by Edna Wallace, LMFT

Edna Wallace, LMFT, is a long-time therapist at El Camino Hospital working in the Adult Mood Program for Depression and Anxiety and the OATS program for older adults. She has a private practice in Los Altos. She worked for a decade on the Luncheon Committee for SCV-CAMFT and has been a luncheon presenter as well. Edna is an avid writer in her spare time. She can be reached at www.ednawallace.com.

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What’s Really Important

As a quasi-CBT, quasi-object relations-informed therapist working in the Zoom age, I have to consider what’s really important. Will the room look too bare with a chair in the background and one pot plant? No, that’s good. Can clients see that I have a bed in the room? That would be a “yes” … one side of the bed is just peeking inside the camera range. I rearrange the camera to point away from the bed. I’m a bit lopsided now, but at least there’s no bed. Can clients see that I placed a fan in front of the plant yesterday? Shoot, yes. What will they make of the fan—a new item in the room? How will they feel about the fact that it’s a Honeywell fan? That it’s yellow? Sheesh. A bit risky. Will the noise interfere? Better to turn off the fan and hide it out of sight of the camera. But I have to turn on the light. That will raise the temperature another 10 degrees. No fan, lights on. Let’s see…  what associations will my clients have with sweat pouring down my face? Or with my hand rising up to wipe off said sweat from my neck and off my chin? Will that propel Joe* into giving me the latest sexy interlude with his new partner? Geez. Maybe I should keep the fan going; that would drown out the details at least. I carefully consider my options, the pros and the cons, before my first client, before it gets too hot. I take a cool shower, turn off the fan, hide the fan, and start the Zoom session. “How are you today, Joe?” I ask him quietly.

*Made-up name

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