There is a lack of available therapists right now. Mental health awareness seems to be at an all-time high — and that makes it a challenge in finding a therapist. It’s a therapist shortage. There are many reasons for that. And this conversation featuring mental health professional, Derek Bylsma, focuses on that and more.

In this SE podcast episode, Derek Bylsma, LCPC takes on these topics:

If you are looking to speak to a licensed therapist, reach out to Derek’s team at Millennium Counseling Center. 

Learn more about Derek Bylsma and Millennium Counseling Center:

Derek’s Websites & LinkedIn: Website | LinkedIn

Article by Derek: The Power of Individualized Therapy and Gratitude in Mental Health Recovery

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Transcript from a segment of this episode on the challenges of finding a therapist:

Eric: There’s no shortage of news to talk about. There are a couple of things as you mention expanding your footprint, and I think of like, well that’s essential because I keep hearing these stories of lack of access to mental health professionals. There are challenges in finding a therapist.

Derek: I know

Eric: A lot of it has to do with laws, healthcare laws and crossing state lines or not being able to cross state lines and you’ve heard stories of even in major cities to where one’s trying to get help and they don’t have access to someone because their mental health professional that they know or the people that they know are completely booked.

Derek: Yeah.

Eric: Even in Charlotte I’ve heard of people dealing with this but it’s all over the place when it comes to a therapist shortage. So why is that or take that down the path that you want to take that down.

Derek: Yeah, I mean, I think that the reality is, is that we have way more people seeking treatment and it started with COVID. People went through the kind of whole COVID shut down and then we had a lot of political divisiveness within the country and people struggle with that.

And then I think that more recently, we’ve got these kinds of brutal acts of violence that are happening, pretty consistently these days. And so I think that people are realizing that they need support and they need help. And so a lot of what we’re seeing is people who haven’t been to therapy before, people who haven’t seen a counselor. In addition to that, I just think that it’s becoming more talked about and more recognized — when I was a kid, there weren’t many people who would acknowledge that they had a therapist but it’s different these days and you know, kind of across the board. There are still some communities that struggle with it, as far as wanting to seek counseling. But I think that for the most part of the mainstream Americans understand that this is something that can be helpful for them and that they can kind of get that extra support. And that’s what we see. We will have somebody come in once and they’ll say I’m just going to try this one time. And they’ll even say I doubt it’s going to help or something like that and then they kind of go through the process and then they see it’s really helpful and then it just becomes a part of the way, kind of one of the resources that they use in their life to get that extra support.

The other part is, I think people who have been a support system are less capable of being support systems right now because they’re going through their own stuff. And so friends and family and people we would have leaned on in the past kind of to talk through those things, I don’t know that they have the capability of being able to support somebody else because they’re personally going through more things on their own. And so it’s very difficult for them to be a support system for somebody els...