Washington State EAP: Welcome to the Washington state EAP presentation on transitioning into the new work life: strategies for responding to change. I'm Kari Uhlman EAP counselor, and I'll be providing this presentation. If you would like a copy of the presentation slides you can find them online by going to eap.wa.gov, click on the webinar section and then look for the presentation slide link which can be found, under the title of this presentation. The workplace is different than it was prior to the pandemic with this transition its creating change in the workplace. You might find for yourself that you are returning or soon to be returning to the work site full time or part time. For some of you you've never left the work site and now, others will be joining you on site. Some of you might be working a hybrid model working part time from home and part time on the work site. For some, the plan might be for you to continue to work from home permanently. And for others, you might not know what's going to be happening next you might be in the unknown right now unsure when you're going to be returning on site, if you will be returning on site, if you'll be continuing in a hybrid model, what might be in store for you next in the workplace. This webinar is for all of you, whatever your particular situation. Today we're not going to be able to address all the individual and group situations, but we will talk about something that we're all experiencing change. We'll talk about the possible impact of these changes, strategies to help you cope with the transition, and I'll provide information on supports and resources that are available to you. Now our focus today is going to be on the mental emotional well-being of you and others, and so we won't be focusing on the physical safety portion so please feel free to refer to your organization policies, plans, procedures, protocols for information around safety, physical safety and today we'll spend our time, focusing on the mental and emotional well before. Before I get started, it might be helpful to know that the Washington state EAP network serves all Washington State agencies, as well as many other public service organizations throughout Washington, and this can include some in our higher education, school districts, tribal governments, counties and many others. If you're not sure if we are your EAP feel free to check with your human resources department. Since we have people joining us from all across the state and beyond, I just want to let you know that you are joining us with from all different types of organizations, so today when I refer to the workplace I'm talking about all the places that you work whether that's on a campus, school grounds, an agency an organization, for some other working from home, whatever situation you might be in. Also know that if you have questions that aren't addressed during this presentation today, or if you're needing additional support, or maybe this isn't meeting your needs and there's some additional help that you're needing, if you are in the Washington State EAP network, you can give us a call I'll provide the number in a moment. And then I'll provide the phone number again at the end of this presentation, so the Washington state EAP network phone number is 877-313-4455. Let's begin our time together today with reflecting on the journey that we've been on since March 2020. The Department of Health has identified phases that people go through in response to a disaster such as the pandemic. So, according to the Department of Health we've been collectively moving through four phases. The heroic phase. When I think of the heroic phase I think back to March and April of 2020 and I remember people banging pots and pans together to acknowledge and thank the healthcare workers and first responders and people engaging in heroic acts. Maybe you remember some of these experiences, or some of the things that you did during this phase. The next phase that we move through collectively was the honeymoon phase, and when I think of this phase, I think if people starting new hobbies or maybe people realizing some benefits of having a reduction of business in their personal life. The next phase that we moved into was the dissolution phase, and this was a place where people started questioning when is this going to be over and having heightened differences in beliefs around what's safe and what's not safe. And currently we're moving into or are in the reconstruction phase. To me this phase might be better called reconfiguration as we move forward into the unknown into the world and in the workplace. Now the Department of Health has identified that in this reconstruction phase, but there's some secondary phases, that we might go through while we're in the reconstruction phase. The secondary honeymoon phase. And we can see that, as people have been vaccinated and out and traveling more. The secondary disillusionment phase with an increase in differences, heightened differences around what's safe. And so the secondary phases can be going on as we are currently in the reconstruction face. So collectively we've been moving through these phases as communities as a state, as a nation and even beyond that but what I think it's important to recognize, is that although we've been having a collective experience with a pandemic, we have each had our own individual experience within the collective. And I think it's important to note that some communities and individuals have been more impacted over the past year, plus than others. Many black indigenous and people of color have experienced significant racial trauma in the past year, plus through witnessing the violence, death, and murder of people of color or experiencing racial profiling, racism, oppression or violence themselves or a loved one. Some people have experienced significant grief and loss with a loved one passing from COVID or some other means, but not being able to grieve and mourn in our traditional