Creating Belonging & Connection in a Quarantined Ward | An Interview with Garrett Kroon

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Garrett Kroon holds a Psychology degree from Boise State and a Master’s degree in Counseling from Northwest Nazarene University, where he studied marriage, family, and couple therapy, and also trauma, grief, and crisis. He is a certified clinical anxiety treatment professional and a licensed professional counselor operating a practice in Meridian, Idaho.

Highlights

6:00 Survey of Leading Saints followers: most people concerned about connection, relationships, and belonging 7:35 How this is manifesting in his practice: anxiety has changed to depression, and is linked to feeling alone and disconnected 11:00 People are trying hard to do their best and figure out what to do as a leader 13:00 Understanding connection 13:30 The power of a sense of belonging and how it is different from social support: his experience reflecting on returning to school after losing his mother as a youth 18:40 Research found that a strong sense of belonging was a mitigating factor for depression, and social support does almost nothing 17:30 We are defaulting to social support over creating belonging because our meetings—which we normally use to do that—have been taken away 24:45 Single and older people have especially lost their sense of belonging; his experience connecting through letters 27:15 Phone calls with not purpose other than checking-in with people: making opportunities for creating a sense of belonging can require some creativity; don’t reject invitations when people reach out 31:20 Recognizing why connecting with individuals is so crucial and that even small interactions are powerful 33:20 Community-building is difficult but there are still people out there who are dying for a sense of belonging 38:15 Invitation to ask: How can I show up for you? 40:00 We may be able to do more good now than before because the lack of sense of belonging is so powerful 40:30 Trauma expert Dr. Russell Van Der Kolk identified seven pre-traumatic conditions people are experiencing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic: lack of predictability, immobility, loss of connection, numbing-out/spacing-out, loss of sense of time/sequencing, loss of safety, loss of sense of purpose 44:20 There will be people asking, “Why would I even go back?” and we can do a lot for them by doing a little 46:10 Belonging is a key to surviving this pandemic; be more aware of grace; we need to be mindful for ourselves and others that this is affecting all of us, even those who do not otherwise experience depression 53:00 No need to create unnecessary burnout or fix others, there is no cookie-cutter pattern for everyone; meaning and connection can be created in simple ways