Name, occupation, specialties, degrees?

[My name is] Mary Elizabeth Ehrichs, but I go by Beth Ehrichs or Elizabeth Ehrichs. I’m a therapist, a psychotherapist.

I specialize in working with females with anxiety, ADHD, pretty much anything going on in females’ lives from ages 12 to 112. I also specialize in relationships. Couples, parents, teenagers, siblings, etc. 

I have an undergraduate or graduate degree in psychology. I have a masters in science of social work.  I have two-thirds of another degree in healthcare administration. 

I attended a million schools. University of Illinois at Chicago is where I got my bachelors. University of Texas at Austin is where I got my social degree. 

How did you get interested in your field of study?

So, when I was a teenager, I somehow became the informal, unofficial suicide hotline for my high school. And kids would call me. I, to this day, have no idea who it was, like, I had so many phone calls, and I don’t know who any of them were. They were all anonymous. But nobody committed suicide when I was in high school. 

I would stay up for hours each night talking them off the edge. 

And in terms of relationships, I’ve just always been really riveted by how people interact with each other. And what causes one person to react one way and another person to react a different way. And just really understanding what makes us tick, and just seeing how sometimes we don’t actually hear the words being said to us, we hear the meaning. And how that can really cause a lot of problems in relationships. I just find it interesting how people interact. And how they can’t hear each other. 

Why do people form parasocial relationships? (PSRs)

Because they’re not having satisfaction in the relationships that they’re in. They may be lacking relationships in real life. Or the relationships they're in may be  uncomfortable. And aren’t giving them what they want or need. It could be as simple as “wow, that person is really doing cool stuff! And I’m interested in watching this and following them.” And “I’d love to be friends with them because they seem like cool people.”

How can PSRs be a benefit psychologically to people?

I think one area social media has actually been a very positive thing is for people growing up in smaller communities where maybe they don't fit in with the people who live around them. Maybe they live in a small town in Wyoming, that’s very, very closed to the idea of anything different. And maybe they’re transgender, or they’re queer, or they have ADHD, or severe anxiety, and they’re just told to be normal. I think the PSR can be beneficial when these people are lonely, and feel so different from the people around them.

It helps them to feel like they’re not alone.

It gives them a community. It may be one-sided, but they’re receiving the benefit of “you’re okay, there are other people like you out there.” 

Community is incredibly important. Relationships and community are what give us a sense of belonging.They give us a sense of we’re accomplishing things. Being a lone wolf isolates us, we are pack animals. We need a community to support us. It may look different for different people. Like, introverts may not need a million relationships, but they still need community.