The big issues that came up in therapy work in 2024

SOCIAL MEDIA HAS DEEPLY IMPACTED OUR FRIENDSHIPS-IT HAS CREATED AN ILLUSION OF INTIMACY

- Sonali Gupta

Over the last few years, as the year comes to an end, I sit down every December to make a list of concerns that have topped the list when it comes to client sessions. There are five concerns that topped the list for this year. The first concern that has echoed across age groups starting from 13-year-olds to those in their 50s is loneliness. More and more people this year spoke about how they feel unseen, unheard and experience loneliness even in social settings. A 45-year-old client told me, 'I dread weekends, I feel alone with family and then alone at work-the pandemic changed things and even though we go every day to work, something is broken, even conversations don't feel the same.'

Another client, a fourteen-year-old boy, told me: 'My parents think I am on the phone all day chatting with friends, what they don't know is that while on groups everybody is typing and chatting, there is no one really who I can speak to at school or have a real conversation with.'