You might be wondering what differentiates us covid conscious counsellors from our colleagues. As well you might! It’s a new term for a new world. it’s not a modality nor is it included in any course that I’m aware of. Simply put, if you come to see me, a covid conscious therapist and you don’t bring up the pandemic, neither will I. If you have a session with me because you need to talk about the pandemic, I will not disbelieve, dismiss or judge you. This is the KEY difference. There won’t be exposure therapy to get you “living life!” I will not ask you to put your covid thoughts on a leaf, float it down a river then go to the cinema because ‘the past is the past’. Neither do I believe you are wrong, misguided or living in an alternate reality because you know covid poses a real threat to your world. I know this too.
I will work WITH you to make living in this quite honestly baffling, at times hostile and very uncertain world a little bit easier to navigate. I will be a safe place for you to vent about how hard it is to be left behind. Perhaps you, like me, have a chronic illness. Perhaps this means you have been playing catch up your whole life only to be cut down when the world ‘let it rip’. Even if you have restrictions in your life, you can still have good things in that life. We can look after your life, your grief and your needs together.
The upshot of it all is, as a covid conscious counsellor, I have the same training in the psychological field as a colleague who doesn’t use that term. In addition, I've a special interest in grief and have completed Megan Devine's Grief Care Program. I just acknowledge covid as the ON-GOING pandemic that it is with all the severity and gravity that entails. Furthermore, if you have chronic illness and/or disability in your life, if you don't want to add more suffering, support in the form of a covid conscious counsellor may well be of benefit. At the very least, you will realise you are far from alone.
My hope for the future is that there are:
a) more of us and
b) that the framework under which we operate permeates the field of psychology as a whole and even the medical model itself.
I didn’t have to take the oath because I’m not a doctor but I took it for myself. I will do no harm.
Thank you for helping to keep us that little bit safer. Your efforts are never in vain.
The image below is my first AI image from website generator. I could not be more delighted or baffled!
