By Jacqueline Simon Gunn, Psychotherapy.net, March 19, 2020
I walked into the grocery store Sunday morning after a relaxing run. As soon as I came in the doors, I saw the headline of the newspaper in bold letters reporting that New York was in a state of emergency. Anxiety coursed through me. Earlier that same morning, I’d had a phone session with a patient who was becoming increasingly anxious due to news of the spread of COVID-19. She was starting to feel like she couldn’t leave the house.
New York City has been empty, comparably speaking. In a somewhat eerily quiet Midtown — where the crowd can make brisk walking a challenge — on Tuesday afternoon, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the days following 9/11, where in place of the vitality and determination that usually fills the streets of Manhattan, there was tense anticipation, like a cloud hanging over the city, just waiting for rain to pour down. And in both cases, no one had an umbrella to protect them, not even psychotherapists.
We are the ones who are to be containing anxieties, speaking to people about their fears, the trauma, not feeling protected. We’re supposed to comfort and soothe and help people use whatever resources they have to cope.
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