Season 1 Ep 05: How Are You Doing? Building a Culture of Support
As therapists, we know about the power of silence and how much someone is saying when they aren’t saying anything at all.
And we know how silence around something big, like a client’s suicide attempt, sends the message that this is too big or too scary to talk about.
But if we mostly all agree that therapists are responsible for doing their own self-work, it’s necessary to facilitate conversations around the decision-making that precedes a serious event or to simply check in on a clinician.
Because we know that in the aftermath of a crisis event, when a therapist says they’re fine, there’s some work to be done.
Yet there is a culture of silence from supervisors that contributes to the dysfunctional workplaces in mental health. Silence imbues the event with shame and inhibits the capacity to do self-work.
So what stops supervisors from supporting their clinicians after a crisis?
Content warning: This episode contains frank discussion of suicide.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
How supervisors fail their clinicians when they respond to crises with silence
How silence is tied to the precarity of funding in community mental health
Why the conflicting agendas of the multiple stakeholders in mental healthcare make clinician professional development and self-work an uphill battle
Why systemic overhaul of the mental health field is necessary, and maybe inevitable
Learn more about Riva Stoudt:
About Riva
Riva Stoudt is a therapist based in Portland, Oregon. When she's not working with patients, she likes to talk about all the things a therapist isn't "supposed" to talk about.
