COVID- 19 Week 4 (4/6 to 4/10) Journal

Moving into the 4th week (4/6 to 4/10), I can feel a sense of ease on Wednesday and Thursday night and continue to feel anxiety on Tuesday and Friday when I saw clients in person.

Some of the clients seemed to start to find their routine as I did in week 2 and week 3. I can see them gradually settled down and ready to continue the work from where we left “right before the whole world crumbled down.” (Yeah, that’s how I felt when I got the news that the schools were closing down and the businesses were closing down.) It made me feel positive because I am one step (or one week?) before my clients, which allow me to have time to figure out how to help them. 

I also felt a sense of accomplishment as I was able to do EMDR with some clients via Telehealth with excellent results. I found myself breath out a sigh of relief when my tries of the EMDR sessions went well, and the clients were moving along with their healing journey. Those are the clients who haven’t stopped therapy since the social distancing restriction and quickly transition to Telehealth with me. Using EMDR’s AIP model, we were able to find their prior trauma connected to the pandemic anxiety. We were able to process the earlier trauma. I felt a sense of ease when I know that I can support clients’ healing journey even with the Telehealth.

So, I jumped into more EMDR Telehealth Training and will go through the training this coming weekend. We’ll see how it goes. The idea of the 6 hours training online is daunting.

I also saw the news that the suicide hotline has been very busy since the pandemic breaks. I found myself with two different feelings. The first feeling was anger. I am angry that the government has not adequately developed a protocol before shutting down. I know this is not rational, but I feel mad. I told a lot of my friends that many people would die of anxiety/depression before the COVID-19 took their life. I was extremely concerned about shutting down and moving to Telehealth without proper planning three weeks ago!

On the other hand, my different reaction is: I am glad that people finally realized the importance of mental health. Mental health is an invisible illness, and people don’t usually pay attention to these hidden issues. I am glad that some reporters actually paid attention.