Building Self-Efficacy (post crises)

Self-efficacy, confidence in one's own ability to create change, undertake behaviors, is essential for optimum mental health. So much so that it is a major marker for depression. In fact, while doing through the literature on psychological fir aid for disaster and trauma survivors, I came across building self-efficacy, of a community or an individual, as an important part of the rehabilitation process.

So how does one go about building self-efficacy, especially after one has gone through immense failure and loss?

Staying the realm of psychology only, one can go down the route of regular counseling, and even hypnotherapy or EDMR, which has shown great success for trauma victims. However psychological first aid adopts a more behavioral approach.

Building self-efficacy in such a case is best developed through a series of practice situations, given to a survivor (or even a community). It could be as simple as collecting water or cooking food. However, these practice situations get increasingly difficult. One success helps build the confidence and self-belief for a bigger, more difficult task. These incremental successes, over time, create a more realistic sense of self-efficacy, belief in one's own ability to exert certain behaviors, create change.

There is surely a cognitive aspect to this as well, where each success may be celebrated or used as encouragement by a counselor. Connectedness to the community and therefore to a central cause can also be a great motivator in building self-efficacy. Therefore as there can be a plan for an individual, there can also be a plan for the whole community, helping them regain a lost sense of control.

Although the principle here discusses psychological first aid for disaster or trauma survivors, it is clear how such an approach can be helpful for sports coaches, business mentors, leader of an organization, and so on. Loss and failure are an inevitable part of life, for people as well as for communities. Knowing how to deal with it is paramount to getting becoming long term successes. 

Perhaps in these times of crises due to corona and its economic impact, such knowledge would be beneficial for almost everyone.

Umair Usman is a Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner, a businessperson, and a blogger. You can know more about him at https://buff.ly/2zmc9rj . To book a free consultancy session, please fill the form https://tinyurl.com/y6n2vv8w