Telemental Health during a Pandemic: Third Space Conversations

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents Intersubjectivity and Intersectionality, theoretical frameworks used to guide telemental health during a pandemic that has underscored issues of power and privilege. Intersubjectivity is a meta-theory of psychoanalytic psychotherapy that examines the interplay between subjectivities in the clinician/client relationship. Intersectionality addresses the importance of an intersectional understanding of the identity categories that inform intersubjectivity. This includes examining internalized societal relations, unconscious accommodations to oppressive social structures, and inequalities that may be implicitly enacted in therapeutic practices. The freedom to address these challenges is discussed in “third space” conversations, the interactional therapeutic field where the clinician’s and the client’s social identities and subjective attitudes are present and influential. The sudden move to telemental health provides the opportunity to examine the impact of this transition, clinically significant in addressing issues of privilege related to work from home, exposure to illness, flexibility in scheduling, access to telemental health, mental health challenges, and resilience during a pandemic that is both personal and collective.