Answers to the following questions are below

Q: How do I know if I need professional mental, emotional, or spiritual support?

Q: How do I know if I am considered eligible for free brief therapy (up to 4 sessions?)

Q: Who is considered a front line worker?

Q: What can I accomplish in 4 sessions? (*If I am eligible)

Q: How can I schedule 4 free sessions, if I am eligible?

Q: If a therapist, pastor or chaplain is publicly Christian, will they only be providing professional service to folks who are also Christian?

Q: If I only seek compassionate listening and prayer with a Christian pastor or chaplain, how do I get started? (*If I qualify)

Q: What are the two directories?

Q: Why do you have two directories?

Q: How can I get involved to volunteer my services?

Q: Why are you only accepting licensed counseling professionals at this time?

Q: How do these directories operate?

Q: How did these directories get started?

 

Q: How do I know if I need professional mental, emotional, or spiritual support?

A: If you aren’t functioning the way you would like, in a health-full manner, please consider speaking with a therapist, pastor, or chaplain for your concerns. They can guide or refer you in the best direction according to their professional training and experience.

 

Q: How do I know if I am considered eligible for free brief therapy (up to 4 sessions?)

A: If you work as a professional on the front lines, as a healthcare worker, or as a first responder.

 

Q: Who is considered a front line worker?

A: Front line workers include 1) volunteers who are making grocery trip rounds and pharmacy rounds to pick up needed medications and grocery products for the elderly and immune-compromised in their communities, 2) pharmacists, 3) police and local governance keeping our streets and communities safe, 4) truck drivers, 5) nurses and doctors, 6) factory workers, 7) farmers, 8) airline and airport staff, 9) lab techs and scientists, 10) janitors and garbage collectors, 11) journalists and reporters, 12) mental health and social workers working for public institutions such as NPO hospitals and federally- or state-run prisons and jails, 13) caregiver professionals who cannot WFH, 14) veterinarians, 15) grocery store workers, 16) delivery employees, 17) restaurant and food service professionals who cannot WFH, 18) manual labor workers who cannot WFH, 19)

 

Q: What can I accomplish in 4 sessions? (*If I am eligible)

A: Solution Focused Brief Therapy is a type of evidence-based therapy that hones in on one particular identifiable problem. It is easy to walk into therapy with an umbrella of problems – meaning to say, you can identify the lowest common denominator – or the umbrella, category – but then have 20 or 30 talking points hanging off the umbrella’s points. For SFBT to be effective, one of two things must happen in the first session: Either 1) you identify a singular goal you would like to reach in four sessions or 2) you inform your therapist that you need help identifying one particular goal to work on over the course of four sessions. In the following 2-3 sessions, SFBT works most effectively when 1) you are open and transparent about how you are held back from reaching the goal, 2) your therapist provides you with medical interventions, and 3) you comply with those interventions during the session as well as 4) you practice the skills of those interventions outside of those sessions. By the fourth or last session, it is appropriate to measure and determine the efficacy of the skills, and determine how to continue using those skills or transferring to another resource so that you can increase your functioning towards the first identified goal.

 

Q: How can I schedule 4 free sessions, if I am eligible?

A: Please find a therapist in your state on this directory. Research their background to see if you feel comfortable reaching out. When you reach out, please do the following: 1) Inform them you found them through Counseling Care Circle’s free directory of therapists who are offering services to front line workers. 2) State your background and what your role is as a front line worker. 3) Inquire if they have any free hours left to offer, or if they are currently completing their volunteered hours with someone else. And, state, your interest in receiving that free support. 4) Ask them for the next best steps to schedule a time.

 

Q: If a therapist, pastor or chaplain is publicly Christian, will they only be providing professional service to folks who are also Christian?

A: No, all the therapists on our free directories are open to seeing and helping people of any background and worldview.

