How To Process Covid Trauma And ‘Lost Year'

No birthdays or weddings, holidays or festivals… after many months of pressing pause on the moments that make life enjoyable, Hattie Parish discovers strategies to help you deal with feelings of loss

AS LIFE moves back towards normality, there’s no denying that the past year has inflicted changes far beyond wearing masks.

With ambitions taking a backseat and plans abolished, even those who haven’t lost loved ones have suffered some kind of loss.

While there’s no real way to be at peace with putting our lives on hold, we can begin to process what’s happened to us with a view to moving towards a brighter future, explained psychotherapist Lou Lebentz.

“The pandemic is external to us. All we can control is what’s happening within us – how we look at the loss and grief, what we do with it, how we acknowledge it and move through it.” To do this, we need to recognise how the body responds to a trauma.