Practicing in a time of covid loss and threat: Parallel processes on the yellow brick road of trauma, healing, trust and belonging

ABSTRACT

We are always practicing in a time of threat and loss, but what changes is the nature of the threat and the loss: is it shared or not shared, known, or not known, disclosed by force or disclosed by choice? This paper explores the themes of trust and belonging as the essence of the psychoanalytic frame and the parallel processes of how our own traumas, as psychoanalysts, warp and weave through our relationships with our patients over time. The pandemic has gifted us with a perfect storm of shared traumas and created new opportunities for navigating, negotiating, rupturing and repairing, and healing, as the frame was forcefully bent, broken, and rebuilt in the context of this global crisis. The pandemic has emphasized the importance of lifting the veil of secrecy and bringing those of us who live these complex lives of service, as both healers and suffering strangers, into community and dialogue. To illustrate these themes, this paper explores the parallels between “Jennifer” my patient of 14 years and my own journey through life and analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Parallel process
• psychoanalysis
• self psychology
• therapeutic frame
• trauma
• trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Name changed to protect confidentiality. “Jennifer” has given consent for me to write about her and understands that while details have been changed to protect her identity, she, herself, would identify herself in this paper..

² Name changed to protect confidentiality. “Jennifer” has given consent for me to write about her and understands that while details have been changed to protect her identity, she, herself, would identify herself in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather B. MacIntosh

Heather B. MacIntosh is a clinical psychologist, associate professor and Director of the MScA in Couple and Family Therapy Programme at McGill University, where she is the recipient of the H. Noel Fieldhouse Award for Distinguished Teaching. She is a graduate of the Institute for the Advancement of Self Psychology in Toronto, Ontario and was an Early Career Scholar of the American Psychological Association Division 39. She is currently guest faculty and Adjunct Clinical Consultant of the Certificate program in Integrative Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy co-sponsored by the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and the Institute for Clinical Social Work and a Senior Research Fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association Research Fellowship.

Dr. MacIntosh is the author of the recently published book, Developmental Couple Therapy for Complex Trauma: A Manual for Therapists, which brings psychoanalytic developmental concepts into an evidence-based model for working with couples dealing with the multiple impacts of complex trauma with an intersectional and anti-oppressive lens. Dr. Macintosh leads an active research programme funded by federal and provincial research funds where she examines the impact of early life trauma on the process and outcome of couple therapy and the development and maintenance of healthy adult relationships. She is the author of numerous peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters in the field. She is currently principal investigator for a Government of Quebec funded programme providing Developmental Couple Therapy for Complex Trauma in a virtual group couple format for trauma survivors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.