The Legacy Of COVID: What Am I Seeing In The Therapy Room

The article cites work from Professor Nicholas Christakis of Yale University - sociologist and physician - who had researched previous pandemics and their impacts, identifying four societal shifts. First, the collective threat prompts a growth in state power. Second, the threat of serious illness and closeness of death to oneself (and people close to them) brings caution and anxiety while the disease rages. Third, spurs audacity or the willingness to take risk when it has passed. Finally, the overturning of everyday life leads to a search for meaning. Professor Christakis argues that each of these shifts will mark society in its own way for some time after pandemic is under control.

Let’s explore how each of these four societal shifts are translating to my therapy room.

We have seen governments around the world exercise power not seen since World War 2. In Australia, the Commonwealth Government or more importantly the State and Territory Governments have seen an increased in mandatory power. On the one hand, the public has by and large accepted and supported at times a diminishment of civil liberties (e.g. wearing of face masks, closure of businesses, night curfews, can’t travel beyond a 5 km radius, can’t visit other people’s home). For a small but significant minority group this increase in State power perpetuates a lack of control and lack of autonomy. This translates in the therapy room as anger and frustration … “I don’t want to be controlled by Dictator Dan (referencing the Victorian Premier). Some challenge the arguments for State power and find evidence to evidence that supports a contrary view (e.g. not wearing of face masks … or the ineffectiveness of lockdowns). These clients have a need for assertiveness … as they lack control and autonomy and feel that their competence is not respected. 

Clients also experience a significant level of vulnerability. These clients also don’t feel in control. They have an exaggerated fear of the imminent risk of them or their loved ones catching COVID-19 or spreading COVID-19. They also may have fears of financial ruin or emotional instability as they can’t cope with their usual protective factors (seeing family and friends, planning holidays etc) not being available. They often can in engage in overcontrolling protective coping to minimise the risks.

Psychologists have found that people's approaches to decision-making tend to fit into one of two categories: you are either a maximiser - a person who strives to make a choice that will give them the maximum benefit later on - or a satisficer, whose choices are determined by more modest criteria and nothing more.

There are clients who when COVID-19 risks had decreased or lockdown had lifted, engaged in more audacious or risky behaviour. They engage in more satisfier behaviour. Spending more money … engaging in more social activity and letting go of COVID rules such as social distancing … not hand sanitizing.  

There are other clients who seek a deeper sense of their lives and their relationships and engage - in what Abraham Maslow called 

"the being realm." Instead of being driven by fears, anxieties, suspicions, and the constant need to make demands on reality ("the deficiency realm"), one is more accepting and loving of oneself and others. Seeing reality more clearly, growth-wisdom is more about “What choices will lead me to greater integration and wholeness?” rather than “How can I defend myself so that I can feel safe and secure?”

While I have outlined these four COVID-19 legacies as four distinct societal shifts, the way people experience them and cope with them will be different. Some will response to one or two or three or all of these societal shifts. It is important in therapy to understand their impact, how we cope and the choices available to us in being adaptive to their impacts.