Take your word, not mine, about getting vaccinated

I’m a clinical psychologist. I don’t typically tell people what to do or give advice. That’s not my role. Instead, I sit with people and help guide them to make their own health decisions in the context of talk therapy.

While I most often help people who experience serious addiction and mental health concerns, I also often help people to navigate and sort through the challenges they encounter in everyday life: Should they leave their job? Confront their friend? Exercise more?

I can’t answer these questions because they aren’t mine to answer. It’s not my life — it’s theirs.

A question that I’ve frequently been asked lately by my patients is: “Should I get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to me?”

Even though I want to scream — “Absolutely! Get the vaccine. It’s safe and effective and your social responsibility to help protect everyone around you, including those that you care about” — I can’t say that. Well, I could say that, but it wouldn’t be helpful. There’s a term in the world of psychology called “psychological reactance,” which means that if you tell someone what to do, they’ll be tempted to do the opposite.

Rather, what any psychologist worth their salt knows is that true behaviour change comes from both internal and external rewards. In other words, in order to help a person make changes, they need to believe that their actions are worthwhile, and they need to experience the benefits of their actions.

So what do I say to my patients with respect to the vaccine?

First, I don’t say anything. I listen. I listen to their concerns and questions. I validate them and empathize with their feelings.

Then, I encourage them to seek out trusted sources to answer their questions, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Health Canada, and COVID-19 Resources Canada. I encourage the use of critical thinking that is balanced with trust in scientific expertise and consensus rather than uncorroborated horror stories that they might read on Facebook and other social media platforms. I encourage them to use accurate information from trusted sources to weigh the pros and cons of getting the vaccine versus remaining unvaccinated.

Like a fork in the road, I help them to imagine two future parallel universes: one where they choose to get vaccinated and one where they choose not to. They imagine what life would look like in those scenarios. They imagine the consequences on themselves, those that they love and society as a whole.

In short, when someone asks me whether or not they should get the COVID-19 vaccine, I encourage educated and informed choice — and given the weight of the evidence, it ends up being a no-brainer.