Q What kind of therapist doesn’t post on World Mental Health Day??
A This one!!
At The Carvalho Consultancy, we tend not to get into posting on social media for this day and that day. Partly this is because we feel the number of ‘National Days’ of such and such has peaked so much that it’s all started to become a bit meaningless.
(NB I am willing to make an exception for National Giraffe 🦒 Appreciation Day as they are simply the best)
We didn’t post about World Mental Health Day earlier this week.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t care about mental health. Far from it!
Because every day is mental health day here at TCC! We therapists and trainers devote our lives thinking about how we can help improve people’s mental health.
I spent the day delivering training to one of our regular clients Sidley Austin LLP on how to have conversations about mental health.
And one of my key points (and one of my gripes with the usual social media posts about mental health) is that there is no one size fits all.
Yes, there are certain things that are pretty universally good for us – like exercise, being outdoors, talking to others.
But talking about stuff isn’t a universal cure-all.
Sometimes we all wake up in the morning and feel bad. Sometimes the ‘answer’ is almost forcing ourselves to get into the day and go to work as it’s is a good distraction.
By the time we turn back to the problem later, it may have resolved itself or it doesn’t seem so serious.
Sometimes that isn’t the answer. Sometimes, you need time off and to talk to a trained professional.
And if you want to support someone well with their mental health, the key is *attunement*.
Read their signals.
Yes, be present and available if they want to talk to you.
Make it easy for them.
But please don’t bound around like Tigger asking “are you OK, hon?” or suggesting they talk about their feelings every 5 minutes.
Some people are OK with that. For others, it might shut them down.
I don’t mean to make it complicated (honest!). But please let’s shove the ‘motivational’ phrases in the bin and get honest about mental health.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments