School of Humanity

The impact of emergency work on personal relationships. A conversation with Psychotherapist Mark Snelling

Marika Guderian Season 1 Episode 6

In this episode, I talk to psychotherapist Mark Snelling and former aid worker about how our very own childhood has potentially influenced subconsciously our decision to join the humanitarian sector.  In conversations with aid workers, you will hear a long list of issues that we are dealing with on a regular basis: long working hours, management issues, loss of motivation, problems too big to solve and painful events and trauma. But sooner or later, we start to talk about the main issue: relationships. In our conversation, we talk about how humanitarian work offers a powerful solution on a much more unconscious level to personal relationship insecurities. Humanitarian work takes the focus away from personal pain towards the needs of others.