I’d like to say we are in a post-pandemic world, but I know that isn’t exactly true yet. Even so, I can’t believe how much our world has changed in the past three years.

The lockdowns, mask requirements and financial issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, to name a few, added stressors to our world that I have never seen in my lifetime.

I am a college professor and some of my students finished their third year of college never having seen a classroom without masks, screenings, quarantines and other precautions brought on by the pandemic. My wife teaches 4-year-old prekindergarten, and some of her former students from three years ago, who are now going to the second grade, have never seen their teachers’ faces unmasked.

The pandemic also magnified mental health and social problems that were already present, including addictions, anxiety, depression, marital discord and a host of other issues. The last thing my clients struggling with addictions or depression needed was to be locked down at home for weeks on end with nothing to do. That doesn’t even begin to touch the magnitude of clients with obsessive-compulsive disorder who struggle with the fear of germs or autistic spectrum clients who need routines.

A few months ago, I wrote in my column that burnout could be managed, at least sometimes, by reframing. One reader criticized that statement by noting that the pandemic has been so overwhelming that reframing isn’t a panacea. I can’t argue with that criticism. This situation is just so different, I suppose.

For over a year, I didn’t eat out and I found myself anxious every time I wanted to go to a store. I’d wonder if it was open, if they had the items I needed and what restrictions they might have. I found it easier to just stay home.

Like all of you, I’ve shared the stress of relatives who worked in jobs that couldn’t easily be done remotely, especially in the retail and the restaurant industry. I saw some of them lose their financial stability and some even lost their jobs, which only added stress to the other preexisting stressors.

Most of us have been affected by this pandemic in one way or another. So many of us have been sick. Nearly all my family has had it, including me, despite vaccinations. And then, of course, there is death. Like others, I lost a close friend to this virus.

This doesn’t even include the political and social divisiveness surrounding issues related to this pandemic. Families have been divided — maybe even permanently — over the question of vaccines and boosters.

People are seeking help from counselors in numbers I’ve never seen before. I don’t know a single counselor who isn’t operating on a full schedule right now, and it has been that way for months.

But the pandemic has caused us to grow as well. Three or more years ago, most counselors didn’t do telemental health. Even though I had the credentials for telehealth as well as telesupervision, I rarely used it before the pandemic. But now, I don’t even accept an intern who hasn’t had telehealth training. It wasn’t even on my radar three years ago to require telehealth training for an intern, and I don’t know of any graduate programs that required or even offered it.

I’ve also grown to appreciate telehealth as a client. Because I live in a rural area, I’ve always had a hard time finding my own therapist who wasn’t 50 miles away in Atlanta. Now, I can manage my self-care in a one-hour telehealth session rather than spending three or four hours driving to and from my therapist’s office in Atlanta.

We’ve seen changes in continuing education requirements as well. In my state, prior to the pandemic, only 12 hours of distance learning could be counted for recertification. Now nearly all of them can be as long as they are synchronous — a term that few of us even knew three years ago.

In addition, telesupervision hours now count toward license requirements in Georgia. This gives clinicians in remote areas options for training far beyond what they could have accessed three years ago.

I often wonder why I wasn’t offering my clients the option of telehealth before the pandemic. I had clients who drove two to three hours one way to see me. Why hadn’t I thought to help them by offering distance work? Today, although my caseload with children is still largely in person, I use distance counseling with nearly all my other clients and supervisees.

As we come out of these troubling pandemic years, it is clear we will never be the same. But telehealth has been a positive change for the counseling field and offers a silver lining in the new post-pandemic world.

 

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Gregory K. Moffatt is a veteran counselor of more than 30 years and the dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Point University. His monthly Voice of Experience column for CT Online seeks to share theory, ethics and practice lessons learned from his diverse career, as well as inspiration for today’s counseling professionals, whether they are just starting out or have been practicing for many years. His experience includes three decades of work with children, trauma and abuse, as well as a variety of other experiences, including work with schools, businesses and law enforcement. Contact him at Greg.Moffatt@point.edu.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.