I'm Not Doing Enough: A Therapist's Honest Take on Therapy Influencer Culture

Last week I was scrolling. 

It was Sunday afternoon before a heavy clinical week so I justified a brain break to cap off the week. I told myself 20 minutes, but that turned into an hour…the algorithm does what the algorithm does.  

The first thing I saw was a  clinician with eighty thousand followers who, when I went to their page, three reels posted today, four the previous day, and all together 15 reels in one week.

They used trending audios, hot takes, their version of sketch comedy style cuts that had been filling my feed all week with different creators.

Even though I wondered where they had the time to see clients, and if that was who there were in ‘real life’ (consolidation of digital identites and implications of online professionalism are real considerations for therapists who public content), I was impressed by how engaging the content was (social media presentation can shape client’s perceptions by boosting perceived competence and promote mental health literacy and help seeking). As I hit like on a few reels, this content creator was winning me over. But all I could think was, 

I'm not doing enough.

So I kept scrolling. 

The next therapist influencer had a call to action for followers to share the worst thing their therapist ever said to them and their recent content themes were calling out what they deemed unethical behaviour in other therapsits. The irony of their call out was not lost on me as I went straight to the comments and there were thousands of them (read the research on the ethics of instatherapy here and here)   The creator responded, amplified, and encouraged more disclosure even doing a stitch on a few of the comments.

Though somewhere in the back of my clinical mind I recognized the liability this person was inviting, the dual roles, and the lack of any containment or care for those commenting, all of that was bypassed by the fear of:  

I have to be perfect because if I'm not, that's me in those comments.

*I’m not alone. In recent research, many therapists who produce content report anxiety about not wanting to do the wrong thing.

So I kept scrolling. 

A reel about trauma, using a hook about nervous system regulation (fun fact, psychotherapy related content to holistic therapies, the term “Nervous system”, DID, and trauma receive more engagement than other topics, such as perinatal care and divorce). 

The take was missing the nuance and context that would protect people from incorrect self-diagnosis and demonstrated a misunderstanding of how nervous systems work. But it had almost one million views!  When I thought about experienced and educated therapists (including myself) being drowned out by misinformation, that voice said once more

I don't matter.

So I took a break, but it didn't last long.

I opened the app again and everything was about Therapy Jeff (one of the biggest therapy influencers currently online). After making a quick reel about the topic, I was overwhelmed and shut my phone off.

Instead of making more content, I shut down my phone and went on a detox for a week. During that detox, I read research on social media and influencers (some of what I shared here), debriefed with a mentor in the marketing world, and did some non-therapy self care by catching up on the new season of “Love on the Spectrum” and reading a good and spicy novel. 

The discourse about how we show up online is bigger than just one influencer. It can be a reminder that what you see is not always what you get, that schemas like Unrelenting Standards (which was showing up for me) thrive on the comparisons in social media, and  our professional identity and integrity is more valuable than views. 

If any of this is landing and sometimes if feels like you’re caught  between performing therapy and practicing it online or off, join us at the Reset Circle on May 12th where we will be learning about the dual identity bind & how to stay human while managing a professional self. 

Come as you are, not as you think you should show up.