Psychotherapy and Brexit
I know that for some of you the title of today’s piece will have you groaning “Oh not Brexit, I am so tired of this”. It must be said that more than any other story in recent times, we have been inundated with opinion after option, historical moment after historical moment, and argument after argument regarding Brexit. This issue has polarised us as a nation and has been the excuse to let some very unpleasant opinions and behaviours out of the darkness and in to the light.
As a psychotherapist, I wonder if the whole debate is some sort of metaphor for what all people actually go through psychologically. Whether our passions can at times split us in two. Our desire to have our way to be paramount and to the exclusion of listening to others. I think as we get nearer and nearer to the 29th of March, we as a society need to take a collective breath and look at how we are affecting and being affected by the debate surrounding Brexit.
In my own practice, I see more and more people who are suffering terrible anxiety about the future and seek therapy to make some sense of it. In reality, the future is always in doubt as emotions and events tend to make even the best laid plans fall to dust. Can psychotherapy help with Brexit, I certainly believe it can.
