Hannah Zeavin at Town Hall Seattle
Hannah Zeavin recently joined clinical psychologists Margie Morris and Dr. Orna Guralnik in a program with Town Hall Seattle to discuss definitions of therapy beyond the traditional image of people talking in a room. Hannah considers these less conventional operations of therapy such as radio shows, crisis hotlines, and advice columns in her book, The Distance Cure. In the presentation, Hannah speaks on how intimacy is still possible in the pandemic and in remote communication.
From the program (Hannah):
Yes, in this zoom of three people, we have to do telepresence, which is we have to be more conscious of it because we know there is an added layer. But we also know we are all equivalent too. Margie, you are in Seattle. Orna, you are on the East coast. And, I'm in the West. So of course we know this is only possible because of the medium, and we're all in equivalency. I wonder what that special difference is in couples therapy when they're both there together compared to experiences with patients in individual treatment in the pandemic.
...
There isn't a perfect medium for every patient. One example I like to give is that voicemails terrify me. I get a voicemail, I get anxious. I know it's completely irrational, but it's because people don't really call each other anymore. If my brother calls me at seven in the morning I pick up and I say "What's wrong?" because he's in his 20s why is he calling me? So the phone paradoxically makes me a bit anxious. But no other medium does. That may or not be your situation.
Watch the program here!