ELNORA SCHMADEL, Psychologist

So, you say your office has halved its staff, doubled your workload, and you’re putting in more time than Michael Jackson’s tape editors? Or you’ve been fired and looking for a job so long that you’ve cracked the numerical index code to the classified ads? Don’t despair. Many are in the same position. Elnora Schmadel, a specialist in medical psychotherapy and pain management with an office in Santa Ana, is making a post-retirement specialty of counseling people hurt by the recession. She spoke with free-lance writer Anne Michaud.

Trauma sounds like an unusual occurrence, but you say it happens in the normal course of life, right?

Yes. Trauma can be any kind of victimization or the normal events of life, like being laid off or being swindled or losing your business.

There are a great many people right now (who are worried about that). For example, I talked to a fellow last week whose business is down 40%, and he’s scared. There are a lot of frightened people.

What are the signs of trauma?

When your anxiety mounts, there are physical reactions. You can’t concentrate, you lose control.

On the emotional side, you may blank out, you may be paranoid, you may obsess. Excessive rumination is being unable to change or refocus. You have an idea that’s fixed, and you can’t change it, so you go on making the same mistake.

This particularly happens for people who have been swindled. They’ll make the same mistake over and over again. Not because they’re stupid, but because they’re unable--literally unable--to change their basic, underlying, intellectual response to the situation.

How can a compassionate management handle a layoff?

First of all, I would want my staff to know that this was a possibility long before it came to identifying any particular individual. Then I would look for ways of providing all of the staff with opportunities to work with someone who could be helpful. I might have somebody come in from the local human development office and talk to people.

How does one cope with anxiety?

One of the ways is with information. Another is in strategies for dealing with the physiological symptoms. Breathing, for example, that is used in biofeedback, is classic in terms of its effectiveness for controlling anxiety.

As you use these techniques, you can begin to control your body response. And with the control, comes reassurance.

Also, I would try to keep working out at a gym. Exercise is always helpful in terms of reducing stress.

What happens if you are not able to short-circuit the anxiety attack?

Well, a client (who was) 23 years on the job found a pink slip when he came into work. Two weeks (notice), no severance because the company was in trouble. So he went home and he started to work in the yard. He suddenly thought he was having a heart attack.

Now, he had not been able to tell his wife that he’d gotten a pink slip. He had not been able to deal with the pink slip at all. What happened was that he was denying--and this is very typical--denying the experience, partly because he didn’t know how to deal with it. He was feeling helpless, so he wound up with a 911 call.

How would you help this man?

If you’re working with this man, you would examine his background for any positive success he’s had that could be related to work.

For example, a gal who was, I’d guess, somewhere between 60 and 63 had been married for 30-some years. Her husband came home and asked for a divorce. She hadn’t worked in all of those years. OK. So, pow!

Working with this person, I discovered that she had had a tremendous number of volunteer jobs over the years. One of the ways she’d been very successful was to raise campaign money for political candidates. Well, this is directly convertible to a personal asset that leads to a job.

Now, she’s just turned 70, is still working, and has won a number of successful campaigns. She has more than made a living. It was really an exciting success story.

How long does it take to go through that process, from trauma to action?

It will vary enormously from individual to individual.

Is there a way to prepare yourself for trauma? Say you are afraid of being fired, or your sales are down 40%.

Certainly. Yes, you can make preparation. And the more preparation you make, the better off you are. This is why financial people advise you to put six months of expenses in the bank. When you do, you feel safe and comfortable.

You would implement some things immediately. For example, if you were afraid that you would lose your job, and you wanted to save up to six months’ worth of expense money, you’d stop eating filet mignon, and you’d switch to hamburger.

The discipline comes in putting the difference between the hamburger and the filet mignon in the bank.

Is there another way to prepare?

Oh sure. Diversification--again, a financial word--but diversification is a skill that you exercise intellectually. For example, one of the things that I do, even at my age, is read the newspaper want ads.

Every so often I will answer an ad. I read the business opportunity listings in the newspapers. Not that I’m going to start a doughnut shop, but I want to know what kinds of things are available.

Here in Orange County, our housing costs are phenomenal. So a great many people, when they get to the point of retirement, will look for places where they can buy a house much less expensively. This can work for people who are fearful of losing a job, too.

The more information you have, the better off you are.

On white-collar unemployment. . .

“Many of the people who are facing unemployment at the moment are white-collar people who are experiencing this for the first time. That’s always hard.”

On worker anxiety over layoffs. . .

“Some managements are more cognizant of this sort of problem, and they make a very real effort to handle it with compassion. The point is to establish a cushion of some sort in terms of time or money.”

On the advantage of experience. . .

“People who are older and survived the Depression, while they may be more fearful than the younger people, are also more resilient in terms of survival.”

On a philosophical view of the economy. . .

“For many people, the recession is only inconvenient. It is not life-threatening. Some people will find opportunity in it for personal growth.”