Online positive psychology coaching reduced anxiety, stress and hopelessness during pandemic in females during Covid- 19 lockdown in Karachi

Authors

  • Khizra Jamil and Aisha Riaz Institute of Professional Psychology, Bahria University, Karachi Campus

Keywords:

Positive psychology, Anxiety. Stress, Gratitude

Abstract

The wave of Covid 19 pandemic has hit the entire world but it has potentially effected the under developing countries like Pakistan in which health, finance, education and other sectors were already instable and insecure. Due to existing crises, not only the tangible resources and life opportunities are effected but it has also significantly resulted in chaos, stress and anxiety among people which has reached to an alarming level now. In this regard, the current study was aimed to help group of females who were dealing with anxiety, stress and hopelessness due to prevailing situation of Covid 19. The group of females were consisted of 12 females aged between 18 to 24 years who were stuck at their homes for at least 1 month and reported symptoms of anxiety, stress and hopelessness. After formal consent and informing participants about rules of group, each participant was asked to fill out the questionnaires to proceed. The Beck anxiety inventory (BAI-2), Perceived stress scale (Cohen, 1994) and Adult hope scale (Synder, 2002) was used to evaluate the symptoms in each participant. The medium of communication was online and group based and total 8 sessions were conducted which lasted 60 mins each. The sessions were roughly divided into an opening, middle discussion and closure. The opening of each session was aimed to discuss the challenges faced by participants in last week in which each participant was allowed to share their experience of anxiety and stress. The middle of the session was focused on discussion and techniques of positive psychology for reducing problematic symptoms in participants. The group focused on positive techniques like strength exploration, understanding dimensions of happiness, meaning of gratitude, keeping gratitude journal and positive beliefs, mindfulness, acts of kindness, empathy ,organization of life by managing daily routine and overall self-care and assessment. The closure of each session was based on general feedback and questions. The results shows that females who participated in online session reported significant reduction (p<0.05) in anxiety, stress (p<0.05) and hopelessness (p<0.05). Furthermore, participants also revealed that their ability to deal with stress and hopelessness is improved. The results suggests that in special situations like these, mental health practitioners can play their role by offering online sessions and help people suffering from mental health issues.

 

Published

2020-07-10

Issue

Section

New decade on Social Sciences