GREENSBORO, NC (WGHP) – As more details are revealed about this weekend’s deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, difficult conversations are igniting across the country.
An UNCG Counseling and Educational Development professor shares some ways we can help each other deal with the feelings that come with a tragedy like this.
Dr. Carrie Wachter Morris is Professor of Future Advisors at UNCG. She teaches her students how to help others through all kinds of grief and trauma.
Wachter Morris says she understands this latest deadly mass shooting has many layers and may evoke different emotions for different people. especially those from the black community.
As this topic continues to be at the forefront of most discussions, she says there are ways to be mindful of the people around us who may be struggling.
“There may be some who are just like ok, I’ve had enough, I can’t handle anything else. I can’t hear about it, I can’t talk about it. If someone asks me about this I can’t. And that’s a completely normal answer, just as it’s almost the polar opposite, that is, I’m going to learn as much as I can about it, I’m going to mobilize, I’m going to turn this into an activist effort,” Wachter Morris said. “Part of being a solution, part of being a support is just to sit down with someone in a moment and “helping and validating their pain, validating their anger, validating feelings of being alone or targeted, grief, trauma, loss. Fear,” she says.
Another mental health resource in Greensboro, Milk and Honey Therapy, has included resources on its website to help black people suffering from emotional dysregulation due to the mass shooting:
