The COVID-19 pandemic has brought along with it a myriad of mental health issues and to provide us with some hope, a Turkish association has recently been recognized by the acclaimed journal Springer for their work in online therapy during the pandemic.
The Turkish EMDR Association Trauma Healing group is using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) in helping healthcare workers, their families and civil servants who are working on the frontline during the outbreak cope with the trauma that comes with their everyday work.
EMDR therapy works by replacing the distressing memories of a traumatic experience with positive thoughts and emotion. It’s a therapy used in PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) to relive the patient from the traumatic experience. It is effective in about 5 sessions and can be relied on as a psychological support.
The group extends a helping hand to individuals in close contact with the patients also to potential new cases that ranges from healthcare to law enforcement and crisis management. The group had actually presented a program for online therapy at a European even lat year. Emre Konuk, director of the Turkish EMDR Association Trauma Healing said that while the pandemic emerged a year later they were working on ethical issues and challenges regarding the online therapy. When the pandemic broke out, they trained 500 people on online therapy and divided them into groups. They held sessions with about 600 people and found the therapy worked which helped them publish their work in the Springer.
The online program enabled the association to reach out to people all around the country. Konuk mentioned that healthcare workers are the ones that require such an intervention the most as they sacrifice their lives and time with their loved ones even at the constant risk of infection for the greater good.
The online program helps people reduce the extent of their suffering and can be used as an example by others to tackle mental health issues because a healthy mind is as important as a healthy body to get through this virus outbreak.
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