FSOS extends discount on Ambiguous Loss certificate program

Dr. Pauline Boss, professor emeritus, Family Social Science.

While vaccines are shining a light into the dark tunnel of the ongoing pandemic, the stress and unresolved feelings brought on by the unrelenting uncertainty – ambiguous loss – continues to hover like a dark cloud.

Dr. Pauline Boss, professor emeritus of Family Social Science, has spent a considerable chunk of 2020 advising colleagues, discussing how to cope with ambiguous loss with media, and finishing another book on the topic. To expand access to the theory and practice of ambiguous loss, Boss and FSOS collaborated with Education Technology Innovations to create an online certificate course. FSOS has extended a 25 percent discount on the five-module Ambiguous Loss course through June 30, 2021.

Designed for those in a variety of helping professions – social workers, mental health practitioners, laity and more – the online course showcases Dr. Boss sharing her 30 years of groundbreaking work that connects family science and sociology with family therapy and psychology. The course will help mental health professionals across a variety of disciplines help their constituents and clients find meaning and discover hope in the face of ambiguous losses. She has worked with individuals and families coping with a variety of ambiguous loss circumstances:  an armed service member missing in action, loss of a loved one in the attacks of 9-11, and natural disasters, as well as those care-giving family members and patients with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Learn more at at the FSOS Ambiguous Loss web page.

Understanding how you’re feeling

In addition, Dr. Boss’ offers these tips to understand the anxiety caused by COVID- 19:

  1. When we are accustomed to solving problems and controlling trouble, our anxiety spikes when we are faced with a situation that has no clear end date.
  2. The uncertainty and ambiguity for not knowing precisely what to do to avoid trouble makes us feel helpless WITH  high anxiety.
  3. What is required to lower our anxiety and feelings of helplessness is to shift to “both/and thinking”: the situation is both bad and eventually manageable if we do what the scientists and experts recommend.
  4. We can calm ourselves by letting go of absolute thinking: “it’s nothing to worry about” versus “we’re all going to die!” The middle ground can be  more calming: “Yes, it’s both dangerous and  manageable. It is both a terrible time and a time to come together for the greater good.” I am now home alone and also connected to others via technology (or singing from our balconies together!).
  5. This pandemic is both dangerous and a problem we can help to manage. We are not helpless. There is something we can do. Stay home, stay away from groups, stop traveling, discover new ways to be a couple or family by entertaining one another at home, or help the truly helpless in your neighborhood or building. Find something you can control – even if it is only cleaning your desk or your closet. It will make you feel better even as the larger situation is not yet under control.
  6. And reduce the amount of anxiety-producing TV, news or movies you are watching. This is the time for more calming films, music, books, and games­–an old idea that can ease our anxiety now.

FSOS collaborates with Alumni Association to offer more advice

Faculty members in Family Social Science shared their expertise on a variety of topics related to the pandemic with the University of Minnesota Alumni Association. This story has details on these free resources.