Last month, I started talking about what can be done in the face of the fear and uncertainty in our nation. I proposed starting with staying informed while staying sane and getting educated. Today I’m going to discuss coping with the weight of being viewed as “experts” when we don’t have all the answers while continuing to show up for our clients and our communities the best we can.

I maintain that I do not have all the answers, nor is there one right answer out there. What I share today is inspired by communications with students, participation in community gatherings, brainstorming sessions with colleagues, social media accounts, and more.

Do What You Can

We start by recognizing that no one of us can do it all, and change will not happen overnight. In my last post, I discussed making it ok to be selective. You can not stay up-to-date on everything, be sufficiently informed on every issue, and take action on every front. If your privilege allows, let yourself pick your areas to focus on, then do what you can. This may mean using your knowledge of psychology, social work, therapy, medicine, etc. If you opt to do more in the realm of your profession, be mindful. Doing this work 360 will make you ripe for compassion fatigue, burnout, secondary stress, and moral injury.

Resistance Takes All Forms

If you want (or need) to step outside of your role as a healer, what skills do you have that don’t require you to wear your clinical hat? What passions do you have outside of your work? What resources are available to you?

The Social Change Map and social media posts, like this one from Jess Voss Art and this one by myvoicemychoiceorg are great sources of grounding and inspiration. In summary, these pages and posts talk about how there are different roles, lanes, and forms of activism. All serve important functions and all are necessary. Not everyone can or should be disruptors. We need organizers, storytellers, and educators. We need writers and artists. We need loud people, quiet people, and everyone in between.

Maybe you have a great capacity to organize lots of information. Or, you are skilled at hosting and bringing people together. Or writing op-ed pieces. Maybe you are great at wrangling shelter dogs. Or putting together food boxes. Alternatively, maybe you have the resources to participate in corporate boycotts and/or contribute money and in-kind items to local charities.

No Contribution is Too Small.

We don’t yet know what the full ripple effects will be of the onslaught of changes we are witnessing. It seems safe to predict that resources will become tight for many in the not-so-distant future. So while walking dogs at the shelter or donating to a local unhoused youth program may not feel like it is “enough” or a direct enough action, it does make a difference. We can’t change the government overnight, but maybe we can help one person in need.

Recommendation: Start your efforts by seeing what grassroots and mutual aid programs already exist in your community. Avoid reinventing the wheel. Give credit where credit is due to those who have been doing this work before the current administration.

What If I’m Already Burned Out?

There are hundreds of reasons to feel worn out and tired and not have much left to give. Maybe your act of resistance (particularly if you and your community are being threatened and you feel physically or psychologically unsafe) is to just exist as you are and rest. This post by Imani Barbarin provides an overview of how Audre Lourdes spearheaded the concept of self-care and why it is a revolutionary act.

Reflect

The other side of the coin of action is reflection. Take time to pause and sit with the quiet.

What comes up for you when you do?

• If you are experiencing fear, is it familiar? Novel?
• What of your own historical, intergenerational, or lived experiences are triggered?
• What privileges do you hold that may now be in jeopardy?
• What is your automatic coping response to uncertainty and fear?
  • Where does this come from?
  • Is it most effective to listen to those urges or to pause?
• What is your role identity? If you are in the healing profession, it is likely in the realm of healer, fixer, problem-solver, and/or leader. Is that getting activated?
  • Can you fulfill your “assigned” role?
  • How does it feel when you encounter limitations?
    • How do you navigate not being able to be “enough?”
  • Is there potential to do harm in taking your well-worn path?
  • What would it be like to consciously step away from that assignment and seek a different one?
• How do you cope when you feel overwhelmed? Lost? Alone? Hopeless?
• Are you coming in contact with questions of your own mortality? The mortality of your loved ones?
• Are you struggling with fears for the future, for generations to come?
• Are you doubting if you are valued by your neighbors, society, and government?
• Are you questioning how did we get here and how do we heal?
  • How do we change hearts and minds?
  • How do we stop repeating history?
  • What is needed to learn and do better?

Lean into the Existential

We may be able to answer the first chunk of those questions readily enough, especially if we’ve done our own therapeutic work. If the answer was “yes” to any of the last questions, we may be struggling a bit more. The fear and uncertainty we are facing will naturally trigger some of the bigger existential questions. The ones we don’t have answers to.

Lean into it. Honor the validity of these questions. Find comfort where you can. For that, I recommend Victor Frankel’s Man’s Search for Meaning and NBC’s The Good Place.

Man’s Search for Meaning is Victor Frankel’s reflections on surviving Holocaust concentration camps. He applied his expertise as a psychiatrist to explore what engendered the psychological survival of himself and others through such atrocities. From these reflections, he later created logotherapy. Logotherapy is a framework for psychotherapy emphasizing identity, meaning, purpose, freedom, and the influence of mortality. His work emphasizes connecting with reality as it is and identifying what is and is not within our control. Check out this Psychology Today article for more.

As for The Good Place, it has a very different, lighter (at times quite ridiculous) tone, while still prompting deep reflection. It questions what makes someone good. It highlights just how hard it is to be good and do the “right” thing, recognizing that good and right are not often simple or black and white in our modern world. It talks about the necessity of love, support, and belonging. It also honors our limitations, fallibility, and capacity for change. It is validating, warm, and IMO, pretty hilarious.

Spend time with Children and Animals

Lastly, I want to encourage spending time with children and animals. Little ones and our pets are blissfully unaware of the elimination of DEI, the back and forth of tariffs, the removal of medical knowledge, and the threat to our education system. They are engrossed with the latest episode of Bluey, an epic battle between T-Rex figurines, or in the case of the family dog, a glorious round of zoomies. Their joy is unencumbered and unbounded. Be present with this and let all the fears you are carrying go, for just a moment. Giggle, roar, romp. Snuggle, cuddle. Hold them close. Breathe.

For Clinicians: I leave you with this post from remakeourworld stating that there are no perfect activists. We will make mistakes. As The Good Place tells us, try your best, be humble and willing to learn, remember we are in this together, and take care of yourself in the process.

For Those Seeking Healing: Ditto. Much of what was discussed today applies across professions – medical, legal, education, library sciences, and more.