I’ve often been asked how I manage to not be flattened by the heaviness that comes with the kind of work I do. I say that, when I started, I used to practically crawl on the sidewalk when I was done with my day’s sessions. But then, I figured out how to manage the balance of being emotionally available to my patients while simultaneously having emotional boundaries in the space of the work. How? I wouldn’t know how to articulate the process. And, with the below article, I don’t want to suggest that my daily work involves making repetitive life and death decisions. I do, though empathize with the way these doctors and nurses, always needing to “not be overly personal” with their patients, are finding that their respective defenses are frayed, not protecting them as they may have before, having them be raw and exposed with their own vulnerability and that of their patients. Overwhelming. Traumatic. Will need much time to heal and reconstitute.
Street Address
New York, New York
212-360-5675
Psychologist/Psychoanalyst
