A Note on World Mental Health Day
Reflections and a call for change
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Today is World Mental Health Day. As a human being and therapist who has both lived and worked through the last 2.5 years of a global pandemic, I have never been more aware of how our current systems, cultural norms, and societal expectations in no way support true mental health.
I have been seeing clients for 8 years now. From the very beginning when I saw my first clients at a community mental health agency, I quickly became extremely aware of my limitations to helping people as a therapist.
I realized that I could help people on an individual level. I could empathize with them. I could offer them with compassion and a listening ear. I could guide them to find within themselves the motivation for change. I could help them recognize how their patterns are blocking them from real growth and change.
But that’s where the help I could offer stopped.
Because the reality was that, even if I did all of those things and even if certain clients could find the motivation that they needed to grow and heal, many were still stuck.
Why? Because the issues were not 100% on the individual. Nor was the issue 100% on my skillset as a therapist at that time. Sure, those two factors played a part, but there were many other factors at play, such as:
The environment that my employer provided to conduct sessions in, which was often times not conducive to any kind of nervous system regulation and, therefore, not supportive of any real healing.
The elaborate (and often unnecessary) paperwork required by insurance, which only forced me as a provider as well as clients to expend energy on things that were not benefiting either of us in any way.
Unrealistic expectations of productivity set for me as a provider, which, ultimately, made it literally impossible for me to even see all of the clients I was required to see in any given day, which ultimately limited clients from being able to come in and get the support they wanted when they wanted it.
Clients’ own lack of money and resources, like transportation, a roof over their head, and the ability to get a job even if they so desired due to the other two factors preventing them from doing so.
And so, so much more.
Though I have moved on from the community mental health world, I have most definitely not forgotten. I continue to hold those experiences near and dear to my heart.
It has left a lasting impression on me how our society’s systems can and do perpetuate suffering and trauma due to the abuse that they cause. To this day I continue to see how it effects people of various demographics in my private practice and by talking with every day people in my personal life.
I know and have known that within our current systems, as a psychotherapist, my hands are tied.
I can’t force someone to offer someone housing. I can’t give someone a car if they need it. I can’t force affordable public transit to exist. I can’t force someone’s doctors to stop dismissing them and start actually listening to them. I can’t force someone’s employer to give them mental health days. I can’t force someone’s employer to reduce their workload due to the health issues it is obviously causing them. I can’t change someone’s work conditions for them.
I can’t do those things as a therapist seeing people individually. However, I can name it. I can say what I see and have been seeing. I can draw attention to it. I can point out the issues and, from my own perspective, explain how and why it isn’t working so that we can start to create something better.
After all, we can’t create something that works if we don’t fully understand how and why the current way isn’t working.
The reality is that our current way of life doesn’t support true health and wellness in any real way. And I feel that we are at a moment in time where we are in desperate need to create something that actually does, because I know I’m not the only person who is beyond done with these old ways of doing things that are clearly not working.
We cannot obtain true mental health if the systems we live in continue to actively prevent healthy living from occurring.
So on this World Mental Health Day, I’m setting the intention to draw attention to the collective changes that I believe is needed to create a future a sustainable future of true health and wellness. I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like right now, but I know it’s desperately needed.
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