Post 1: An Introduction
A concerned psychologist?
There are not enough psychologists to heal the world. The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted how our mental health systems are failing us. Still, it also reminded us that technology can be a tool to connect both to one another and to helpful resources. I frequently tell clients they must take action to improve their mental health; waiting too long is possible. There is a heavy cost to feeling stuck.
Community engagement and psychological processing are critical for moving forward with health. We must share our knowledge, stories, and experiences to enhance collective mental health and well-being, and we must do so in new ways, including formats that might gently push us out of our comfort zone, like blogging and social media.
Writing is personal. My hope for my website and social media engagement is 1) to use this as a personal platform where I talk to, educate, and thus nurture previous versions of myself. What would I want Steve at 23, 18, or 32 to know? Through dialogue with myself, I might be able to 2) give away psychology, mental/relationship health knowledge, and healing-related topics to a general audience. I hope it's helpful to you. 3) Another purpose of this platform is my own professional and personal development and continuing education. This blog is not an end-all in terms of sharing—there are topics I choose to read for myself and not comment on—but I hope this blog and online presence will help hold me more accountable by sharing and commenting on what I am learning. 4) Further enhance my sense of felt community by respectfully engaging with a broader audience. I am open to respectful feedback and writing/research on topics others are concerned about or care to know.
Why should I follow you?
I am an educator at heart. I earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and have over 15 years of experience using psychological principles to help others enhance their quality of life and lead lives worth living. I studied psychology because I believe in its potential to alleviate human suffering. Yet, a strength and weakness of clinical psychology is its focus on the individual. Individual (including couples and group) therapy limits the number of folks one can work with intensely, thus capping the rate of collective healing and growth. Therefore, to providers, therapy can be a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, I believe individual attention is necessary; people do heal through conversation and by being seen, heard, and validated in spaces where they feel comfortable. On the other hand, many hurt people are out there, and not enough therapists to meet our nation's mental health crises. At this point in time, we need to rely on one another more to have those collective constellations of conversations necessary for basic emotional support and connection. As individuals, we need thought-informing and provoking resources to help ground ourselves and our discussions. I hope to be one such resource.