ways in our culture. For some they've had economic worries as their partner or loved one might have lost their job or their business. For others, maybe its mental illness that they've been experiencing or addiction or working to maintain their recovery or many other individual, family, and community experiences that people have been having since the beginning of the pandemic. And, of course, some of the things that I've named have been there, prior to the pandemic and then the pandemic intensified the experience or increased the experience for individuals, families and communities. Today we're not able to address all of the possible individual workplace or community situations and concerns or the larger important systemic issues. What we can talk about today, though, is considering how we can manage our way into an altered changed work environment and increase our understanding about what others might be experiencing and perhaps being more thoughtful in our interactions with each other. So let's start by talking about a model that can help us better understand what we might be experiencing and others might be experiencing as we move into whatever's next for us personally and professionally. I'd like to introduce you to William Bridges’ transition model. William Bridges, is most well-known for his work around the human side of change, he identified the psychological process that we move through when we're experiencing change as managing transitions. What I like to do is talk about this model and, as I do, I just encourage you to consider, where are you at in this moment in time with the transition you're in, around whatever's happening for you in the workplace, whatever your situation might be. So let's start with the first phase, which is called endings in this phase, the place where people are in the process of letting go. Letting go of how things were done before, and with that sometimes can be a letting go of one's identity that was associated with how things were done previously. So let me give an example, say, for instance you've been asked to return to the workplace, work site, or will be returning to the work site in the near future, just as an example, so your supervisor let you know that you'll be returning to the work site in two months. You hear this information and you start to experience lots of different feelings. It could be shock, I can't believe this is happening, denial I'm not going back on the work site, worry how am I going to start paying for childcare again, perhaps anxiety, anger I can't believe this is happening, chaos. It could be a mixture of feelings. Now you might have known for a long time that eventually you would be returning on site, so these feelings that come up can feel really confusing because part of your brain knows that you were going to be returning on site and the other part, is having all of these feelings. So one of the reasons the phase of the endings can be so confusing is because often people are experiencing loss, different forms of loss when they learn about a change or some part of the process of change. Now this loss could be, as I mentioned earlier, around your identity. It could be feeling a loss of your work identity, your personal identity, your cultural identity or some other form of identity for you. You can be feeling a loss of power or influence or the loss related to being a member of a group or relationships or maybe a loss related to feeling a loss of control, loss of status, maybe you're feeling less competent and you're feeling a loss there. It could be a loss around routines and structures or maybe your work or personal future or some other type of loss. So the feelings that you're having in the ending phase and any losses that you're experiencing with this is expected. This is a natural phase that people go through as they psychologically move through the internal process of change. So notice for yourself if you're currently having any of these feelings of endings around something in the workplace or if you've experienced this in the past. The second phase is called the neutral zone. Now the neutral zone is the in between time where the old ways are processes they're not completely gone, but the new ways and processes they're not in place yet so in this phase, people can feel really confused and uncertain and experience a lot of instability. Say for example, we think of someone who has been working at the work site, the entire time and now other people will be joining them. They might have concerns or feelings around people returning. It might feel like wait how's how how's this going to work? This worked well with fewer people, but now we're going to have more people in person. How is this going to work or it may be some feelings of kind of vacillating between excitement and worry. It can fluctuate back and forth or for some. You could be excited about a change, but still experienced the neutral zone where you might feel curious and excited but still unsure about how this is going to work out. And so, these feelings, whatever your feelings are in this phase feelings around uncertainty, lack of clarity those types of things, this is expected, and this is a natural response to change. So notice, if you recognize any of these feelings or experiences for yourself in this moment in thinking about the new work life. The third phase I'm calling it moving forward. William Bridges identifies it as new beginnings. Now to me moving forward is kind of, on the other side of the change. We have a sense of how things are going to work, we have a sense of clarity. Things have been worked out a little bit more, we might understand our role, and our purpose in whatever is this new place that we're in. And for some they may even have some hope and optimism, but that is definitely not a requirement for being in the moving forward phase someone could still be not happy about a change that's happened, but they feel internally like they kind of understand how this is going