Practitioners have mental health to mind too!
With World Mental Health day on 10th October, it is a great opportunity to highlight this focus and work towards reduction of stigma still attached to the area of mental health struggles. As a professional who has worked in a variety of capacities it people whom have struggled with mental health issues for over 20 years, I welcome these opportunities and as a practitioner who has felt the pressure on my own mental health while working on the front line, I take the opportunity to highlight the need to support those who through their professions are supporting others.
This is a conversation I engaged in just a few weeks ago, the pressure to be the perfect professional when working as a practitioner with a client base. This conversation resonated with so many people I connect with. The projections of clients onto their practitioners and also our own insecurities and fears that can arise can create the perfect storm whereby practitioners find their own mental health impacted.
Some examples that people shared with me were as follows -
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A child and adolescent therapist whose own child was suffering with an eating disorder. – Feelings of shame, embarrassment and not good enoughness.
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A nutritional therapist whose inflammatory skin condition was out of control – Feelings of wanting to hide as she didn’t look the part.
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A yoga teacher who was conscious of her weight - Found herself restricting her calorie intake in a way that was not supportive of herself.
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A psychotherapist who was suffering with peri-menopausal anxiety that was crippling her. -Feeling that people would not trust her or work with her if she was suffering herself in this way.
This stuff is real. I have many of my own versions of this over the years attached to the nature of the work I was doing and/or the client base I was serving. Age and experience, alongside a large dose of self-compassion for my messy bits has relieved me of much of this, however when struggling under these perfection projections, it’s so damaging and difficult.
All of the above scenarios were not an indication of anything other than the real life challenges of life and our humanity as practitioners. However the world we live in often likes to box things off nicely and make things fit. There is huge pressure, often unspoken and implicit on practitioners to be perfect . It makes us uncomfortable to see someone we may be putting our trust in to "fix" us not able to "fix" themselves. With these kind of projections and dynamics at play in the therapeutic and practitioner-client relationship, we as practitioners must prioritise our own care, wellbeing and mental health.
Did you know that a survey by the British Psychological Society in 2016 found that 46 percent of psychologists and psychotherapists suffered from depression, and 49.5 percent reported that they felt they were failures. This is just one study of many that highlights the mental health challenges that practitioners bring with them to their profession and the vulnerability that comes with the work.
Then we have the concept of the wounded healer. This archetype, coined by Carl Jung indicates the intuitive and insightful capacity of those who have endured and came through their own struggles in supporting and helping others. Our capacity for empathy and connection goes deeper than those without such experience and thought not always in the helping professions, people who fall into this category often are drawn to supporting those who walk a similar path. In my own experience and working with 100's of practitioners across professions, I would concur that many who find themselves within the helping, healing and supportive professions fall into this category. And for the depth of connection and benefit it can bring, the wounded healer is at higher risk of compassion fatigue, burnout and other stress-related conditions as a result of their work, simply because they have an internal resonance and precedent in their own systems.
So with this week focusing on Mental Health Awareness, I highlight the practitioner who offer the support services and work with those suffering with their mental health. I offer a reminder that without resourced and resilient practitioners, the populations mental health suffers. Without practitioner care and support, the most vulnerable will have services that have not got the staff to operate them.
And last but not least, mental health practitioner may also have mental health struggles of their own and need to be supported to navigate this vulnerable terrain with appropriate supports and resources within their professions.
