Written by Think about all the dark and challenging difficulties that mental and emotional health professionals deal with daily. After they work with people and hear various problems all day, they now must come home and address their personal lives. Outsiders may consider us superhuman because we appear to have it all together, but it is the reason that the old joke about a therapist needing a therapist exists. Same thing for a life coach, counselor, psychologist, or anyone helping people work through their issues.
Primarily, these fields work with challenges all day, from the moment we wake up until we hit the bed, and then thoughts and dreams dance around in our heads for the 6-8 hours when we are asleep. It means that 24/7, we are in problem-solving mode. The great thing is that there are colleagues and others in the industry that we can talk with to help us navigate the worlds that we help others better move through. An article in Psychology.org highlighted a few reasons why it is beneficial for professionals to seek guidance, assistance, and counseling from others in our field. The piece’s author, Nina Chamlou, said, “One of the key ways to prevent compassion fatigue or burnout is to go to therapy. There is a misconception that once therapists are trained, they don’t need external support. But there are multiple benefits for therapists receiving therapy.” In addition, she also discussed other benefits, such as education, managing our mental health, and getting to know ourselves better.
I understand this fully. I was lucky to have friends and colleagues in my field to help offer professional services. I am working through issues with my mother, who is presently managing stage 4 breast cancer, and when I got the news, it was 45 minutes before I had to see a client. I wanted to cancel and would have, except this person truly needed services, and she was relying on our appointment. After my appointment with my client, I immediately contacted a friend and fellow life coach for support. In my case, the universe aligned because the person I was reaching out to just had a cancellation and was good at letting me fill the timeslot.
When the roles reverse, and you are on the other side of the desk, all the trepidations your clients feel are now felt and deeply understood. I had an excellent session and have contracted with her for three months. That being beside the point, I advocate for mental and emotional health professionals to work with other professionals in the field. Doing so not only allows you to release but also allows you to empathize better with your clients. That level of compassion can only be imparted to you by feeling emotions similar to your clients.
This is a case of experience being the best teacher. Going through a circumstance with a fellow professional, where you are the client, places a new perspective on the matter. I was not openly nervous or visually apprehensive at all, but in my mind, I could now understand what my clients felt. Doing this work professionally is taxing both mentally and emotionally. To be effective in our fields, we must access and simultaneously contain our feelings to ensure we can address our client’s concerns. We must control our emotions like a water faucet does with water.
Therefore, mental, and emotional health professionals should seek counseling. Our field is very challenging. There is almost a 30 percent suicide rate among mental health professionals, according to an October 8, 2020, article in the medical journal Psychiatry Research. As mentioned, mental and emotional health professionals address concerns nearly 24 hours daily. Just because we are trained to handle, diagnose, or, in some other way, address our client’s concerns, it does not always mean we are best at managing our own.
Our advice is valuable, and many of us should take it ourselves. People need to be alright with seeking the advice of professionals for help, no matter their relationship to the field, level of education, or expertise. Getting help appeals to the human factor in every mental/emotional healthcare professional. Rose Hackman of The Guardian wrote an article in 2017 that interviewed some psychotherapists who opened up about seeing a therapist themselves. The reality is that they are people, too. The article discussed how one of the interviewees ironically emphasized that point.
The truth is that mental/emotional health professionals can benefit from being on the client’s end of therapy, counseling, or coaching. I used my experience to tap into a newfound level of empathy that I learned about only after my experience of being coached. The opportunities to become better at helping your clients can start with you being in their shoes.
Everyone is faced with challenges. No one is promised a trouble-free existence. Since this is the case, life comes down to how people handle the turbulence when it affects them. Mental/Emotional health experts know how to address their situations, but it is also good to get advice, counseling, or suggestions from other experts. Truthfully, sometimes self-diagnosis can lead to misdiagnosis or incorrect assumptions regarding self. That is why I recommend reaching out to other professionals in the industry. Plus, a second opinion never hurts anyone.
Since professionals in the mental/emotional health field work with many people and address various concerns with their clients, the concoction of what one hears and tells their clients can sometimes convolute feelings on matters. Seeking assistance will enable one to address oneself better and have an unbiased opinion concerning those needs.
Also, let’s face facts: even chefs and cooks occasionally visit fast food restaurants. After a long, hard day of diagnosing, helping, and working with other people, it is sometimes good to have someone else work with you to cross-reference your emotions and legitimize or delegitimize your thoughts on them. There is nothing wrong with getting help if one needs it. I cannot remember what comedian said this, but he remarked that the mark of genius is going to someone else who knows the answer when you do not.
The reality is that even experts can rely on other experts for needed advice and counseling. Since my time with my life coach, I have seen the value of consulting with her to help me better navigate my affairs. Although we live in a very DIY world, it is excellent to know that, on occasion, professionals can lean on other professionals for support. Doing so can lead to breakthroughs that may not have been on your radar. It will also allow one to learn new techniques that they may explore and use for their practice in the future.
Bibliography
Banerjee, Debanjan, et al. “Guarding the Gatekeepers”: Suicides among Mental Health Professionals and Scope of Prevention, A Review.” Psychiatry Research, vol. 294, 2020, p. 113501, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113501. It was accessed 28 Nov. 2023.
Chamlou, N. (2022, August 17). Why Mental Health Workers Need Therapy Too. Psychology.org. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://www.psychology.org/resources/mental-health-workers-need-therapy-too/#:~:text=Why%20Therapists%20Should%20Seek%20Therapy,benefits%20for%20therapists%20receiving%20therapy.
Hackman, R. (2017, March 19). When therapists also need therapists: ‘Suffering is not unique to one group’. Theguardian.com. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/19/therapists-go-to-therapy-prince-harry-mental-health