Therapy with Mental Health Providers: A Study of Self-Stigma and Help Seeking Behaviors

We live in a society where stigma against people with mental illness exists. To make matters more complicated, our society devalues people who ask for help, labeling them as unstable or insecure. Those who do ask for help often face the most stigma related discrimination within the health care setting. In fact, some studies have shown that mental health providers frequently judge people chronic mental illness negatively. As a result, many people with mental illness chose to not seek help. For mental health providers, therapy is often seen as a desirable learning experience at the beginning of their careers, to work through personal issues that may interfere with doing work in the field and grow professionally. Yet, there is little research on providers seeking therapy at other stages in their careers. The idea that therapy is both valued by some as an educational experience and devalued by society raises questions about how mental health providers internalize these contradictory beliefs throughout their careers. This study asked mental health providers about their experiences with therapy and to complete the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale created by Dr. David Vogel (2006) to further explore the relationship between self-stigma and therapy for mental health providers