to work, I might not be happy about it, but I understand how it's going to work. So it's more of that place of clarity and feeling that understanding of how things might work and it might not be that everything is clear, but it's a greater sense of that. So this is the moving forward phase and so notice if you're having any glimpses of the moving forward phase with whatever's happening for you in the workplace, at this time. Now, it might be helpful to know that I’ve been talking about this model, as if it's very linear a step A, B and C and this is a not a linear process, because this is an internal psychological process in response to change it is not a linear process so that means we can ebb and flow through these phases. You can start to feel like perhaps even that you're in the moving forward phase with a change and then something happens. Something external, someone announces a new change that shifts things and then you go back to maybe the neutral zone or back to the ending phase. So you can ebb and flow through these phases, you can also be in more than one phase, at the same time. You can be in the ending phase, be experiencing loss, say around returning to in person interactions feel a sense of loss and not want to do that and, at the same time be in the neutral zone where you're trying to figure out and get a sense of clarity and feeling kind of in the unknown, so you can be in more than one phase, at the same time. So whatever phase or phases you're finding yourself in right now know that it's temporary and there you're going to shift to a different place at another time. And it's really expected that you would ebb and flow through these phases and that the feelings associated and the process is really a natural psychological process that we go through as humans in response to change. Sometimes naming where we're at in this model kind of thinking about it as a map and placing ourselves on the map can be helpful for us, help us to validate where we're at and to notice, maybe any losses that we're experiencing or feelings that we're having and that might be able to help us be okay with where we're at and know that eventually it's going to shift and change, and that is just part of the process. So now let's shift and talk a little bit more about how people have been impacted around this moving into whatever we're moving into next this new work life, and what we've been through. So I want to talk about how our minds and bodies are designed to respond to stressful events when we perceive a potential threat to our survival, attack or harm our minds and our bodies shift into this natural physiologic response fight flight or freeze response, and this is just our body’s automatic response. This is a good thing. Now our minds and bodies are not are not meant for us to do this for a prolonged period of time and with a pandemic our minds and bodies have been experiencing a significant amount of stress for a prolonged period of time. So what can happen for us is our nervous system can become over activated it can be like a light switch is turned on this over activated nervous system and, over time, we could start to feel very drained and tired and you can leave us with this small window of tolerance. And what I mean by a small window of tolerance, if you imagine a window pane and it's open and then you think about the pandemic and the different things that have happened for you and in our communities and in the world. And you think of those stressors and they're pushing the window pane down so that the window pane gets smaller and smaller. Our window of tolerance, can get smaller and smaller with all of the stressors we're experiencing and then what can happen is you can make it difficult for us to manage our mood, to manage stress, difficult to problem solve, make decisions, be tolerant and open minded, we can impact our physical health and much more. Now, if you are experiencing or have experienced a significant amount of stress since the beginning of the pandemic just know that you're not alone, sometimes that can be helpful to know that you're not alone. And how do I know this, that you're not alone? Well there's a lot of statistics that help us know that we're not alone in the stress that we've been experiencing with a pandemic, let me give you a few. So according to Forbes seven out of 10 workers, said the pandemic has been the most stressful time in their professional careers. The American psychological association found that eight in 10 or 78% said the pandemic is a significant source of stress in their life. The American psychological association also found that 49% of adults feel uneasy about returning to in person interactions. And it didn't matter what someone's vaccination status was it was a similar percentage for both those vaccinated or unvaccinated that there was this uneasiness around returning to in person interactions. So, as you can see, there has been a significant amount of stress that people have been experiencing with a pandemic. Now for some, their experience has been something more specific. It's around reentry anxiety or fogo, which is not a clinical term, but fogo is fear of going out. So for some they're having fears around re-entering the world and being around other people. Now to me, this makes sense because we have been training our brains, for a long period of time to physically distance, to not touch our face, to physically distance, to use lots of pre-cautionary measures, so we can't expect that our brain is simply going to suddenly shift and not have worries or fears and that's not how our brains work, so if you find yourself experiencing this just know that it could take some patience and time to adjust to more in person interactions and to be just physically around each other, whether that's in the workplace or in the world. Now for others, they have been experiencing a diagnosable mental health condition and with this having heightened levels of fear or tension and other