Perspectives

SCG Staff Articles

Reflections On Wellness
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Reflections On Wellness

After two years of pandemic life, it feels easy to focus on what is going wrong in the world. “I’ve got a runny nose this morning: is it allergies or the plague?” is a thought I’ve had many times of late. That pervasive sense of needing to question our safety is exhausting. Maybe we’re feeling like nothing is going “right” and all the places where we seek solace are crumbling. Sometimes there is a discernible cause such as the death of a loved one or rejection from a school we applied to, but other times the cause of our “unwellness” seems less clear. Difficult seasons are part of life and that’s okay, but they sure get exhausting after a while.

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Reflecting on the Past Year
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Reflecting on the Past Year

Right at the one-year mark of pandemic life, I began to find myself entering a reflective period. Perhaps you did, too. I suddenly began to pay special attention to all the headlines in my news feed about the effects of the pandemic on various populations and it led me to wonder… How has the pandemic affected me? My family? The clients I serve? Will we ever be the same? Will my children ever be able to relax in a crowd again? Will I? Will the extreme anxiety I see in some clients ever abate?

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Panning Out After the Pandemic
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Panning Out After the Pandemic

The idea of panning out comes from the old gold rush days of finding gold by using pans in streams to separate the gold from dirt and sand.  Though the pandemic is not yet over, reclaiming our “gold of life,” is something we can actually begin planning at this point.

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What is so Special about Pastoral Counseling in a Pandemic?
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

What is so Special about Pastoral Counseling in a Pandemic?

To say that the last 14 months have been difficult would be a redundant understatement.  It has been rough and the whole world knows it.  A June 2020 study of more than 5,000 Americans reflected that forty percent of adults in the United States reported higher levels of mental health issues and/or substance abuse.

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A Moment of Mental Health
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

A Moment of Mental Health

I stand at the city bus stop waiting for that cold metal box to transport me to the office. I tick off tasks to complete when I arrive. Adjusting my mask, I review the line items marked through in my mental mead notebook. A woman smiles from six feet away. I thank God for this moment of mental health.

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The Weight of Looking Back
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

The Weight of Looking Back

Many of us can name where we were when significant historical events happened or when your personal life changed dramatically. This type of episodic memory is important and for many captures key turning points in our personal and communal lives.

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Surviving Covid-19
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Surviving Covid-19

Like the simple protective steps to physical health, steps in protecting our mental health are not rocket science but ordinary.  Below are some suggestions you might try if you are emotionally struggling like so many others at this difficult time.

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Is Peace Possible During a Pandemic?
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Is Peace Possible During a Pandemic?

And when those lonely, hopeless times come, and you feel weighed down by the darkness of this world on your shoulders, I encourage you to remember the promise of our faithful God who said "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

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Liminal Spaces
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Liminal Spaces

In entering liminal space you leave behind your former ideals and conventions, the status quo, the ordinary routines, inherited mindsets. You also leave behind your safety zone; you exit your place of security. You step out into a space where you will see things differently, where your world view might be shattered, where your existing priorities might be turned upside down.

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Maintaining and Bulding Resilience
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Maintaining and Bulding Resilience

These are difficult times by anyone’s standards.  The uncertainty of the future, the fear of disease, sickness, and death, the growing financial anxiety, etc., etc., etc.  Our old ideas of normal have been uprooted.  A new normal has demanded space in our lives that is unfamiliar and that threatens our useful routines and traditions.  How do we remain strong in such a time?

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Corona-mommy
video Elizabeth Hirata video Elizabeth Hirata

Corona-mommy

SCG Staff Therapist JoAnn Mullinix, NC Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate and mother, shares insights and reflections on the new normal as a parent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Managing News Media Intake During a Pandemic
video Elizabeth Hirata video Elizabeth Hirata

Managing News Media Intake During a Pandemic

SCG Staff Therapist Megan Clark, NC Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate, discusses managing news media intake during the COVID-19 Pandemic and how to deal with the anxiety that comes with a 24-hour news cycle.

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Help Me, I’m Trapped!  Boundaries While Social Distancing
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Help Me, I’m Trapped! Boundaries While Social Distancing

If you have been social distancing for more than a week, the “snow day” mentality has likely worn off for you—that feeling that we all get when we get a day off for the weather, as if it’s a day out of time, lost to work and given over into fun and adventure.  For the last few weeks, we have been hit with the sobering reality that these days are long and we are not quite sure when they will end. 

For almost everyone, this has strained our coping mechanisms.  While most folks are feeling grateful for their loved ones, those same folks seem to be ready to pull their hair out on occasion, at the seemingly boundaryless environment that social distancing has created.  In the spirit of coming out of these trying days with our familial relationships intact and perhaps even stronger, let’s look at some ways we can observe healthy boundaries while keeping ourselves physically safe:

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Taking Care of your Relationships During a Pandemic
Elizabeth Hirata Elizabeth Hirata

Taking Care of your Relationships During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 Pandemic has taken the world by storm, wreaking havoc on many American families.

The frustration and disappointment of the new “normal” can cause discord in the home.

So, how can we take care of our relationships during these stressful, scary, uncertain times?

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