Mental health professionals also need healing

Peer support is helping mental health professionals grapple with personal loss, even as they work to guide the rest of the country through its grief

Earlier this month Shalini Anant, an Udaipur-based psychotherapist, posted a message on Facebook in memory of fellow therapist Lovepreen Kaur, who had died after a COVID-19 infection. “You have taken a piece of my heart with you…,” it began emotionally. “She was a friend, a lovely human being, a wonderful therapist, a constant learner. It was so sudden; she was so young — just 41,” says Anant over a phone call. She took a break from taking on clients over the next few days, to process her loss. Today, mental health professionals are burdened with collective grief, personal losses, struggles with COVID-19 and care-giving, the need to listen and partner with clients’ heightened emotions, and longer work hours for less money. Many are doing pro bono work, extending their hours, or are offering a reduced fee, with the understanding that people have lost jobs and need their support now more than ever before. They have been trained to be resilient and to be able to dip into a toolbox of self-care, but “a pandemic of this scale is going to affect us,” says Dr Alok Kulkarni, senior consultant psychiatrist, Manas Institute of Mental Health, Hubli. “The nature and scale has been tremendous.”