“Someone made an interesting comment to me the other day,” says Thom Brown (BMUSTH ’04, MSW ’10), therapist and co-owner with Charity Fleming (MSW ’09) of Qualia Counselling Services. “During this pandemic, therapists are offering counsel and treatment for things that we too are dealing with at the exact same time. I might be talking to a parent who is really struggling with managing the kids at home and work and all that stuff and I’m like, yeah, I’m right there too!”
Brown thinks this sense of this connection helps him better serve his clients, and he’s probably right. For clients who struggled with anxiety before the pandemic, the increased collective anxiety of our current culture can offer a deeper sense of visibility and empathy for someone in therapy.
“I think I’ve been using the idea of ‘we’re all in this together’ as a way to normalize all of our experiences, so when clients come to me and say ‘I just feel so unsettled and so anxious right now’ a part of it is just to say, yeah we all do, I do, the whole world does,” says Brown. He hopes that it helps his clients to feel a little better, knowing they aren’t alone.
Of course, as an experienced therapist, Brown knows that clients also seek therapy for a space where the therapist can remain objective, client-focused, grounded and solution-oriented. It’s another challenge coming up during these strange times: how can therapists maintain their objectivity when they are coping with so many of the same issues?
“There is a fine line that we are always treading when we can say, ‘Yeah, I think I know how you feel,’ but also not get too identified, where all we are doing is turning this into a venting session where we are talking about how hard it is and they are too,” says Brown.
And therapists are dealing with their own unique set of stresses during this time. Brown, who, in his role as co-owner of Qualia is also supervisor for a team of clinicians, shares that the first week of social distancing was tough for everyone. Navigating governmental complexities around privacy and consent in moving therapy online, setting up new technologies, adjusting to new work spaces, getting in touch with clients – and feeling concern for clients who disappeared or said they would put off therapy until after the pandemic.
“My team was incredible in the way that they really stepped up and gave 100 per cent to get things put in place physically and with technology to make it all happen for their clients,” says Brown. “All of our clinicians care so deeply about their clients that they’re really working hard to reach out to them.”
Brown’s experiences at Qualia remind us that it is so important that we build a culture of ‘helping the helpers.’ For Brown, that looks like weekly team meetings which provide an opportunity to debrief, share resources and strategies as needed, and connect for emotional support. Beyond that, many therapists have their own therapists to work with, and also draw on the support of family and friends. These circles of caring keep everyone thriving in a difficult time.
Brown and Fleming are highly committed not to just to their clinicians, but the community more broadly. With four locations in Kitchener, Waterloo, Brantford and Oswekan, a village within the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, Qualia seeks to offer accessible mental health support to a broad range of needs.
“We successfully advocated and worked as a team with the federal government to identify a more anti-oppressive framework for gathering appointment confirmations so those without internet can still access services during social distancing,” says Fleming, speaking to the challenges of providing therapy in Indigenous communities experiencing internet inequality. Brown and Fleming also reduced the cost of therapy to all clients during this time to recognize financial concerns, and have worked hard to ensure Qualia‘s clinicians remain employed.
Always interested in making mental health resources more available to the public, Brown and Fleming have further stepped up what they are offering online as free resources to everyone. Their website includes cognitive behavioural therapy worksheets (Qualia’s areas of therapeutic focus), videos, blogs and links shared by their clinicians. They are also offering Covid-19 specific clinical resources and interventions, and free Covid-19 kids coping and support groups.
“It’s not unprecedented to deliver counselling online – there are some businesses that only do it – but it’s newer for us,” says Brown. “I think a lot of us therapists, we value people and that connection, and there can be some sort of assumption that this isn’t going to be as good, or it’s going to feel really distant, I'm not going to be able to deliver what I do as well, in an online environment.”
But Brown and his colleagues are discovering that, in a time in which virtual therapy is the only option, it can work well. “It’s different,” he says, “But there is a still a real sense of connection that can happen.” He acknowledges that while not all therapies translate perfectly to video chat, cognitive behavioural therapy works really well. “I can do a screen share, I can send worksheets and concepts, we can work on them together,” he says. "That works out great.”
Brown deeply values this technological learning experience which will allow Qualia to expand their use of virtual therapy in the future to serve more physically isolated communities in under-served rural, northern or Indigenous communities, or better serve specific client needs.
Back in the present, Brown notes the unique and unexpected benefits of virtual therapy: meeting a pet, seeing someone’s home, or hearing the sounds of their daily living can bring the therapist and client into a deeper understanding. Many teenagers are more comfortable in a virtual environment, as are some adult clients.
There are more challenges with child clients, for whom therapy is often play-based and who can be easily distracted or not relate effectively to the technology, but the team at Qualia is doing research and learning to adapt new strategies, discovering new possibilities for child therapy.
“One of my child clinicians was doing an online session with a child anxious about going to bed,” says Brown. “They were able to go through the whole bedroom routine together in the bedroom and see the stuffies and see the routine and see under the bed where the monsters were not! There’s some really cool angles that are coming out of this that I hadn’t anticipated.”
These days, whether we’re the client or the therapist, we’re all a little afraid of those monsters under the bed. If you’re looking for someone to check under there with you, virtual therapy or online mental health resources are only a click away.
Discover all the resources available from Qualia Counselling Services at:
Website: www.qualiacounselling.com
Facebook: Qualia Counselling Services
Twitter: @QualiaCBT
Laurier also has lots of mental health and wellness resources available for students, staff and community on our Community Hub.