Psychotherapy outside the consulting room: ending therapy during the global pandemic

ABSTRACT

This short paper is a brief exploration of working towards an ending, during the global pandemic, with a young woman who had previously been attending for once-weekly face-to-face psychotherapy. The paper reflects on the shift from face-to-face working, to telephone sessions, and finally to walking outdoors, in the context of an ending. Some thoughts are given on flexibility of working during lockdown and working with the ‘movable setting’, while maintaining a therapeutic frame and boundary. The young woman described, in her late adolescence, can be seen to have developed in maturity, in her ability to reflect and self-regulate and in her capacity to seek resolution.

KEYWORDS:

• Lockdown
• pandemic
• therapeutic setting
• ending
• adolescence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Laura’ agreed for me to share this material for publication, suitably anonymised. She was interested to hear about the special issue of the Journal, thinking about working during the pandemic, and expressed an interest in reading the other papers too.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gillian Sloan Donachy

Gillian Sloan Donachy is a Principal Child Psychotherapist working in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Joint Course Lead of the Child Psychotherapy Training in Scotland.