coping centers

 

Long ago, in the high ‘60s, I met a happy couple whose hobby was talking with strangers.  They put up signs on billboards to the effect of:  Want to talk?  Call [their number] between 8 pm and 2 am (or whatever the hours were that they were hanging out at home).  That is how I met them.  It was a simpler time, even in deepest Manhattan.  They didn’t get harassing calls, rather mostly people who just wanted to be heard.  Maybe they had a great idea, or something happened (good or bad) they wanted to share, or they wanted a sounding board to figure things out, or they liked conversation, or they were lonely.

 

Seeing a news report about the problems with accessing psychotherapists these days, it occurred to me that we would all do better to have neighborhood and online coping centers.  Places anyone can access to talk, to share emotional content, perhaps to engage in group therapies, art, community projects.  If no one needs payment, there are no barriers from insuranceu or lack of affordability.  Expenses could be shared by those who can, because this is a community effort for all of our benefit.  Health care professionals who like can not so much donate time as do their part as they see it.  The point is, we can all be heard, all share our human burdens of pain and confusion and our human resources of being listeners, growing a healthier future of companionship instead isolating into hate.