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In a recent Small Animal Talk blog post ‘Can resilience inoculate against burnout, depression and suicide?‘ Nadine discussed why some people seemed to be affected more severely by the common stressors within the veterinary industry than others. She suggested it came down to an individual’s coping skills, personality, optimism and resiliency all of which seemed like great topics for Blog Posts. So here’s Part 1: Coping Skills.
When we are coping with things, this typically indicates we are managing to deal with the ups-and-downs of everyday life without it causing us too much distress. However, when we are not coping, it’s a whole different ball game!
If we are not coping, some of us may feel:
We all have different levels of coping, which can in turn have an impact on our level of resiliency – the higher our resiliency (or ability to bounce back from things), the better our wellbeing tends to be. Therefore, being able to cope with the demands of our personal circumstances is essential.
Having a good toolbox of coping skills is essential, and the great news is that you can learn how to expand on your current repertoire of strategies.
Some ways you can develop coping skills are by:
Some coping skills I like to recommend to my clients are:
The good news is that all of these strategies can be learned.
Even better they were instrumental in achieving promising results in my doctoral research which is why I have included them in my upcoming workshop.
If you have any questions for Nadine about the importance of coping or how to develop coping skills, why not ask her in the Comments section below?
Dr Nadine Hamilton is a psychologist who spent over six years researching veterinarian wellbeing at a doctoral level. Her research investigated why the rate of suicide in this profession is so high as well as developing an evidence-based psycho-educational intervention program. Nadine has since commenced new doctoral research (PhD) to extend her research into veterinary wellbeing and works exclusively with the veterinary profession. Positive Psych Solutions is her boutique psychology practice that is also home to the revolutionary intervention program "The Coping & Wellbeing Program for Veterinary Professionals".
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