We are not in this together: Psychotherapy and pandemic emotions

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to waves of publicly expressed feelings of fear, grief, rage, pride and powerlessness. Psychotherapists in Australia have seen an increase in their client numbers during this time when many others have lost their jobs amidst a public health response that has further entrenched divisions between rich and poor. These public feelings have been very present in the therapy room as people try to make sense of their experiences of the global pandemic and their responses to restriction and exposure. This article asks how psychotherapists can engage with these pandemic emotions in a way that facilitates social change and interrogates psychotherapy’s historically apolitical stance on the role of emotion and emotional expression.