Raising a mental health professional
It is about that time of the year where we are done with the grueling graduate admissions process and are welcoming a fresh batch of clinical psychology students. Increasingly, I have been asked why we are not able to take in more students. This is a valid question, considering that there are only three mental health professionals for every 100,000 Filipinos.
The recently released epidemiological survey, the 2021 Philippine National Survey on Mental Health and Wellbeing, found that one in seven adults and one in five children and adolescents have experienced a mental health problem in their lifetime, with one out of 10 adults having experienced suicidal ideation.
Less than 5 percent of those with mental health, neurological, substance use disorders sought appropriate health services, with over 40 percent attributing it to structural barriers such as inaccessibility, services not available, no money to pay and could not afford it, or could not get an appointment. Clearly, there is a big need, and we are failing to keep up.
Unfortunately, it takes a lot of resources to raise a mental health professional, particularly a clinical psychologist. As much as we would want to mass produce hundreds, if not thousands, of competent therapists, the rushed process would undermine the very goal we seek. Already, there are many bad actors in the field, promising over-the-weekend certifications or whole masteral degrees completed within one year. We also have companies eager to gobble up inappropriately trained individuals to handle complex trauma cases at a pittance of a salary.
Government also plays its role in diminishing the quality of psychological services as its overly broad licensure fails to distinguish clinical from nonclinical psychology and inadvertently gives inappropriate individuals legal cover to practice in clinical settings. The invention of the psychometrician’s license also offers false hope for bachelor’s graduates who find themselves struggling to compete in a field that heavily relies on graduate-level skill sets.
Under the current law, they would still have to be supervised by licensed psychologists, rendering their own license moot. Licensure isn’t a harmless exercise as it is costly to achieve and maintain, rendering psychometricians vulnerable to opportunistic review centers and continuing education workshops and conferences.
I know I run the risk of sounding exclusionary or gatekeeping. But this is what it means to hold not just students’ potential and well-being, but to also keep in mind their future clients’ welfare. This is the main reason we keep our teacher-student ratio as healthy as possible.
We want to ensure that the clinicians we raise can go out and be of help to their clients. We want to ensure that future clinicians are fully aware of the responsibility and privilege of their profession and to never take it lightly. Psychotherapy doesn’t allow clients to take shortcuts; it encourages them to face their problems and engage in effective long-term solutions.
Similarly, we do not take shortcuts in our clinician-in-training’s education. It isn’t just about amassing technical skill; it is about honing one’s own self to become a tool of healing for others. Such a transformation requires time and care. Coursework alone will not do that. A one-year program will not do that. A weekend workshop will not do that.
Lately, in the more than a decade of teaching clinicians, I have noticed a worrying trend. A decade ago, freshmen would come in excited to learn and be of help to others. Now, their anxiety leads the way. Me and my colleagues recognized that our own students in clinical psychology need mental help first before they can be of any use to their future clients. We encourage them to engage in their own therapy and to work through their fears, instead of engaging in avoidance, during their academic stay.
This emerging concern among students means that we are no longer just teachers; we also have to put on the hat of a counselor and guide, making space for their personal and mental health concerns on top of their academic needs. Imagine the complexity of teaching and mentoring tasks once they’re at the practicum stage and dealing with their own clients!
It is a teaching challenge, especially as someone who teaches mental health, on how to provide a supportive environment for their personal well-being and at the same time push them to meet the standards of care that their clients deserve.
We have to give students the time and space to breathe into their own before we can deem them as ready to provide for others. We need our students to be whole so that they can have space to take on other people’s suffering and make responsible choices that are outside of their comfort zone. After all, no client chooses to be a client, but all professionals choose their profession.
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aatuazon@up.edu.ph
