It’s the “Are you serious” era in therapy. More and more clients are coming to me with “are you serious” and that is the G-rated version. Are you serious he won? Are you serious about this Musk dude? Are you serious about this that and the other astonishing happenings being thrown upon us?

After the inauguration and the “are you serious” moments really escalated I, too, was in disbelief. Every day more and more vitriol pours out of that white building in DC; it is on the screens, the papers, most conversations around me and it shows up at work in client session after session.

This was the second time in my 30-year career that I experienced such a parallel phenomenon between my personal and professional lives. The first was during Covid and now this political upheaval; this moment when I am living through the exact same thing as my clients. I didn’t have the answers in 2020 and I sure as heck don’t have them now.

My clients come to me with an array of issues: anxiety, depression, grief, family issues, marital strife and so much more. I can surely relate to and have experienced similar challenges and feelings in my own life which is how I can so easily empathize with my clients’ personal struggles. Never have I been able to identify with and mirror every one of their fears and concerns as with Covid and our current political climate.

Back in 2020 and again now I am seeing therapist support networks talk about these concerns. How can we provide support and hope when we are feeling as scared and hopeless as our clients? We are supposed to be the professionals, but I have yet to take a class on therapeutic tactics for the falling of the American democracy (I am sure those classes are being developed as I type) (as long as they are being funded through private organizations).

Much of our training is applicable in these scenarios: what can we control? and what can’t we control? How can we limit overwhelming information so as to regulate our nervous system? How do we practice self care? Where can we find joy? All of these practices are important in our everyday anxieties and even more important now in this breadth of unknown and overwhelming anger, fear and chaos.

I can also listen. So much of therapy is the feeling of being heard. Many of us sail through our daily lives feeling unseen, unheard and unimportant. My priority is for my clients to not only feel heard, but also validated. These feelings are real and they are scary and in these sessions I give people permission to feel them. Often we just need a safe place to vent and rage and cry; that I can provide.

Recently while talking to my niece about something to do with my work, she said, “you talk for a living.” I responded with “I mostly listen for a living.”

I cannot take away the uncertainty, fear or tariffs that are being presented to us almost daily. I have zero power (or understanding) of the stock market. I can sit with someone who is agitated, furious and scared. 

I can bear witness to their discomfort and feelings of powerlessness and even hopelessness. I can meet my clients where they are amidst this mess even while I am sitting in the same foul mess. I only hope to be of service and provide even a temporary respite from all of the disorder if only to sit, breathe and listen.