When the Helpers Need Help: Why Healthcare and Caring Professionals Deserve Support Too

If you’re in healthcare, social work, therapy, teaching, or any other “helping profession,” you already know: the work is rewarding and exhausting. You show up for other people every single day, holding their pain, their crises, their grief. But here’s the thing nobody tells us enough—helpers need help too.

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, author of Trauma Stewardship, puts it bluntly:

“The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to walk through water without getting wet.”

Read that again. You can’t do this work and not be impacted. And that doesn’t mean you’re weak or “not cut out for it”—it means you’re human.

The Hidden Burnout Cycle

It is so easily in our society to get caught up in hustle culture. Add in a caring profession, and suddenly you’re trying to be Superwoman: the nurse who never takes a break, the therapist who answers emails at 10 p.m., the teacher who spends their own money on classroom supplies. It’s noble, but it’s also a fast track to burnout.

As Lipsky reminds us, “There is no way to do the work of witnessing the suffering of others without being affected by it.” Ignoring that truth doesn’t make you stronger—it just makes the crash harder when it finally comes.

Why Reaching Out Isn’t Weakness

Here’s the reframe: reaching out is part of the job. Taking care of yourself is taking care of others, because you can’t pour from an empty cup (and yes, that cliché is true). Therapy, peer support, supervision, journaling, yoga, medication—whatever it looks like for you—it’s important.

Think about it: we wouldn’t expect our patients, students, or clients to go it alone. Why do we expect that of ourselves?

Creating a Culture of Care

Imagine if every hospital unit, therapy practice, or school normalized asking, “Hey, how are you holding up?” What if mental health days were just as acceptable as sick days for a cold? What if saying “I need help” was seen as strength, not failure?

That’s the culture shift we need. And it starts with each of us being a little braver about telling the truth: this work is heavy sometimes, and it’s okay to not carry it all by yourself.

Final Takeaway

If you’re a healthcare worker, therapist, teacher, or anyone in a helping role, here’s your reminder: you matter too. The work you do is valuable, but so is your well-being!

Or, in Lipsky’s words:

“We can only do this work if we are connected to a source of replenishment and restoration.”

So drink the water, schedule the therapy session, take the nap, text the friend. You don’t have to be the strong one all the time. You’re allowed to reach out, refill, and rest—because the world needs you healthy, not just hanging on.

If this blog post resonates with you and you are curious about therapy for healthcare or helping profession burnout, schedule your free consultation here.