WINDOWS OVERLOOKING LIFE AND DEATH. REFLECTIONS ON THE CHANGING PRACTICE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to draw therapists’attention to the vast increase in exposure of ourselves and our patients to death caused by the Covid 19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The number of situations reminding us of our own mortality that we have come to experience in the past two years stands out significantly from many of the previous ones. This situation cannot but affect our psychotherapeutic practice. My personal experience of the past two years indicates a greater presence of the broadly defined theme of death during the therapy processes. Patients experience fears of death and deal with these fears differently. Meanwhile, their psychotherapists experience similar fears and seek their own ways of coping with them. That is what this article is about. By referring to the source literature, cinema, and my own psychotherapeutic practice, I will try to show this process as well as the threats and opportunities it brings to the process of psychotherapy and clinical supervision.