When No One’s The Expert: A Preliminary Study of Social Workers’ Perspectives on Shared Loss in Counseling During COVID-19

In this preliminary study, social workers’ experiences of adjustment and loss during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic were explored as they, along with their clients, coped with the resulting emotional and psychological impacts. As death and illness rates increased alarmingly, masters-level social work students’ discourses and feedback in a course on grief and loss revealed a knowledge gap surrounding counseling in face of shared loss that led to a pilot study. Subsequently, a qualitative research study (n = 7) of video self-reports from clinical social workers was conducted to further explore their losses and their consequent professional impact. They responded to the question, “What losses have you felt in this pandemic that have impacted you professionally?” Participants listed multiple losses related to work (e.g., loss of professional therapeutic space, loss of the work/life divide) and recognized the challenges to maintaining a personal sense of well-being. In consideration of the pandemic’s impact when counseling others, participants identified the following themes: greater emphasis on one’s own well-being, greater focus on maintaining strong therapeutic rapport, the value of creativity in the new therapeutic space, and a continual assessment of dynamic shifts. For society to process—which means, largely, to grieve—the losses related to COVID-19 and adjust to the world as is, there is a need for counselors to do so as well. This paper explains how some counselors have experienced loss through their work and coped with it; thus, they have been able to support their clients through the pandemic.