Best of LFMM: Mental Health Wrap Up

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🧠 In this wrap-up of Mental Health Awareness Month, John Hinson tackles the lingering stigma around therapy in the legal profession. With honest insights and actionable advice, John shares his personal journey to understanding the power of talk therapy, as well as practical alternatives for lawyers feeling overwhelmed. Whether you’re curious about therapy or need encouragement to take that first step, this episode offers a candid and compassionate perspective.

📌 Key Takeaways:

• Why therapy is a sign of strength, not weakness.
• How consistency and the right therapist can transform your mindset.
• Simple ways lawyers can rekindle their passion for their work.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Minute, the go-to podcast for solo and small law firms who want to level up. All right, without further ado, let's dive in. Hey everyone, and welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Minute. I'm your host, jon Henson, and today the final day of May and wanted to uh kind of wrap up mental health awareness month, uh, just with some thoughts about therapy. Uh, you know, I know that there's still a lot of stigma just around mental health and this thought that, like, going to therapy is like an admission of weakness or an admission that there's something wrong or whatever the case is, and it's not really like that. Uh, you know, look, and you may have your reasons for feeling that way, and look, here's the thing. I felt that way. I was very hesitant to go and do it, but, uh, I just want to share with you like the experience for me in going to therapy, and there are tons of different kinds of therapy. We actually did a center stage episode with my therapist, sharon O'Connor, earlier this year and she talked a little bit in that episode about some different kinds of therapy you don't have. Like, if you don't feel comfortable going and talking to a therapist, there are other things that you can do. You know there are other things that you can do. Uh, you know there are other kinds of of therapies out there, but talk therapy, uh, is is the most common, it's, it's the most, uh, widely used, and I get it like, as a highly analytical person and a naturally curious person, I could not wrap my head around how talking about something could almost, you know, in a sense heal you or make you feel better, right? But because, like you know, in my mind, like talking is just a thing that we do every day, right, I'm literally doing it right now as part of my job and as part of my passions with podcasting, and I didn't understand how talking also had these sorts of therapeutic benefits. But then I looked at it and I thought about it. It's like, well, same goes for, like walking. We all walk everywhere we need to go, but walking is also a form of exercise. Walking will also help you lose weight or help you feel better physically and get you in shape, and so it serves multiple benefits. And that was a big aha moment for me and just how talking might help.

Speaker 1: 2:33

But there's also that thought of perspective, right, and I get it. You, as a lawyer, you feel like you have a very unique career. You need a specific kind of person who understands the specific things that you're going through. And, look, you can find therapists that specialize in entrepreneurs, in business owners, in specific white collar practices. They're out there, they have those specialties, and so there's a way, there's someone out there that you can connect with, who does understand a lot of the things you feel, especially around burnout, stress, depression, anxiety, all that kind of stuff. And you know it does help.

Speaker 1: 3:16

But you have to be consistent with it, all right, look, I'll be perfectly honest with you. I was hesitant to do it, I was pretty guarded at first, and it took my therapist to show me different perspectives and and challenge me to think in different ways before I really felt comfortable with it and open up with it, and I'm sure that that that can help you as well. Right, don't just go to one session and then decide it's not for you, that's not how it works, all right. But at the same time, you know, if you're not comfortable with it, if you feel weird about going to someone's office and doing something in person, they have video conferencing, you can do teleconferencing. You know, have a phone conversation with therapists now and there's so many different things that you can do with that. And so, yeah, you know, look, we've had all kinds of content this month around mental health, talking about burnout, depression, ways that you can have those conversations in your firm, and I know for a lot of you out there it's something that you struggle with and I get it.

Speaker 1: 4:22

It's hard out there and there's a lot that's on your shoulders, especially, you know, with the clients that you serve and the work that you do and all of the ramifications of what's placed on you If you do something wrong or if you go to court and lose, like it's like I can't even begin to fully empathize with what that must feel like, because that's way more pressure than even I'm dealing with. All right, and so go, you know, just find someone to talk to and work through it, because it does help you feel better. It gives you things new perspectives, new ways of thinking that you had not maybe even considered, and, as smart as you are and as analytical as you are, there are things that you're definitely not considering and and I and just I hope that you know you all out there are taking care of yourselves Um, that if you are feeling burned out or stressed, that that you're doing something that can help you get out of that funk, to to really, you know, rekindle if you've lost it, rekindle that passion for for why you chose this career, um, you know, and all that. And so there's so many resources out there and and I really hope that, uh, you're not just kind of sitting there and stewing in it Uh, I really I really hope that there's something there for you to really latch onto, to explore. And, again, I'm happy to help in any way I can. But I know it's sensitive, it's probably something private that you're not willing to share, and I totally get it. But I'm here just as a resource, not just in marketing, but just anything you need. I'm here to try to help.

Speaker 1: 6:11

And so, even though May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we're still going to have content that comes out periodically over the course of the year just for taking care of yourself and trying to make your life better, not just professionally but personally as well, and so I hope you do find that sort of thing valuable. And yeah, there's just my little note for you this month as we wrap up Mental Health Awareness Month, and I just appreciate you all Appreciate all the work that you do out there, appreciate you listening and listening to this show and all the support there and the feedback that you give us. So that's it for today. We'll be back tomorrow to start June. We are halfway through the year or starting the halfway point, I don't know. You get it. That's it. We'll see you tomorrow.