18.1 THERAPIST SELF-DISCLOSURE (TSD) AND COVID-19

Abstract

This Clinical Perspectives is designed to explore important considerations around therapist self-disclosure (TSD) as it pertains to a therapist’s experience with COVID-19 and the global pandemic. Dilemmas imposed by disclosure, as well as nondisclosure, of a therapist’s experience with COVID-19 illness and uncertainty will be explored. This Clinical Perspectives will include a review of the literature pertaining to TSD and COVID-19, ways in which disclosures about therapist’s perspectives and experience with COVID-19 may occur, an exploration of the unique circumstances pertaining to TSD with youth in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and clinical material highlighting examples of TSD around their health in the treatment of youth and their families. Scholarship around TSD and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic is limited to nonexistent at this time. Disclosures around health, illness, and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic have occurred both deliberately and inadvertently; sharing experiences around COVID-19 illness, coping with uncertainty during a global pandemic, and sharing medical recommendations may present opportunities for deliberate disclosures. Missed appointments, obvious physical changes, or new physical limitations may make TSD around health less avoidable. Pragmatic and therapeutic issues arise as they pertain to therapist health and TSD. Transference-countertransference dynamics, therapeutic goals, and fears and fantasies related to wellness, illness, and death will be addressed. Clinical material will be shared, highlighting therapeutic dilemmas around TSD during a global pandemic. Disclosures around illness and uncertainty can occur in a myriad of ways; it is imperative that therapists understand the developmental considerations unique to youth and have a framework by which to guide decisions around TSD in the context of the global pandemic.