symptoms and not limited to this, but it could be panic attacks or compulsive behaviors or social anxiety, or perhaps experiencing depression or post traumatic post-traumatic stress. For some, they may have experienced a mental health condition prior to the pandemic and then the pandemic intensified their symptoms, for others, they started experiencing these symptoms during the pandemic, with all of the stressors triggering a mental health condition. Now, you may think that it's not a very large percentage of the population in the State that has been experiencing a diagnosable mental health condition. I want to give you a statistic to help you have a better understanding, so that if you're experiencing this yourself you'll know you're not alone or, if this is not something that you're experiencing, you can have a better understanding what how many people are experiencing this and how common this is right now. Washington State has a population that's a little over 7 million citizens. And according to Dr Kira Mauseth clinical psychologist for the Department of Health, 4 million people in Washington State have had clinically significant levels of depression or anxiety during the pandemic so 4 million citizens in our state out of around 7 million citizens have been experiencing a diagnosable mental health condition. Now that number might actually be higher, because people don't always seek out help and also, there are a lot of other mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress and other mental health conditions that people have been experiencing during the pandemic, so this is a significant number of citizens in our state. Now for others, for some of you, your worries and concerns around say having more in person interactions in the world, or in the workplace that might be around some workplace cultural concerns so, for example, someone might have had some struggles with relationships at work, prior to the pandemic. Say perhaps there were some challenging team dynamics or interpersonal conflicts or bullying behaviors or maybe even harassment that someone was experiencing and then the pandemic and working from home actually has been a respite from these difficult interactions or there could be a situation where difficult dynamics occurred during the pandemic difficulties with interactions with others, and now the thought of returning in person and seeing someone in person can feel really overwhelming and stressful. Also people of color, LGBTQ, employees with disabilities, women and other marginalized employees, they may be concerned about returning to the workplace, where micro aggressions have occurred. And by micro aggressions I mean verbal, nonverbal slights snubs insults, whether they're intentional or unintentional, that communicate in a derogatory way or hostile way or negative messages targeting marginalized group membership. Other challenges that people might be concerned about in returning to in person interactions might be things like addiction issues. So addictions have been on the rise, during the pandemic and employees might have concerns around returning to being on site or having in person interactions as they're trying to manage their addiction or maintain their recovery or for others, they might have concerns around caregiving loved ones and have a lot of concerns around that and the thought of returning in person and leaving a child or a teen having them return to in person school or be with someone else, while they're returning as the adult caregiver in person that could be really challenging or worried about ones pets that have not been left on their own for significant periods of time or lots of different individual concerns now I mentioned all these different types of concerns to hopefully address some of the situations that you might have or experiences that you might be having but also to help us broaden our understanding of the different types of experiences people might be having with a pandemic, so that we can be more thoughtful and understanding as we're communicating with one another. So let's move into some strategies next to help us navigate our way into this new work life, whatever it is for you and for us. So I'm a counselor so I need to start talking about feelings that's what we do as counselors so what I'd like to talk about first is naming your feelings. You've already started to do this in thinking about the transition model that we talked about earlier and where you place yourself in that model can help you start to identify some of the feelings that you're having right now. Now there is a power in naming your feelings Dr. Daniel Siegel psychologist and well known author he calls this name it to tame it. Naming our feelings can really help us reclaim our emotions and get the reins on our emotions, or at least understand those are present not be overwhelmed as much, perhaps by them. The next thing that can be helpful, is to express your feelings and people have different ways of expression for some of you, it might be through physical movement, whether that's chopping wood or dancing or going for a walk. For others it might be something different, like writing or reading poetry listening to your favorite music, art or some other avenue. It may be sharing your feelings with others, talking with a compassionate friend, family member, community spiritual or religious leader, a counselor whether that's EAP counselor or another counselor. Sometimes, through our talking it helps us to even understand what we're feeling. Sometimes it's hard to know you know even what's going on for us internally. Talking to someone can help us ease our fears sometimes or help us broaden our perspective, clarify our feelings, release negative emotions, consider other options or possibilities, or perhaps create a different vision of the future. What can be helpful next is to just expect that you're going to have feelings and there might be a combination of feelings or feelings kind of shifting and