By: SHA Interns Alyssa Morterud & Rebecca Sanchez
In March 2020, right when a global pandemic overtook the United States by storm, SHA’s founder and CEO, Heather McPherson, LPC-S, LMFT-S, CST, gave Rolling Stone some insight into some challenges in relationships in the time of COVID-19. Our founder and director of Respark and founder of Sexual Health Alliance, Heather McPherson, was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine in the article, “Why COVID-19 Will Inevitably Lead to Breakups”, by EJ Dickson. Dickson writes about the “unknown” factor that COVID quarantine brought into all of our sexual and or romantic relationships. More than this, she touches upon how those feelings of stress and panic had the potential to break up many relationships due to an increase in fighting. Heather McPherson provides insight into this situation and provides us with an analysis of intimacy and relationships during the beginning of quarantine.
In hetero relationships, Heather talks of how most of these arguments reflect the gender dynamics put forth by heteronormativity. She notes that “Cis-men can have a hard time validating and understanding emotions and feelings and don’t have as much experience with how to reflect that, which could play a role in it.” (McPherson) In relationship to COVID, it seems that the cis-woman in a hetero relationship tends to worry more about COVID precautions than her male counterpart. Heather also talks of how polyamorous couples were facing new challenges at the beginning of COVID, as a lot of her patients practice polyamory. Heather predicted that a lot of couples who were “already at that breaking point, [COVID] just pushes them over the edge.” (McPherson) Heather mentioned that even within her own practice, Respark Therapy & Associates, COVID-19 related issues have “completely overtaken the entire session times,” reinforcing the serious toll that it has taken on couples today. If you want to learn more about the challenges couples faced in the beginning of COVID check out Heather’s feature in Rolling Stone!, reflect upon how your relationships held up during quarantine!
You can read the full article here: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/coronavirus-covid-19-breakups-sex-966933/?fbclid=IwAR2r-dPOZ7PEnhsbU4BaRDEZ9msbV2Oj3sv6Z1sM1Bf_vjlk85nsIC0Qw9A
Recommendations for sex during COVID: http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/prevention-risks/covid-19-and-sex