“This is such a unique and rare circumstance in history and in our lives,” said Andrew Fleming, a psychologist who also runs, with his wife, a wedding venue on their farm on San Juan Island, north of Seattle. “In 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years, we will be asking each other, ‘What did you do during the coronavirus?’ and we will be asking ourselves, ‘How did you respond?’”

Percy Abram, the head of the Bush School, a private school with nearly 700 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, has been able to manage his anxiety through work.

In mid-February, when the number of coronavirus deaths in China was nearing 100, Dr. Abram, 49, and his team began to cancel field trips to China, India, Costa Rica and Morocco, as well as an exchange program with Chinese students. They have since canceled on-campus classes, re-conceived a fund-raiser to raise money for student financial aid into an online auction and worked the phones to make sure the permits to start a construction project in the fall move through the bureaucracy.

The head of a private school is in the business of the future: providing parents with a strategic vision of what their children’s lives could become through education and promising students a path to college and beyond. But all he can do now is try to guide them through the next few weeks.

“All I’ve really known is that the answer to work and to emotional strife has been to work harder and work more,” said Dr. Abram, whose wife, a medical doctor, has stresses of her own. Now he realizes that may not be enough.

“Soon, there is no ‘harder’ and no ‘more,’ and that leaves me with uncertainty I will have to face,” he said. “The city is going to slow down, my meetings will slow down and I will have to slow down and process my emotions.”

A half-marathoner, he has been taking long runs, releasing his tension through sweat and, occasionally, by screaming in the woods where he cannot be heard. He is keeping up with his regular therapy appointments. “That is something that I will not let go of,” he said.