Putting on Our Own Oxygen Masks:Self-Care in Traumatic Times

The pandemic has added to the already complex roles of many faculty by requiring us to take on a number of possible new tasks--teach online, counsel struggling or traumatized students, home-school our children, and act as caregivers to ill or aging loved ones.  If trying to play these multiple new roles has been wearing you down, you are not alone. In a national survey conducted in November 2020, 87% of faculty agreed that the pandemic had made their jobs more difficult. Ongoing socio-political conflicts and economic pressures further compound these stressors in significant ways. Faculty often downplay our own suffering out of concern for what students and others we care about are experiencing. Nevertheless, it is crucial that we attend to our own needs in order to be able to continue to support students and our loved ones.

This interactive session, led by Jill Wardell of the Office of Workplace Learning, Organization Development, and Wellness and co-sponsored by the Faculty Development Center, offers participants the opportunity to acknowledge what we have been experiencing and to learn healthy ways of dealing with the ongoing stress wrought by the momentous challenges we have been dealing with.

Please click “Going” below to reserve your seat for this session, and we will send you a Google calendar invitation with a WebEx link one hour before the session. If you register less than an hour before the session, you will receive the WebEx link when you register. Please email fdc@umbc.edu if you have any questions. If you have registered and find that you can no longer attend, please kindly release your spot so that others may attend.