Why Mental Health Professionals Need Community
Mental health professionals are a unique group of people. We like coming along side of people who are struggling with some of the worse moments of their lives. We find it humbling and honoring while people would confide in us and trust us enough to hold their hurt and pain.
Not many people would be willing or able to do that, but mental health professionals are the first to sign up and help.
Mental health professionals are emotional first responders and we respond to many, many horrible things that have happened to people.
We lean in when a client sobs with tears of depression and hopelessness. We actively listen as a child talks about the horrific abuse they endured. We provide unconditional positive regard and warmth to parents who lost a child to suicide.
We are indeed emotional first responders.
And, we need to belong to a community of like-minded professionals who get each other without having to say anything.
This article is dedicated to all of my fellow emotional first responders who are in the trenches helping people in their darkest hour.
Mental health professionals need community for seven main reasons, and I have asked input from many professionals on LinkedIn who are in the mental health space to help with this article.
Here’s a link to my LinkedIn post on this.
Being a member of a mental health community helps with isolation, fosters connection and networking, provides peer support, creates a therapeutic space, enables professional and personal growth, provides a place for career advancement.
HELPS WITH ISOLATION
Isolation is a very common side effect of our profession. We are ethical and hold the strictest confidence for our clients, which means we don’t talk a lot about our sessions.
We can hold onto a lot of struggles of others, and it can sometimes be a very lonely journey.
Here are a few professionals that say it better than I can.
“Many of us work in isolation as either solo providers or doing telehealth. We are helpers and holders for our clients and need to feel connected and supported with our tribe to continue doing great work!” —Jessica Kwerel, LPC
“To be it succinctly and somewhat tritely: The Beast of Burden. The heaviness and stress of caregiving all day.” —Jeremy Tunis
“I think we can all agree the past couple of years have been pretty tough for those of us working in the mental health field. Working within the field is already challenging enough but made more so by the pandemic. During that time, it was extremely important for us to remain close to our friends, family, and community. Our friends and family can be amazing support systems, but they don't always understand what we might be going through as a clinician. Talking to others in the field has helped me to feel less alone and to be a better provider.” —Meggen Horwatt
HELPS WITH CONNECTION
Similar to feeling isolated we can feel disconnected if we focus intently on our caseload every single day, every single week. These mental health professionals talk about this very eloquently.
“Everyone needs community and a healthy ecosystem to thrive. We are social beings, and need people’s support and guidance be it in our personal or professional lives. A professional community support enables us to collapse the timeline and learn from each other’s experiences, learnings and mistakes; share a large pool of resources, take inspiration from seniors in the field; inspire younger professionals to do their best.” —Richa Sharma
“As MH providers we need community from others who "get it" ... who understand what it means to help others learn to manage their health in the best way possible ... sometimes with amazingly difficult circumstances to navigate. And, have and take the time to manage our own health and wellness. Plus, it's really nice to be able to "shorthand" our thoughts with others who don't need the BIG explanation of what we mean ... we just get it.” —Kimberlyn P.
“Community, both with other therapists as well as friends/partners/family/organizations etc. is a vital part of connecting to our humanity and taking care of ourselves as therapists. Therapists give to our clients and the therapeutic relationship, while fulfilling and intimate, is naturally imbalanced due to clients seeing us for professional help. So having healthy, rewarding, and reciprocal relationships when not wearing our 'therapist hat' helps us experience support and care, and in the case of other mental health professionals, understood in our professional identities. Making sure that my relationships are emotionally healthy and balanced has been a major way that I've prevented professional burnout. We are humans first, therapists second!” —Jennifer Contarino Panning, PsyD
HELPS WITH NETWORKING
Being able to network with other professionals in the same field can evoke a sense of belonging and purpose, especially as a solo practitioner or a remote worker.
Networking can be hard to do for many professionals, so being a part of an online community can help build a network of colleague who may or may not be at the same workplace.
“Even before the pandemic therapist have an extra emphasis on needing community due to the nature of their work, for example, dual relationships. Therapist especially one living in small communities maybe uncomfortable doing things local and may prefer to not work where they socialize to keep things less complex. Therapists in private practice tend to not have coworkers so their daily interactions is strictly with clients/business related. So for single therapist or therapist not close to family (literally and figuratively), there is no community.
Community is important because therapists are human first and need social interactions. It is also good for networking and business building, but therapist like to take of the therapy hat and be human too. Also, most of our friends and family do not understand the emotional toll it takes on us to show up and do our job daily. We hold a lot. People assume because we’re caregivers we don’t need help and support because we’re expected to give it. Often leading to unbalance relationships. Therapists tend to have good friends in other therapist but are other misunderstood. Then Covid for sure stretch that gap and made socialization harder and the age of technology were so connected but so disconnected.” —Danesha Deloatch, LMFT
PROVIDES PEER SUPPORT
There are times when a mental health professional may not be able to talk about a particularly difficult case with a spouse or a friend, but with the ability to talk with another professional in the same field and be a huge help.
Again, these professionals talk about this very well.
“I think community for mental health professionals is important because it can provide peer support that is in line with trauma informed care; community allows helping professionals to manage their own experiences of vicarious trauma and offer an outlet for co-regulation of some kind with like-minded peers who ‘get it.’
