What Is a COVID-Conscious Therapist?

A COVID-conscious therapist is a mental health professional who recognizes that COVID continues to affect people's health, relationships, communities and daily lives, and who understands and supports clients who continue to take precautions on a personal and professional level. Being COVID conscious can mean different things to different people. For some, it includes masking in public spaces, improving indoor air quality, testing before gatherings, choosing outdoor activities, or limiting exposure in other ways. For others, COVID consciousness is deeply connected to living with Long COVID or chronic illness, disability, caring for someone who is medically vulnerable, or protecting their own health and the health of their community. COVID-conscious therapy offers a space where these choices and experiences can be understood and validated as part of the context of your life. A space where your choices to care for your health and the health of your communities can be respected, rather than gaslit, labeled, or pathologized.

Continuing to practice COVID precautions can affect much more than decisions about masking or where to eat. It can shape friendships, family relationships, dating and intimacy, work, access to healthcare, travel, community, and feelings of belonging. People may find themselves navigating different levels of risk tolerance with partners or loved ones, grieving relationships or activities that have changed, experiencing loneliness or isolation, or trying to make decisions when the people around them see COVID very differently. For people living with Long COVID, disability, chronic illness, or medical trauma, these experiences may intersect with navigating sometimes hostile healthcare systems, changes in capacity, grief, identity, and being believed about what is happening in their own bodies. A COVID-conscious therapist can offer a therapeutic relationship where these realities are understood and can be explored alongside everything else that brings you to therapy.

You can come to therapy for anything

You don't have to be seeking therapy because of COVID to benefit from working with a COVID-conscious therapist. You might be looking for support with trauma, anxiety, depression, relationships, grief, identity, oppression, neurodivergent burnout and masking, chronic illness, loneliness, or simply wanting your life to feel different. COVID consciousness may be only one part of who you are and how you move through the world. Having a therapist who understands that part can make more room for the rest of you.

Finding a therapist who fits

Therapists in the COVID Cautious Therapists Directory have chosen to identify themselves as COVID conscious, but individual practices and approaches to precautions can vary. When you're considering working with someone, it's okay to ask what COVID-conscious care means in their practice, what precautions they take for in-person sessions, whether telehealth is available, and anything else that matters to you. The goal isn't simply to find a therapist who uses the right label. It's to find someone with whom you can build a therapeutic relationship that feels supportive, respectful, and right for you. Find a COVID-conscious therapist →