A crisis of disconnection
A Crisis of Disconnection...The Answer? eCPR!
Our world is facing a public health crisis of social isolation, loneliness, and disconnection. This crisis has been multiplied by a global pandemic and overwhelmed broken systems that can’t meet the needs of our community. The loneliness and disconnection folks feel often leads to addiction, depression, anxiety, and sometimes violence. What is the answer?
eCPR, Emotional CPR, is a community health education program that teaches people to assist another person in emotional distress or crisis. Developed by a diverse group of people with their own lived experiences with emotional distress and crisis, eCPR is a framework that shifts the way we are able to connect with our own emotions and hold space for the emotions of others in crisis. A few words from the definition explain the power and practice of eCPR. As a community program, eCPR is a practice for everyone and supports skill building and capacity for heart to heart connection with another person. The word assist recognizes that eCPR is not about fixing, judging, making assumptions, or referring someone to another resource. eCPR believes that every person is fundamentally whole and the most powerful gift we can give someone in emotional distress or crisis is supporting them in being seen, heard, and valued, just as they are.
eCPR is facilitated through three phases: Connect, emPower, and Revitalize. The foundation for eCPR is connection. Connection can be uncomfortable and sometimes difficult. The dance of connection sometimes has us feeling moments of disconnection weaving into reconnecting. Connection encourages compassion - both for ourselves and others. Heart to heart connection requires us to not just listen with our ears, but also with our eyes and hearts. The second phase is emPowerment. This is often the moment in connection when someone can hear their own voice, sometimes for the first time. Someone once described emPowerment as another person holding a candle providing light out of the darkness. I don’t think we can emPower someone, but I definitely believe we can support folks in tapping into and regaining their own power and voice. Revitalization is the phase that closes the connection, it’s often described as people finding new life or light. Sometimes revitalization inspires reconnection with goals, dreams, or big ideas; but often revitalization looks more like someone being able to take another breath or another step into what’s next.
eCPR draws on foundations like trauma informed practices, recovery principles, mutuality, cultural humility, and suicide prevention. Connection is prevention, and the creators of eCPR incorporated their learning from making it through their own experiences of distress and crisis to build a framework that creates authentic vulnerable space for people to explore their emotions. Crisis can be an opportunity to get in sync with our deepest values and beliefs. eCPR inspires connection that allows folks to connect with their emotional bodies. In wellness we often focus on physical, mental, and spiritual components, but don’t spend time sitting with or holding emotions. For many of us, there is baggage and judgment around emotions - what emotions are “good” or “bad,” what emotions feel safe to hold and express and what emotions we push away. By connecting with our emotions and creating safe spaces for the sharing of emotion, eCPR offers a framework for exploring crisis as an opportunity for growth and change.
Interested in eCPR? Our Wisconsin worker owned cooperative, Ebb & Flow Connections Cooperative, offers 2 hour intro workshops and a 12 hour practitioner certification. Learn more and register here.