changing. This is part of the human experience, having different types of feelings and as best we can, to accept the feelings or are going to be there. And when we can expect and accept and allow our feelings to arise oftentimes then it's easier for emotions to just naturally move through us. And, of course, sometimes we do get stuck and so just know we are here at the EAP, if you're part of the Washington State EAP network, we are here for you and I'll talk a little bit about how to connect with us for some additional support. Now we've really gotten used to having less in person interactions so if you're in a place where you're starting to have more in person interactions with others it might be helpful to know and expect that in person interactions might feel stilted or awkward your social skills may have atrophied a bit. You might have to put more effort in and focus on communicating. And just know that all of us are needing to do that. You're not alone in needing to kind of go back to looking at how we're communicating and our social skills, so it might take a little bit of time to redevelop our communication skills, but for most that will be something that will just naturally shift over time, a little bit of experience. So, the main thing to remember around feelings, is that they come and go like the weather. I really like Rainer Maria Rilke's quote, which is just keep going, no feeling is final. So we talked about looking at our feelings, expressing our feelings is one strategy. Another strategy that I think could be helpful, is to reflect on where you've been. You know it's been a year, plus however long it's been for you. The pandemic has really changed how we work, how we socialize how we live our lives its maybe even changed where you live. You know where each different than we were before the pandemic. Along this journey, you might have gained some insights so it can be helpful to reflect back on what you've learned and identify for yourself what has served you so you can pull that into the future with you, and if there's anything that you want to adjust or anything that you want to let go. Now you could do this through journaling you could just start journaling and reflect on since March 2020 what your experience has been, and that is, you know one way of reflection. Another I want to offer another activity that you could do to reflect and that's a two by two matrix so you could use this tool. If you think of a matrix and across the top row there's the word "like" and then the word "dislike" and those are the columns column of like in a column of dislike and then on the left column going down is pandemic and pre pandemic and then this forms some blank boxes in between. And so you could use those blank spaces to really get specific about what has been what your experience has been like and reflect on that and possibly from that be able to pull some things that you want to continue doing as you move forward. It might be focusing on your mental health or self-care, it could be a continuing those daily walks or a hobby that you started. There might be some things you realize that you want to adjust it might be the amount of time that you’re spending on social media or the people that you're connected to on social media if you're finding that that's not helpful or there might be some things you want to let go of and really make a shift. So consider if there's anything like that for you. Another strategy that can be helpful in going back and reflecting is remembering your best day, so let me explain this. So, say, for instance, you are going to be returning on site and you're worried about returning on site or you're not happy about it, and what you can do is reflect on what was your best day prior to the pandemic. In your work day there might have been some things like particular people you were really enjoying interacting with, it could have been the ritual of commuting to the work site. It could have been enjoying those spontaneous conversations that you had in the hallway or exchanging ideas and being really creative with people in person or seeing people and interacting with people that aren't in your workgroup but you still know, that you don't see right now, but you really had a connection to or just enjoyed passing in the hall, so those would be some examples of things that could for someone be something that they identify as like yeah all right, I did have some things about the work being back on the work site that I did enjoy. What can happen to our brains when we're feeling overwhelmed or stressed, or worried is that our brains get really focused on everything that they're concerned about which is good it's our brains job to do that. Sometimes, though, that can get in our way, and so it can be supportive and helpful for our brains if we're able to step back and look at broaden our perspective and remind us of some of the things that are not negative some of the things that might have been bearable about being back on the work site where we might have enjoyed and just to help remind our brains about that. Now for some, remembering what they're grateful for is really helpful. And so that could be thinking of your life in general or a particular situation like thinking about your job you know and what you feel grateful around that so you can keep it general or something really specific. And sometimes it's hard when we're in a hard place to think of something we're grateful for in our own lives, so sometimes, then we can step back and think about what are we grateful for in the greater world such as gratitude for healthcare workers, first responders, frontline staff things like that. So notice if this might be something that might be supportive to you, to again help your brain to identify the things that are working, the things that you're grateful for it's something that you could do as needed or as a daily practice, you could do it on your own, you could do it if you share a meal with others, you