is about the effects of witnessing violence and trauma in the context of domestic, inter-ethnic, racial, political and other forms of conflict. The other prong of the witnessing work is in the context of healthcare, illness and disability.  Her work on reasonable hope has been widely cited.