Exploring The Rewards and Challenges of Working in Mental Health

The road to becoming a mental health counselor is possibly one of the most challenging, but rewarding careers a person can take on. It is a demanding role, with many areas of diversification, and a seamless blend of scientific knowledge and empathetic support. Helping people address their mental concerns, and the pressures of their lives will test therapists in numerous ways, and because of this psychologists and psychiatrists must strictly adhere to varied ethical considerations, some of which may restrict their ability to act in their more altruistic instincts.

However, the rewards that follow working in mental health are numerous, and a psychiatric healthcare employee will likely find the rewards of working in this challenging vocation to far outweigh the many restrictions and challenges of working in the mental health sphere. Today, we’re going to explore what some of these challenges may look like, and what the rewards of working in this particular field are, to help you determine whether or not you feel you would be the right fit for a career in mental health care.

Challenge: High-Stress Environment

Working in the world of mental health is not for the faint of heart. It involves hours upon hours of meeting with people who are in varying stages of psychological distress, and helping them to navigate this distress in a way that is sensitive, professionally appropriate, and legally compliant. This means that you’re going to hear a lot of difficult things. You’re going to hear about trauma, you’re going to hear perspectives that you may deem apprehensible, and you’re going to have trouble understanding some clients.

What’s more, you’re going to have to keep all of your immediate reactions under wraps, compose your thoughts, and focus on why the client is seeing you. In other words, if one of your clients expresses nazi sympathies, you cannot allow your anti-nazi attitudes to cloud your judgment of the person and their right to mental healthcare. You must treat them the same way you would treat any other client. Some clients may even be threatening, or discuss volatile situations and emotions. 

This would be a high-stress environment for anybody and is the reason professional therapists are usually in regular contact with a therapist or supervisor themselves.

Reward: Helping Others

In exchange for this inherently stressful, and at times even scary element of mental healthcare, mental health workers gain the unique ability to spend several hours a day making a real difference in the lives of their patients.

Psychotherapy is incredibly useful in helping patients handle the symptoms of depression, anxiety, psychosis disorders, and other mental health concerns, including burnout and identity crises. Helping others is one of the most rewarding things any person can do, and altruistic behaviour is linked to reduced stress, longer lifespans, and greater psychological health.

Challenge: Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a very interesting occurrence. Also known as Vicarious Trauma, this form of mental illness occurs in people who are occupationally subject to second-hand stress on behalf of the people they work with. For example, a nurse may begin to experience panic attacks and depression about her job. Therapists, after hearing about the various traumas and sufferings of their patients, may develop this form of trauma, where their occupation becomes a source of distress for them.

It is important that therapists remain in contact with their supervisors to maintain their mental health, and don’t overwork themselves to avoid the effects of Vicarious Trauma. As long as mental health workers don’t slack on maintaining their mental well-being, they have little need to suspect that they will suffer from compassion fatigue.

Reward: Personal Growth

The thing about mental health work is that it encourages peerless introspection. Growth can only happen when someone looks inward, examines what is or isn’t conducive to their self-actualization, and takes steps to alter it so that their cognition is in line with who they are or want to be.

As therapists and other mental health professionals work with their clients to achieve this, they may also follow the same processes, or a client’s unique perspectives may give rise to realizations within the therapist themselves, causing personal growth for the therapist. In other words, working in mental health is a dual-benefit vocation. As you work with your clients on the difficulties they face, you will also face your difficulties and work to overcome them, developing your sense of self and identity as you do so.

Challenge: Burnout

As we’ve mentioned before, the job of mental healthcare workers is stressful, and if the professional in question neglects their well-being, they are extremely susceptible to burnout and disillusionment with their vocation. 

Burnout is a mental illness characterised by symptoms exacerbated by their work. These include excessive stress, fatigue, insomnia, depression, and more. Burnout can be incredibly difficult to put up with, and its effects have caused significant work-related stress in America’s healthcare sphere in recent years, as overworked hospital and doctor staff struggled to contend with the spread of COVID-19.

Reward: Different Day Every Day

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to experience the same thing all day every day, then enrolling in a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program or Master’s of Clinical Psychology and entering the mental health field may be for you. As you build your client base, you will work with a wide range of people, with an even wider range of problems.

You will be able to stretch your academic knowledge as you attempt to help your clients discover the source and adequate therapy methodology to help them address their sources of distress, and develop more beneficial cognitive habits and thought processes. Furthermore, the job will demand creative thinking from you as you navigate every client’s unique perspectives, cultural backgrounds, and psychological difficulties alongside ethical and legal boundaries.

Working in mental health is inherently difficult, but each challenge is met with a reward that adds to the high value and satisfaction of the occupation. After all, there is little that is as satisfying as helping someone change their life in a way that makes them happier, and more satisfied with the life they live. Through the mental health industry, you can be an instrumental part of that journey.