Tag Archives: managing anxiety and uncertainty

When windows get smashed

The window of tolerance after Cyclone Gabrielle is shifting. Here’s what it means for response and recovery.  In Dan Siegel’s book, The Developing Mind, he describes how everyone has a range of intensities of emotional experience that they can comfortably experience, process and integrate. This is the ‘window of tolerance’, and it varies widely. For […]

Omicron incoming

Prepare for surging case numbers over the next days to come. It will take some time for us to come to terms with this changing reality. Already, people are coming forward to be tested in greater numbers in Auckland – this will probably increase the number of identified cases in days to come. What can […]

Navigating Omicron: Safe Uncertainty

Exiting the pandemic now is unrealistic Transitioning into what happens next is likely to be bumpy. What comes next – some people are talking about endemicity – is undefined. Whatever comes next will look very different in different places in the world, continuing to magnify and intensify inequities that pre-existed the pandemic. The strength of […]

Staying vigilant

As we watch and wait it’s important not to be lulled into a false sense of safety in this new uncertainty.  The experts tell us that we will likely experience a lag before we detect cases and confirm that there are indeed more omicron cases in the community. So, we need to maintain our safe […]

Omicron community outbreak in New Zealand

We are moving from a place of what people can call a place of relative safe certainty to, hopefully, a place of safe ‘uncertainty’ again. We know what we can do to remain safer & slow down & reduce the clinical burden on people, the health system & containing outbreaks Understand that you have three […]

Omicron: What Now?

Omicron is making its way around the world, and this is hard. Hard for everyone who has been looking forward to engaging with life again, everyone who is tired, and everyone who just wishes this was over. I hear you, I see you. It is difficult to think about this, but we must. We won’t […]

The New Covid Protection Framework: Initial Thoughts

The Prime Minister outlined the new Covid Protection Framework this morning. Here are some of the key points from a psychological point of view Outlining the new structure and how it will work will be helpful for most people. And it clear that the goal is to carry on vaccinating at speed and scale to […]

​​We have complex feelings about the pandemic response right now. Here’s why.

Impending doom and an overwhelming sense of grief for all that we may have lost, even as the pandemic has played out over the last 20 months in New Zealand. This is the gist of just some conversations and expressions I’ve heard over the past few days.  Why are we feeling like this? Why now? […]

One degree of separation: New Zealand’s Superpower and Covid-19 Vulnerability

We’ve all experienced the superpower. You meet someone and it turns out you both know someone in common. It can happen anywhere, in New Zealand, and even around the world when we travel. And it usually happens pretty early in the conversation too. It’s the social glue that is our superpower It brings us joy, […]

When the flightpath changes

Imagine you’re on a glide path to landing on the runway after a long and bumpy flight. You’re uncomfortable, and aching to stretch your legs, arrive at your destination and indulge in some home comforts and company. But suddenly, there’s a gust of wind, and a storm blows up out of nowhere. The tannoy bings […]