It makes the work we do more manageable when we feel support beyond receiving our own personal therapy and professional supervision.
Community also offers professionals accountability, opportunities for collaboration and consultation, and opportunity for self-development in the context of others, noticing how we behave in our interpersonal relationships.
This can create opportunity to practice humility, cultural competency vs cultural humility, learning from peers that bring a unique perspective. Ideas spread through people! Engaging with peers can create collective change, helping us and our organizations become more effective and limit our potential to cause harm.” —J. Subsinksy, LPC, ATR-P
“Having a group of individuals who have been “in the trenches” and have a shared lived experience is invaluable, not many can understand what mental health professionals go through and the vicarious trauma that is experienced. A community where mental health professional can feel validated and supported by their peers is rare in the mental health world and absolutely needed.” —John Brewer, DNP, PMHNP
“I agree with what has been said and would add that consultation with other mental health professionals is a necessity and in the best interest of our clients and maintaining best practices.” —Sheila K. Anderson, MA, LMFT
“Community offers space to share hazards of practice like compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization & burnout, as well as a place to celebrate and remember our joys of practice” —Liz Letson, MS, LPCC
“Unless you are a mental health professional, so many outside of that circle do not understand the true feeling of burnout. Additionally, I have observed the stigma within the existing community that “it’s our job and must keep pressing on”. A community that is meant to serve each other will enable those internal breakthroughs while also supporting each other from within with a deeper understanding.” —Amy Filter, MSN, RN
PROVIDES A THERAPEUTIC SPACE
As mental health professionals we often hear very difficult cases and sometimes we just need a space to put our hair down and relax. We need a place to feel taken care of and to not always be the one guiding the conversation.
“If we're not attuned to our own needs or asking for them to be met, we won't be drawn to the idea of community. The right community is therapeutic. It feeds our human need for connection and for mental health professionals, it's often an exercise of co-regulating the mind and nervous system function that is so strained from the nature of our work. We even need community to help us honor all the ways modern life detaches us from community and prevents our connection.” —Brittainy Lindsey
“The right community is therapeutic. How many therapeutic communities are there? I spent 21/2 years in one in Miami beginning in 1975. It was the right community. Based in Reality Therapy personal responsibility for our actions and decisions were paramount to our recovery. Consequences for our actions were immediate and meaningful. Community service was unending. It was five months before we were eligible for mail. When mine finally came, it was all from people I met in detox asking me to leave treatment and party. I threw all the mail away. I had made so much progress. I’m still in constant touch with my friends and staff I met in the community. There were deaths of clients and staff and we dealt with them as a community. We were the first institutional JC chapter in the state and highly respected in the community.” —Gary Van Arman
“We take in.. listen to a lot of “stuff”. We need community to help us dump it back to someone that is safe to keep from having burnout.” —Gladys Johnson-Ramsey, MA, LPC
ENABLES PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
Hearing from other professionals about their struggles, wins, and even losses can be a source of growth. We can learn from one another, and we can encourage each other when we’re feeling down.
“Community is a celebration of fellowship where we are supported, where growth is encouraged through open and safe discussions among peers of ideas and differing viewpoints. It is a place also where someone newly entered the field could find mentors and input new ideas and research and findings. It is a forum to celebrate, support, and replenish our craft, ourselves, and each other.” —Frances Kramer
“Mental health professionals need community because building relationships is the key to making a change/difference. It also helps with networking, cultural awareness and growth. Often times when people are not a part of a community, they feel hopeless or lonely. A school social worker myself I need community to be able to connect and meet the needs of my students and families. Everyone in the community is unique and can be a possible resource.” —Melasia Robinson, MSW
“Mental health professionals need community to hear success stories. Implementing evidence-based practices is difficult. Hearing how other people in similar circumstances have done it is important for problem-solving and motivation.” —Joanna Prout, PhD
“It can help with growth, especially as a private practice practitioner. This field can be very hard at times and having colleagues who have similar experiences can also help reduce isolation, vicarious trauma, and burnout.” —Jodi Tingling, MSW, RSW
PROVIDES FOR CAREER ADVANCEMENT
Lastly, belonging to a community can help with career advancement. So many mental health professionals are looking for a job in mental health, and it can be very overwhelming where to look and being in a community can help ease that burden.
Many times, recruiters and hiring managers are in communities freely talking about their career opportunities and this can be a very good place to make some solid connections with the right people at the right company.
THE MENTAL HEALTH COMMUNITY
The seven reasons for why mental health professionals should join a community that I mentioned in this article are all the reasons why I founded the Mental Health Community, and I would like to invite you to join!
The Mental Health Community is not like a Facebook group, a LinkedIn group, or a Slack group, where it can be difficult to find files shared, see group announcements, or even see who in the community.
The MHC is much more robust than any of those platforms, and more features are added all the time.
The Mental Health Community is an online community for mental health professionals to connect, network and advance in their careers and there are hundreds of members making some great connections.
I hope you’ll join the Mental Health Community and let me know if you found this article helpful.
I wish you the best of luck as you continue your journey as a mental health professional.
You can join the Mental Health Community here.
Guest Blog written by: John Cordray, LPC, LPCC, LMHC, NCC
John is a mental health therapist & Founder of the Mental Health Community.
Follow him on LinkedIn!
