Mental Health Professionals

Professional therapists obviously know the many benefits of counseling. Ironically, however, they also tend to put off getting their own treatment. If you’re working in the field, then you’re exposed to a whole lot of stressors. Why would you treat yourself with any less care than you do your clients? Let us help you find your center again by working with you.

Mental Health Professionals Need Help, Too

Mental health professionals are the ultimate caregivers. You hold space for so many different people in a given week. You create and maintain the container that gives individuals a safe space for expressing some of the worst things that have ever happened to them. It is magical, important work.

It is also very hard. Working in this field can be draining. You have all of your own countertransference, emotions, and parallel processing going on as you work with each client. Although the relationship is important, you rarely self-disclose. Certainly, you don’t burden your client with the complicated emotions that arise for you during their work. Holding all of that inside is both a beautiful gift you offer your clients and it is a weight you carry within you.

It’s tempting to feel like you have to have it all together. Or to put your feelings in a box. In fact, you might get stuck precisely because you have so much training in professional counseling. You justify and analyze your feelings because of that training, but you may not allow yourself to really feel and work through the deeper emotions.

How Therapy Differs from Supervision

Sometimes as mental health providers we assume that we’re getting our needs taken care of even though we aren’t. One common trap is believing that because you have a supervisor, you don’t need your own therapist. A supervisor helps you work through the emotional and logistical challenges that arise with each of your own clients. That’s very important. However, it simply doesn’t take the place of professional counseling.

Sometimes the issues you’re struggling with are directly related to your clients. Sometimes they have nothing to do with your clients at all. Oftentimes, it’s a murky combination of the two, as you get triggered by clients when things come up related to your own past or present life. Working with a professional therapist allows you to address all of those aspects of yourself in a way that supervision does not.

Don’t Struggle Alone; Get Professional Counseling Today

We understand that it’s not always easy for mental health professionals to seek out their own support. It might feel like you know too much about “what goes on under the hood” to benefit from working with a therapist. However, here you are reading this page, knowing deep inside that it isn’t true. That you, too, want to benefit from that same gift you give your clients every day you go to work.

We can work with you to get past some of the walls that might be up as a direct result of your therapeutic training. We can help you get to the heart of the matter, so that your own beating heart can pump vibrantly once again. Contact us today to learn more about how we can approach therapy to improve your anxiety or depression.