Finding Joy Through the Holiday Season - Ways for families to feel the familiar in unfamiliar times

Sandra M. Chafouleas, Ph.D. recently wrote a piece for Psychology Today that aims to help families as we enter the holiday season:

The typical holiday season can bring forth any number of emotions, from anger and sadness to joy and awe. Family traditions – those repeated and symbolically meaningful holiday rituals – play a big role in shaping your feelings throughout the season. Families traditions can buffer conflicts, boost positive feelings, and bring people closer together.

The pandemic is bringing an atypical holiday season this year, presenting change in the things we do, the way we do them, and who we do them with. We may miss out on getting together in person with family and friends, traveling to cherished places, or taking part in our traditional celebrations. Forced upon us, these unfamiliar changes can evoke feelings of loss and frustration.

As a very unfamiliar holiday season approaches, we can still find ways to bring familiarity and predictability — and the sense of comfort that goes with that — with some adaptations to our family traditions.

In her piece, Dr. Chafouleas, a licensed psychologist and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, offers advice for ways to adapt family traditions and help restore a sense of well-being while embracing the unfamiliar — and uncomfortable —differences in the holidays this year.

Dr. Chafouleas is available to speak with media regarding this subject - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.