Wear a Mask as a Therapy Directive

“Wear a Mask” as a Therapy Directive

Curt and Katie chat about COVID, science, and critical thinking in an anti-intellectual, post-truth era. We look at what therapists’ responsibilities are to the greater good, whether we should tell our clients to wear masks, and how to help clients navigate very challenging decisions that must balance mental versus physical health as well as individual versus societal needs.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

• Should we tell our clients to wear masks?
• How do we help our clients navigate the complex decisions related to risk
• Client autonomy, transparency of goals, decreasing therapist bias
• How science and the greater good come into the equation
• Is there a duty to warn? Or duty to protect?
• Imminence, privacy issues
• Should we try to change behavior around wearing masks in public?
• How we address risky behavior with clients
• The impact of the presenting problem on deciding what we do
• Our responsibility to society, to our communities versus our clients
• Psychoeducation and alternate facts
• The process of making decisions around health and safety
• Sorting through and gaining agreement on what is truth
• Therapists needing to be informed and be able to sort through expert information
• The importance of critical thinking and the scientific method
• Anti-science, anti-intellectualism, and cognitive dissonance
• How to meet your client where they are while also not colluding with unhealthy beliefs
• Helping our clients to navigate the current challenges to balance physical vs mental health needs, individual vs societal needs
• The responsibility to bring up healthy decisions for our clients through psychoeducation
• The complexity of decision-making during these times