 

Q: If I only seek compassionate listening and prayer with a Christian pastor or chaplain, how do I get started? (*If I qualify)

A: Please find a therapist in your state on the Christian professionals directory. Research their background to see if you feel comfortable reaching out. When you reach out, please do the following: 1) Inform them you found them through Counseling Care Circle’s free directory of pastors and chaplains who are offering services to front line workers. 2) State your background and what your role is as a front line worker. 3) Inquire if they have any free hours left to offer, or if they are currently completing their volunteered hours with someone else. And, state, your interest in receiving that free support. 4) Ask them for the next best steps to schedule a time.

 

Q: What are the two directories?

A: 1) CounselingCareCircle.com/Covid19-therapist-directory. 2) Christianprayerandlistening.com

 

Q: Why do you have two directories?

A: This was our best response to multiple needs present. We realize that people want and need trauma-informed mental health support. We realize that some people want to seek out a professional who is publicly Christian. We also realize that some people seek prayer for their concerns, whether they themselves are religious or not, whether they themselves are spiritual or not. We realize that some people want a professional helper, and it doesn’t matter to them what are the professional’s publicized beliefs. We made two directories so people can find the resources they need in as comfortable and relevant way, as humanly possible, for their own specific needs.

 

Q: How can I get involved to volunteer my services?

A: Thank you for your heart of gold. Please submit your information on this google form, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBAblQwQQ_UzVRUcR2w_Ah3mPahLqYC0XAQWIuYfLvrlAvxQ/viewform.

 

Q: Why are you only accepting licensed counseling professionals at this time?

A: After speaking with our risk management team, and a lawyer, we have learned and subsequently determined that we can legally provide professional references to other professional therapists and multicultural professionals (a la religious support such as Christian pastors and priests and chaplains). Beyond that, our liability does not cover for providing references to the public, about support given by non-licensed and non-insured volunteers, who are not professionals in the field: In other words, it is not considered best practice by a mental health professional. Those who wish to volunteer in this way of compassionate listening, without such professional background, are nevertheless and even more so appreciated for such compassion and generosity. Unfortunately at this time, our moral appreciation is all we can offer to the volunteers we have to turn away.

 

Q: How do these directories operate?

A: The two directories are 100% volunteer run by Ellice Park. This is again, due to the legal liability taken on by Counseling Care Circle, to provide the volunteer work of connecting resources to frontline workers, healthcare workers, and first responders. The legal and financial liability is not taken on by any of the therapists on the free directories, nor is it taken on by any of the anonymous volunteers who are on the COVID19 Prayer Team. That said, the legal and financial liability is restricted according to the terms and conditions publicized on the directory web pages, and does not extend to the user’s personal interactions with the listed professionals through email, text, message, phone, video, or other modes of contact. This is because the listed professionals are not in contractual relationship with Counseling Care Circle – they are only professional references to consider and research for use of services.

 

Q: How did these directories get started?

A: One of Ellice’s doctor friends asked for mental health support resources for other doctors and other healthcare workers. She also immediately added Ellice to her new facebook group, COVID19 for HEALTHCARE WORKERS. Ellice and a mental health team was formed and then was tasked with gathering and providing mental health and spiritual care resources to healthcare workers on the field as soon as possible. In less than 2 weeks, the membership for the group grew to over a quarter million in number, and still continues to grow today. In speaking with the other members of the mental health admin team, it was clear that nobody else in the admin team either 1) were licensed professional counselors themselves or 2) preferred to not take on the financial and legal liabilities involved to publicize resources. Ellice inquired with a lawyer, reviewed with her risk management, and determined she not only could shoulder the liability and risks, but also was willing to move forward. So, the two directories were created.

 

Please do share these resources for everyone’s benefit. If our frontline and first responders succumb mentally – they will be weakened – and if they fall to the virus or other deadly infections – we won’t have a frontline and first response of defense. We all need each other.

Published 29 March 2020. A Service project by Counseling Care Circle.