I recently plucked up the courage to contact my work employee support service to request counselling for stress/pressures of balancing work/small children/elderly parent care and just generally feeling stretched so thin I might snap in two.
Problem is, they can’t find anyone within 20 miles of where I live with capacity for in person counselling, apparently. They’ve offered either zoom or telephone counselling.
The thought of zoom counselling makes me feel a bit sick. The stress of the last few years and the impossible demands of work+home schooling+ parenting are a big part of how I’m feeling, I think, and I blame lockdowns for the effects they had on my elderly parents. So the idea of spending yet another hour at my work desk, in my bedroom, in front of my laptop, trying to look at the other person and not the little box with my face in it, talking about how much I’ve hated trying to juggle work and home and the effect it’s had on me and my family, seems frankly perverse. I also hate the idea of laying my emotions bare while either the kids play Pokémon outside the door, or interrupt to get me to arbitrate in their latest squabble, or in my lunch break before I have to go back to the virtual hellscape that is my job.
I’m less horrified by the thought of phone counselling but it seems a bit…ineffective?
But then, I wonder, am I just finding excuses? Should I be embracing not having to drive somewhere for in person counselling? Should I be giving zoom counselling a go? Can anyone give me a kick up the arse and tell me how amazing zoom counselling is?