Recent hurricanes like Helene and Milton have brought to light the many ways in which we are at the mercy of Mother Nature. As much as we try to prepare for any natural disaster, it seems, to some extent, we will always be taken by surprise. Moreover, there are some forms of natural disasters for which we simply cannot prepare. For example, Hurricane Helene was an extremely powerful and catastrophic hurricane that caused widespread destruction and fatalities across the Southeastern United States. It is at times like these that we ask ourselves: What can be done for the victims of natural disasters?

Beyond the physical needs, such as safety, food, and water, there remains the emotional residue of living through an experience that threatens one’s life. In searching for meaning in the aftermath of a traumatic experience, people can develop new perspectives on life, which leads to an adjustment in values, beliefs, and priorities. The experience becomes incorporated into their sense of self, helping them to see themselves as stronger, more capable, and more appreciative of life.

While there may be much disagreement about what causes natural disasters and how we can better prepare for them, one thing is for sure – they will continue to happen. They will continue to challenge us physically and psychologically, and there will continue to be a need for clinicians educated and experienced in working with the victims. A clinician who is well versed in the psychological impact of natural disasters and who understands the experience of having a life severely uprooted, and even threatened, by the forces of nature can help clients feel less alone and more understood. They may be able to help their clients overcome their reticence to seek treatment. The clinician can be most helpful, perhaps, by helping their client to gain perspective on the natural disaster and adversity in general. By providing clients the opportunity for psychological growth and to change their outlook after a natural disaster, clinicians can help them to see themselves and their experiences differently.

It can be difficult for a clinician to know how to respond to life events that come with little to no warning and uproot clients’ lives. Often these experiences shatter clients’ fundamental beliefs and assumptions about themselves, the world around them, and the future – what is known as their “assumptive world.” This frequently leads to a sense that “nothing is safe” at a time when safety is most needed. Further, clients can often feel so overwhelmed by their experiences and their emotional responses to them that cognitive processing is jeopardized. For these reasons, the way in which a clinician responds to the client is of critical importance.

Develop An Optimistic Perspective on Adversity

What we believe about adversity directly and significantly impacts how we respond to it. For many people, simply learning that reports of growth experiences in the aftermath of traumatic events far outnumber reports of psychiatric disorders is extremely sobering. There is evidence that if we can train people to be more psychologically resilient – that is, less catastrophic in their thinking and more optimistic and more hopeful – then they function better when they encounter traumatic situations.

Do a Mental Rehearsal

Mental rehearsal helps people develop a mental blueprint of a performance or activity and helps them visualize how they can overcome and manage obstacles and challenges that may arise. Mental rehearsal is a powerful tool that helps us manage either the stress of performing at our very best, being the first responder on a trauma team, or coping with a trauma ourselves.

So how can you use mental rehearsal to help your clients in the aftermath of a natural disaster? The first step is to ask your client to choose a place, situation, or feeling in which she would like to respond differently. For example, your client can choose a particular place, such as room in her house (or the remains of her house itself), a memorial for the victims, or a landmark of the damage. Your client may choose a situation, such as seeing her loved ones, cleaning up the remains, or speaking with media or your client may choose a feeling, such as fear, emptiness, or confusion.

Once your client has chosen what she would like to visualize, the next step is to describe how she would like to see herself responding. For example, she can say that she would like to see herself going home and entering her bedroom feeling calm. Or she can say that she would like to see herself speaking to her children in a kind loving manner.

Now that your client has an idea of how she would like to see herself responding, the last step is to rehearse this visualization mentally while considering the following:

• Describe the scene around you, the people involved, and what you are doing.
• Describe how you are feeling.
• Is there anything that is challenging, or that you are having to overcome? If so, what are you doing to manage these things?
• Are there any feelings that are hard or distressing? If so, what are you doing to manage these?
• Is there anything different about you? If so, describe.

Developing a mental blueprint for how she can respond to events, places, or feelings that are distressing is an empowering way for your client to separate herself from these events, see herself differently, and begin the process of responding differently with more resilience.

Ask Some Questions

Traumatic circumstances, characterized by their unusual, uncontrollable, potentially irreversible, and threatening qualities, can produce an upheaval in our major assumptions about the world, our place in it and how we make sense of our daily lives.

However, it is in reconsidering our lives that we plant the seeds for new perspectives and a sense that valuable, although painful, lessons have been learned.

Facing trauma makes us more likely to become cognitively engaged with fundamental existential questions about death and the purpose of life. A commonly reported change is for trauma survivors to place more value on the smaller things in life. They may also consider important changes in the religious, spiritual, and existential components of the philosophies of life.

Learn more about Counseling Victims of Natural Disasters

Counseling Victims of Natural Disasters is a 3-hour online continuing education (CE/CEU) course that examines how to help the victims, and witnesses, of natural disasters.

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Professional Development Resources is a nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992. We are approved to sponsor continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy, Psychology & School Psychology, Dietetics & Nutrition, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Occupational Therapy Practice; the Georgia State Board of Occupational Therapy; the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0135); the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board and Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology; the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs; the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists and State Board of Social Worker Examiners; and are CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within a few days of completion).

PDR offers over 150 accredited online CE courses for healthcare professionals. 

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