WEST HOLLYWOOD – It’s been seven weeks since California’s Stay at Home order began and local therapists are starting to see a change. It’s not just that there’s fewer people outside. They say the people staying inside are changing too.
Earlier this week, during what would have been ‘rush hour” in West Hollywood, runner Ritch Colbert had the streets to himself.
A few months ago, the television executive would have been in a hurry to get to the office. But during Safer at Home, Colbert has replaced commuting with meditation and exercise.
“Every day I have a calendar and a schedule,” Colbert said.
Instead of departing flights and client meetings, he has a daily date with his piano.
“I’ve never done that before,” Colbert said, “actually sit down and play piano every day.”
To know just how much life has changed: ask his therapist.
“Travel, travel, travel,” said counselor Albert Goldenberg from his home, where he’s been meeting clients using telemedicine. “(He was) always on the running in front of the snowball. Constantly busy.”
Goldenberg says Colbert is one of several clients who have acclimated to life in isolation, so much so they’ve started calling it “Covid Assimilation Syndrome.”
In fact, Goldenberg himself has more time for nature and self-reflection. It seems after the initial shock of “Safer at Home,” a slower pace of life isn’t so bad.
“This has nothing to do with people being OK with people dying,” Goldenberg said. “This is a bi-product of what we’re all dealing with being in isolation.”
Goldenberg is working with clients to mentally prepare for the end of the shutdown. He hopes the state and local governments will create a network of volunteer therapists to help anxious constituents return to a busier life once businesses reopen.
As for Colbert, he’s not afraid of going back to the way things were, because he says he never will.
“My biggest fear is that I’ll squander the gift of this extra time I’ve been given,” Colbert said. He’s headed toward a future with fewer places to go, and more time to simply be.