could do it there, you could do it during a staff meeting share what you're grateful for that lots of different options for that. So let's look at some other strategies. The next strategy, I want to focus on our around planning. As humans, we seek predictability and stability, and right now, you might be feeling like a lot of things are very chaotic or out of your control. When we're feeling that way, sometimes what can be helpful, is to create a plan. To create a plan for ourselves, of how we can support ourselves through the situation and sometimes by creating that plan, it can be helpful to think about what do we have control over so you can pick a particular situation something that's happening in your workplace right now, and you could think about that situation and then again assist your brain and thinking about what are the things that you do have control over. It may or may not be the things that you want to have control over. You may want to have control over some other things but it can be really empowering and helpful to identify the things that you do have control over. Now, one of the ways I like to think about this, if you think of your hand if you hold your hand up and you think about the palm of your hand. Ffor me, I think about that is what are the things I can identify that I do have control over and then your fingertips, what are the things that you might have influence over in the situation. And then, separate from your hand, what are the things that are not in your control, the things that are out of your control. And, by helping our brains, be able to identify these three areas, it can be really helpful, we can then help our brains focus on what we have control of. What's in the palm of our hand what we do have control over and remind ourselves that we do have control and we do have perhaps some influence over some aspects of whatever change you're experiencing. The biggest area that we each have control over in whatever situation you're in is how we show up in the world and the choices that we make. So consider for yourself with whatever situation is top of your mind right now, how do you want to show up? What do you have control over? Now if you're feeling like I feel like I don't have control over my emotions in my situation I'm feeling overwhelmed. This is beyond me. Just know that if you're in the Washington State EAP network, you can reach out to us and we're here to support you. Also I'll provide some other resources that are available in in our communities at the end of our time here today, so just know that those resources are available if you're not in the Washington State EAP network. So focus focusing on what choices we do have can feel really empowering. Another thing you could consider and do some planning around is identifying some baby steps. Say perhaps you're feeling anxious or worried about returning to in person interactions in the world, or in the workplace. One of the things you could consider is are there, small baby steps that you could take that kind of lead, you towards wherever you need to go. Say you're being asked to return to the work site you're feeling very uncomfortable with that so you could consider what are some of the small steps I could take that will help me get towards moving back to being on site in person with people. They could be things like masking up and going to the store, you could be visiting a friend outside or something else that you feel is manageable now, you might still feel discomfort with these baby steps, but as best you can to make them small manageable steps and that can help you have some time to adjust. Other types of baby steps or small steps that you could take would be say you have someone who will be, a child that will be going back to in person school or to daycare or something like that, you could look at beginning to adjust your family and routines or schedules in preparation for this change or for you, returning to the work site, or you could start adjusting your sleep routines to prepare for an earlier commute. You could reevaluate your clothing situation for being back in person with others and see if there's anything that you want to adjust there. There's baby steps that you could consider small steps you could consider that might be helpful. Another thing to consider is you know what your coping strategies are maybe having them on a list so that when you start to feel overwhelmed you have a list of items that you can look at and some of them could be very brief and just take a few seconds. Things that you can do to maybe help yourself when you're feeling overwhelmed or you're feeling stress. Or there could be things like some deep breathing or going outside and just taking a deep breath out there, spending time with someone that you care about or sending a text or was just a long list of things that could be on your list. Now notice, if anything, that's on your list might need to be adjusted. Rianna Anderson she's a psychologist at the University of Michigan she had a great example of this that I could really relate to. She talked about how pre pandemic one of her coping strategies was cooking. She loved cooking for her family and she found this to decrease her stress and help her transition from the workday into her family life and with a pandemic and all of the at home cooking and preparation and all of that she has realized that this is no longer a coping strategy that's helpful for her. It it's actually something that can increase her stress and she's really tired of seeing pots and pans and doing all of the cooking that she has been doing so notice if you as well, have a coping strategy that just needs to be shifted or changed and notice, if you want to make any adjustments. So self-compassion. When I think of baby swans, they're called cygnets, cygnets are very small and vulnerable, you might be feeling vulnerable right now fragile, awkward and similar to when I look at it cygnets, baby swans. And so I just want to