Introduction
Introduction
I had been a mental health provider for less than three years when I was called to work as a trauma specialist following 9/11. I was a New York psychotherapist who had trained in trauma counseling and was able to join the teams of national and international trauma counselors who came to New York City to work with victims' family members, witnesses, first responders, and survivors of the terrorist attacks. So, when the pandemic hit, I had twenty-five years of experience in working with trauma and loss. This comprehensive background provided a perspective on living through and supporting others in surviving the global health crisis.
I created a weekly blog to normalize our collective experiences while speaking of my observations and sharing self-care tips. The blog posts were personal in nature. I thought it was important to normalize what we were experiencing collectively, and what we were going through personally. It is a subjective record of those times, imperfect in nature and reflecting our flawed humanity. And, imperfect since we were all in uncertain spaces doing our best to navigate unprecedented events. I included self-care tips, because I heard from clients that they were at a loss as to how to get through their days and weeks with such strong emotions.
In the Time of Coronavirus is the compilation of these blog posts with photographs I started taking the second week of March 2020. Each post is its own short chapter. I chose to share the blog posts as a book after attending a performance of Suzan-Lori Parks’s brilliant musical theater piece, “Plays for the Plague Year,” in which she documented each day with a short play. It was so inspiring. I saw the healing power of looking back on the shared days, weeks, months, and years we all endured. In the Time of Coronavirus recalls what we all went through, acknowledging readers’ ongoing courage and inner resources. And it provides many self-care tips that can be curated to fit each reader’s life going forward.
It is my hope that you read In the Time of Coronavirus as a resource, a reflection, a remembrance, self-help, support, or in any way that is right for you.
