Guardian offers therapy to staff after ‘devastating’ Trump election win

Newspaper vows to support workforce following Republican candidate’s ‘upsetting’ victory

The Guardian is offering counselling to staff as it vowed to support its workforce after Donald Trump’s “upsetting” US election victory this week.
In an email to staff, The Guardian’s editor Katharine Viner said the election had “exposed alarming fault lines on many fronts” and urged journalists based in the UK to contact colleagues in the US “to offer your support”.
Ms Viner said that the result would be “upsetting for many others”, according to the memo seen by Guido Fawkes, adding: “If you want to talk about it, your manager and members of the leadership team are all available, as the People team. There is also free access to free support services, which I’ve outlined at the end of this email.”
It comes after Ms Viner sought to reassure readers over the election outcome, writing in an editorial on Wednesday that the paper would “stand up to four more years of Donald Trump” and that the election was an “extraordinary, devastating moment in the history of the United States”.
Ms Viner added: “With Trump months away from taking office again – with dramatic implications for wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the health of American democracy, reproductive rights, inequality and, perhaps most of all, our collective environmental future – it’s time for us to redouble our efforts to hold the president-elect and those who surround him to account.”
Above an invitation to donate to The Guardian, her editorial ended with the message that the paper “will stand up to these threats, but it will take brave, well-funded independent journalism. It will take reporting that can’t be leaned upon by a billionaire owner terrified of retribution from a bully in the White House”.
A Guardian spokesman said on Thursday: “What you refer to as ‘therapy after Trump result’ is actually our employee assistance programme – a function that any responsible international media organisation has available for staff at all times.”
In the US, some colleges have given students time off, an extension on deadlines, art therapy classes and access to a therapy duck in response to Trump’s win.
The University of Oregon told students this week that to “promote well-being and lessen anxiety during election week, University Health Services is bringing Quacktavious the Therapy Duck to campus”.
Students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy were reportedly told this week that they could play with Lego, colouring books, and have milk and cookies in “self-care suites” following the result.
The University of Michigan is also hosting an “art therapy” and “post-election processing” event.
Some stores in the US even closed on Wednesday, with Iowa retailer The Collective writing on its Instagram page that it was closing to allow for a “day of collective grief”.
Among the overseas reaction was Germany’s popular weekly Die Zeit, which led its website on Wednesday with the one-word expletive “F—”.