invite you to consider self-compassion as we're in this transition. It's really a time to be gentle with yourself to not judge yourself harshly we've been through something and we're continuing to go through something it's impacting us emotionally, physically and in many other ways. It's a time to be respectful also of others and have that self-compassion of others as they've been on their own journey as well, and most likely they're feeling awkward and vulnerable and have been through a lot as well. As best we can it's helpful to focus on being as resilient and as flexible as we're able and give ourselves and others lots of room for grace. Now I'm going to talk next about the supports that are available for you, through the Washington State EAP network and other supports that are available to you in the community. So let's take a look. The Washington State EAP network, we offer those in our network, free and confidential counseling. And this is for you as a an employee and for your household members your family household members, those that live in your household that are in your family that are over the age of 18 they can also use our services as well. If you have children or teens in your home and you're needing some support, we can help you with that as well. The process is a little bit different so you would contact us as the adult caregiver and we would talk with you about how you're being impacted. Maybe help you create a parenting plan or perhaps get you connected to other resources in the community, that are appropriate for the age and specialty that's needed for the child or teen. We have expert professionals who offer practical help in caring and respectful and culturally relevant ways. So you can reach out to us around work or personal issues. By calling the Washington State EAP network at 877-313-4455 or go to our website eap.wa.gov and you can complete an online referral requests and an intake professional will give you a call. So, whether you're part of the EAP network or not, you can visit our website at eap.wa.gov. We offer a wealth of information and resources on our website. You can sign up for one of our newsletters. We have one that's for employees and we have one that's for supervisors. Just click on the right hand side under subscribe to EAP news and insert your information, and then you will receive a newsletter when those are released each month. We also have a variety of other information and online webinars so feel free to explore our website for that additional information. Some of you have access to an additional EAP benefit it's our work life benefits. If you're unsure if you have this additional work life benefit, you can talk to your human resources representative and they will let you know if you have access to this additional benefit and what the organizational code is. You do need an organizational code to access this website. If you have this additional benefit, what you can do is visit the website at eap.wa.gov/worklife, all one word and insert your organizational code. Check with your human resources department if you're not sure what that code is. And then you'll have access to thousands of articles with expert advice on a wide range of work and life topics such as parenting, eldercare, wellness, financial health and workplace issues. There's also a database for childcare, elder care and even pet sitting so you can look for a provider in your area. There are dozens of eLearning’s and webinars and online legal forms, including a free will maker. If you have this additional work life benefit, you also have access to legal assistance and financial consultation. With the legal benefit we offer a free half hour consultation over the phone with a local attorney. And they can provide you free consultation if you're needing additional consultation, beyond that, then there is a discounted rate that you can receive. You can use these legal services for personal concerns like adoption, divorce, perhaps a neighborhood dispute as long as it's not work related. Our financial counseling benefit includes free help over the phone with a financial expert, so you can use this benefit for getting some assistance in creating a monthly budget or for advice on saving for a big expense, or for ideas on how to reduce debt. If you'd like to learn more about this benefits, there is also a separate webinar that speaks more to this website. And you can find that on the EAP website at eap.wa.gov, click on webinars and then look on the webinar that says work life, resources and it's a short webinar that can provide you with an orientation of this website. I’d like to offer you local and national resources that you can access. So again, you can download a copy of this PowerPoint presentation, then you'll have access to these links, you can download a copy of this presentation by going to eap.wa.gov, click on the webinars button find the title of this presentation and underneath the title you'll see a link, which will take you to the presentation slides. So you can see, I have included some additional resources here some excellent resources that you could consider. And so, feel free to take a look at those and see if there's anything that might be beneficial for you or your family or community. Also included some references and in this section I wanted to let you know that I've included a self-compassion quiz. You can see this on the reference page under self-compassion quiz and this quiz is by the greater good science center so you can take the self-compassion quiz and see how you're doing with self-compassion and maybe get some tips around what you can do to build your self-compassion. We've reached the end of our presentation today I just thank you so much for joining us today. Feel free to give us a call at the Washington State EAP if you would like additional support our number is 877-313-4455 or you can visit us on the web at eap.wa.gov. Thank you so much for joining today, and I wish you all the best.