The joy of the session (notes from the pandemic quarantine)

Abstract

Caught in the unforgiving bind of maintaining an analytic private practice while caring for two young children at home during the coronavirus pandemic quarantine, the author locates his clinical work as a site of heightened vitality and connection against a background of extended periods of challenging, draining, parenting demands. What to make, he wonders, of his reliance upon his remotely conducted practice for his psychological well-being during this period of not-enough-me-time? A mode of countertransferential confession yields to consideration of a need for heightened self-vigilance. Also considered is the possibility that the analyst's dispositional shift may in fact prove to be facilitative to some treatments. The author seeks to bring as much good-humoured grace and humility to his inevitable discombobulation as he can. "Rolling with it" may be the best one can hope for whilst doing clinical work under such strained conditions.