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The idea that mental illness and psychiatric disorders are afflictions that only affect the brain is now regarded as incorrect. We know that the brain controls the body and when the brain doesn’t function properly, the body suffers the consequences, and vice-versa.

Have your clients faced those situations where, in getting ready to make values-based exposure exercises, their minds come up with thoughts along the lines of, “It will be too much; I won’t be able to handle it; It will be a disaster; how do I know it’s going to work; Do I really have to do it?”

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent increased awareness of systemic racism have left me, a white psychologist, at a loss for words. I wanted to write a post for other anti-racist allies who are also struggling to voice and act in increasingly anti-racist ways both personally and professionally.

As I was being discharged from the hospital after an 11-day stay, a friend texted me: “The hard part’s over!” In one sense she was correct – I’d completed the antibiotics for COVID, my sepsis was gone, and my pneumonia and kidney function were improving. But that was just the physical battle.

In an already challenged, and often under-resourced mental health care system, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in mental health needs across the globe^1,2.

Overnight the world changed. Public health terms have become common phrases; we hear people talking about flattening the curve and social distancing. Scientists have become household names, with Dr.