(by Lori Chortkoff Hops, PhD, DCEP)

The holiday season, coined the most wonderful time of the year, can offer beauty, but can also deliver acute stress. Pressure to live up to an image of perfect gatherings, meals, and gifts, can render feelings of inadequacy or exhaustion in people when comparing real life to the dream. Festive parties may be coupled with tense conversations when folks don’t see things eye to eye. Clients may feel especially alone in their experiences, thinking others are fine, even though many share these uncomfortable reactions to supposedly cheery days. 

Mental Health Struggles During the Holidays

According to a NAMI study, 64% of those with mental health problems faced increased symptoms, such as more severe depression, manic behavior, and suicidal urges during the holidays. These symptoms may cause those suffering to pull away from others, or experience increased interpersonal friction, abuse, or violence, creating a downward spiral of more extreme social isolation and hopelessness. The pandemic has presumably made these reactions worse, due to long periods of staying at home, facing possible illness, and even losing loved ones. One study showed an increase in anxiety and depression among adults in the US between August 2020 and February 2021. 

Holiday Helpers

Practitioners are trained to be aware of the greater risk of worsening symptoms for their clients during the holiday times. For instance, it is important to remind your clients of what coping strategies already work for them, as it is easy to forget to use what they know when under stress. You may want to discuss with clients anticipated holiday pressures and triggers before the big day(s) arrive. Along with typical triggers unique to your clients are holiday specific changes, such as spending time with people whom they don’t prefer, enduring long trips in crowded or confined spaces, or being alone or away from loved ones. 

Common seasonal solutions may involve:

• setting realistic financial plans to spend wisely on gifts and parties.
• assembling a team of available helpers to ease with holiday cooking, shopping or travel.
• monitoring use of alcohol, drugs, food or other substances which are often abundantly available at parties and in pantries, leading to potential overuse and/or relapse. 
• watching for reactions when reminiscing about the good old days with family and friends; it may bring out heightened grief missing those who are no longer around. 
• assessing clients for signs of depression, risky behavior and suicidal intentions.
• scheduling extra therapy or counseling appointments if needed. 
• providing that back up services are in place for your clients if you are out of the office. Give your clients local and national contact resources in case of emergency. For example, the National Suicide Prevention Line is 1-800-273-8255. 

Moving beyond conventional interventions to include energy practices affords your clients additional layers of support. Energy practices can be customized for seasonal needs. 

Energy Practices to Add Cheer

If your clients are reacting to holiday greetings of bliss and joy with the opposite reactions possibly of negativity, angst, or dark moods, psychological/psychoenergetic reversals may be the culprit. If so, they can be addressed through focusing on releasing trapped energy and information. A free guide to addressing reversals may be helpful. Here are some other ideas to consider:

• Play up the gratitude so often found in holiday greetings, movies and songs. Write a gratitude list each day counting down until a celebration, or write a list of 12 months in review, to be reminded of what to be thankful for as we close out the end of the year. Tap or hold the space between the eyebrows to reinforce good feelings, or do some calm breathing as shown in this video from Resources For Resilience on the ACEP website.
  
• Reinforce healthy boundaries by strengthening the biofield with chakra exercises, such as weaving the chakras and connecting heaven and earth from Eden Energy Medicine, or other energy practices such as massage, Reiki or hatha yoga.
  
• Entrain the brain by listening to music designed to induce relaxation, or guided mediations on gratitude.
  
• Create a personalized meditation track for your client you can record on their phone in session, which they can keep and listen to in between appointments.
  
• Manage triggers by creating advanced techniques like designing a customized energy plan, such as EFT tapping scripts, customized chakra or meridian sequences, or affirmations to enhance competency and success. 

Make room to appreciate the little things in life, slow down and enjoy, and you’ll create a safe and welcoming space to share with your clients and those in your personal life.

ACEP is here to support you as you support your clients. We offer training in EFT to enhance your skills in energy practices. Consider joining a community of practice to meet fellow practitioners, to bolster your support network. Sign up to join us at our next live in person conference. Registration opens in mid January. Sign up for alerts to get best pricing. Let’s celebrate what we are and who we are becoming, as we all create a bridge into the new year.

Author

Lori Chortkoff Hops, PhD, DCEP is a licensed psychologist in Westlake Village, California, USA. She is certified in Comprehensive Energy Psychology and Logosynthesis. Lori is president of ACEP (www.energypsych.org), and is a Reiki master. Learn more about Lori at www.drlorihops.com.