How Therapy is Changing with the World

The historical drama of the pandemic has opened up our collective experience of helplessness. There is a shared impression about our sense of control being merely an illusion. It is no wonder that mental health issues on are the rise. In the US, 20% of our citizens have mental health issues; an increase of 1.5 million since 2021. Mental health practitioners have been in communal dialogue about their experiences of grappling to help society amid new world realities.

Initially when therapeutic work shifted from in-person to a virtual platform, we did not know what to expect. Over the last two years, online mental health has evolved into a less formal, more relaxed structure. For instance when clients were previously seen in-person, there was the ritual of being greeted in the waiting room, walking together to the office and to pre-designated seating. This ceremony provided a sense of continuity soothing tense clients struggling daily with the ambiguities and conflicts of our culture. Yet the greater openness of virtual work is a good arena for creative problem solving, like the freedom of a think-tank. Now the clinician needs to be more vigilant about maintaining focus, which is not a new skill. At a time when we encountered pandemic isolation, the human-to-human contact of regular virtual meetings were therapeutic in themselves. Counter to negative assumptions about the quality of online treatment, I have found on-screen venues to offer a safe psychological distance where clients are in their own familiar, safe environments. This enhancement of client security offers greater ease and a sense of spaciousness to work on tough issues. A benefit for the therapist is the opportunity of seeing a client in real-life settings where they can gain further insights to aid treatment.

Yet virtual meetings are unnatural in their intense face-to-face hourly exposures. In addition, it is difficult to really ‘feel’ in a televisual way, and identifying emotions is a crucial part of treatment. The ongoing stage show of erratic politics, climate change, COVID and pending war has been a barrier to clients’ progress. It is tempting to focus on current calamities rather than one’s intimate troubles in session. The savvy analyst knows these societal upsets can serve as avoidant red herrings to distressing topics. Since a client’s clinician is also enduring big world events as a mutual citizen of the world, they may wonder if their therapist is emotionally collected enough to provide effective services. This impression can be an obstacle to positive outcomes, as it is vital for clients to believe the healer has an intact ability to heal. The importance of self-care regularly touted to clients has been seriously exercised by clinicians to maintain stability during the unsual times in which we are living. The good news is that mental health professionals are learning innovative techniques to mitigate these emerging impacts to treatment, which expands the psychological field for the highest good of all.