What strange and challenging times we find ourselves in. They say you should be careful what you wish for. Only several months ago I found myself wishing out loud that my life was not so busy, so full of things to do. Now most of them have been cancelled …
As I sit at home, still in shock at the swift wiping away of work and communal life, I wonder how others—people I know, as well as strangers—are recalibrating themselves. After the initial horror of fights over toilet paper (what is that about??), stories of creativity and kindness began to emerge, little bright rays after a storm.
In my small corner of the chaos, I have moved my practice into the online and phone world. It continues to be an interesting and challenging transition. At a time when I’m sure people need more support, not less, appointments are being cancelled at a worrying rate. And yet those who have continued with their sessions, via Zoom or phone calls, report some unexpected pleasure at the effectiveness of the therapeutic conversation, in spite of the loss of in-person contact.
Perhaps we, the therapy community, need to be more creative, responsive, daring, communicative? If our old way of doing the work—face-to-face in a room, for an hour—is no longer available, what else might be helpful? Do we need shorter, more frequent sessions? Different models of establishing and working towards desired goals? I, for one, am going to keep trying to nut this out …
