The Loneliness Epidemic: How to Support Clients Who Feel Unseen, Unheard, and Devalued

Course overview

The United States Surgeon General has referred to loneliness as a silent epidemic, affecting close to 50% of the US population and negatively impacting people's mental and physical health. In fact, in the US, more than 25% of emergency room visits are said to be related to loneliness. Loneliness does not refer to being physically alone in a particular environment. Rather, loneliness is related to feeling alone in our hearts -- it is the feeling of being emotionally disconnected from others. As human beings, we all know how devastating effects of loneliness on mental health can be. And as mental health professionals, we've seen clients in the throes of this painful emotion. We've all had a client who enters sessions closed-off and unreachable no matter how hard we try to break through. When clients are combating feelings of loneliness (and often, shame), sharing intimate details about these painful experiences with a stranger can feel impossible. Many clients have simply never learned the vocabulary to describe their emotions and explain what they're going through. This course will focus on breaking down loneliness into its subcomponents -- feeling unseen, unheard, and devalued, as well as offer practical steps clinicians can implement to help their clients to identify feelings of loneliness, reduce stigma they may be carrying about experiencing this universal emotion, and learn ways to cultivate their feelings of belonging.