Unexpected Gratitude

By Rebecca Patterson, MSMFT

As we arrive at the other side of the Thanksgiving holiday, we sit at this annual moment in time where the majority of our country is spending some amount of time in gratitude. Due to the circumstances of our year, showing gratitude can be both a touchy subject for all we’ve lost in 2020 and, yet, never more essential to our survival as we face sacrifice after sacrifice in order to keep ourselves and those we love safe. 

Pushing ourselves to create a space of gratitude challenges the negativity bias of our own mind to instead let in light and shine it upon the things that have gone right in our lives. Today, I am grateful for technology. 

Prior to Covid, technology was just not my thing. I often, and still do, greatly enjoy placing my phone far outside my reach or turning off my email notifications on a Friday afternoon. But technology has become such a life line in 2020 that it is easy to be thankful for what the modern era allows for in this moment in time. 

I am grateful that for this Thanksgiving I could see the faces of those I love even if I could not reach out and give them a hug. 

I am grateful that technology has allowed our profession to continue through this upheaval and that we have been able to provide a therapeutic space in a genuine time of crisis. 

I am grateful for the moments in the virtual session space where I am able to feel the emotions of my clients and trust that it must be true if I can feel it so powerfully through the tiny screen they inhabit. 

I am grateful for the moments where the couples I see reach out and do the tender grooming habits or moments of flirtation that only show up now because they are in the comfort of their own home and that is where those subtle forms of intimacy live. 

I am grateful for the vulnerability ALL of my clients have found by sitting both in the safety of their home and the safety of the therapy space at the same time. 

The things I’ve learned by being a telehealth therapist have shaped me as a clinician. While I never planned to have a job where looking at a screen was part of the deal, the things I have gained from relying so heavily on technology for my career have provided me with an added layer of nuance that I now hold precious in my work as a therapist.