Dorothy Breininger, how she dealt with the pandemic.

My role as head of External Relations for APOI - Professional Organizers Association Italy(https://www.apoi.it/) gives me the opportunity to meet the world's best Professional Organizers, resulting not only in high-level professional exchanges, but also in friendships that I cultivate over time.

I met Dorothy Breninger, one of the most celebrated P.O.'s in the United States, a guest on various talk shows and author of no less than 7 books, in October 2017 in Rome. She came to Italy on a leisure trip and contacted me curious to learn more about the profession in our country and it was a happy understanding at first sight!

It is a reality that between P.O.'s a complicity easily arises, as if our common language makes everything more fluid and spontaneous. The certainty of how valuable and helpful our profession is to many makes us immediately complicit, giving rise to special relationships between professionals.

From these valuable relationships came the idea of including in the APOI webinar calendar, which is our internal updating tool, meetings with Professional Organizers operating around the world, so as to increase exchange and knowledge of how the profession is evolving internationally. In November 2020, Dorothy was our first foreign guest speaker and was received with great enthusiasm by members.

Dorothy, a professional ready to share
Dorothy Breninger is a very generous woman who loves to share her experience on all levels. Her charge, her human side, and her enthusiasm gave us vitality and willingness to put ourselves out there, despite the extremely difficult times we are all going through. Her talk was motivating and inspiring, she conveyed her "know how" and experience in the field, but most importantly she opened an important window for us on how the profession evolves in the United States.

A significant passage was when he talked about his relationship with some clients, which has lasted for more than fifteen years, a reality that Italian P.O.s have not yet been able to verify, but which tells an interesting aspect of how "ongoing consulting" in the United States is a fact of life.

Organization goes hand in hand with change,
which from time to time presents us with new realities to face. For those who do not have well-trained organizational skills, being able to rely on an organization consultant during critical transitions in their lives (moves, births, separations, bereavements, job changes) can be immensely helpful.

P.O. coping with the Pandemic
With unquestionable professionalism and great enthusiasm, Dorothy gave a capillary account of how she coped with the COVID-19 reality, both on a human and personal life level, as well as from a business perspective. Dorothy and her husband Marty both contracted the virus, and her first thought was to make her experience available to everyone in a constructive way.

With the mindset characteristic of a P.O., he kept track of what he was experiencing and what practical solutions he was implementing, and then created a vademecum to share with those who rely on his advice. This natural inclination to help others unites P.O.'s, but turning an unpleasant experience into a resource for others is a major strength for Dorothy in the way she conducts her profession. Already in the past he has faced the long illness of a family member with the same attitude, treasuring the experience so that he could translate it into professional support for anyone who was going through the same reality.

His strong and clear message addressed to those who want to enter the P.O. profession is precisely to turn their eyes to their own backyard, that is, to sift through their lived experiences, valuing their own abilities. That is the human and professional background to draw from, because lived experience is a great school of life.

He also inspired his Italian colleagues to measure themselves on new consulting proposals for their clients. For example: can being operational in presence be complex at this historical moment? Here is the right opportunity to create online pathways! Dorothy made it clear how important P.O. resources are in the face of difficulties. The "problem solving" skills that P.O.'s bring to bear for their clients can be dedicated, for once, to the profession itself.

All over the world during the pandemic, P.O.s created new online counseling pathways to be supportive of clients struggling to cope with working from home, renovating space functionality, time management, or children and youth facing schooling online. Never before has this "new" professional been more supportive of people in need than in this time in history.

The first of many meetings
The happy meeting of APOI members with the first international Professional Organizer was the perfect baptism of the webinar series that awaits us in the near future. We would then have the opportunity to meet other professionals who will share their undisputed professionalism and valuable insight into the realities of their home cultures-Canadian, English, Brazilian, Dutch, and beyond!

Professional Organizing in the world is growing fast, and we in Italy are not to be outdone, based on the experience of our "foreign cousins," we have created a language, which tells of our culture and way of living the organization, with the ultimate goal of facilitating one's lifestyle and living more peacefully.