Top 3 Mental Health Professionals on Social Media
Follow them. Follow them now.
Top 3 Mental Health Professionals on Social Media.
Love it or loathe it, we live in a world where social media is a part of most people’s lives (in some shape or form). As a profession, we are still trying to understand our role in this brave new world and how to make the most of the platforms to help wider audiences.
This can mean great things for our clients. Following mental health professionals online provides supportive communities and accessible information, cutting stigma and improving wellbeing. But how do we (or our clients) find the best accounts that provide accurate and trustworthy information? Where should you start?
Luckily, we reveal our top 3 social media accounts run by mental health professionals in 2020. We enjoy following all of these accounts and think you and your clients will find them useful too.
Journey to Wellness
This account is run by Becks, a qualified counsellor, mindfulness coach and talented illustrator based in New Zealand. Becks combines her skills to create quirky, charming and accessible illustrations that seek to reduce stigma and support those looking for help with managing anxiety, stress and mood.
Unlike other social media accounts, Becks provides a number of digital resources for use by professionals as well as individual followers. She suggests these may be useful for counsellors, therapists, teachers and life coaches but they could be used by many. If you want to check these out, view her online Etsy shop or membership packages. They range from workbooks and digital/printable art to clothing and card sets.
Here at SAMH we have previously bought the Journey to Wellness Anxiety Toolbox for use in counselling and it lived up to expectations. We love how accessible, clear, concise and representative the illustrations are.
Who is it best for?
Young people and adults, especially those with anxiety and depression.
Platform – Instagram (@journey_to_wellness_)
Nedra Glover Tawwab
Nedra is a licensed therapist based in North Carolina, USA, with 12 years’ experience specialising as a relationship therapist.
Her Instagram focuses on giving people tools to have healthier relationships, both with themselves and others. Through her posts she emphasises boundaries, accountability and personal action. She does this by sharing tools, practices and reflections that individuals can use in their daily lives. She enhances this through a weekly Q&A where she encourages her community to ‘ask me anything’. Typically, these are relationship based and she holds an archive of these on the Instagram for people to view at any time. Her visual style is pleasingly clear and crisp, which is suitable for a great range of different people.
Who is it best for?
Best for adults who would struggle with boundaries or would benefit from encouragement and support for taking personal action.
Platform – Instagram (@nedratawwab)
We have a little confession…
Okay so we cheated here a little. We had two accounts that showed off how to use TikTok but struggled to pick one over the other. Both have a very similar style but for a slightly different demographic and modality/specialism. We couldn’t pick between them so they jointly hold the final spot on our top 3 list.
If you aren’t familiar with TikTok there are just two things to remember – always watch with the sound on and the videos are limited to 60 seconds maximum. It takes skill to be this catchy, but also get your message across coherently. They tend to be straight to the point and perfect for a modern digital audience.
Lindsay Fleming
@lindsay.fleminglpc##heylinds ##learnontiktok ##mentalhealthmatters ##PopcornDuet
Lindsay is a licensed therapist, based in Chicago USA, working with children and adolescents with a focus on CBT. Her videos are perfectly tuned to her audience and help to both destigmatise mental health for young people and provide positive tools and techniques they can use.
Her personal, honest, humorous and accessible posts engage her followers in a new and popular way. Lindsay’s videos tackle topics as diverse as panic attacks, ADHD, self-worth, body image and bullying (to name just a few). She makes new content at the request of her followers which gives young people an ‘ask an expert’ opportunity.
Who is it best for?
Children and young people struggling with a range of mental health issues.
Platform: TikTok (@lindsay.fleminglpc)
Dr Julie Smith
@drjuliesmith
❤️Like & share to spread this msg! follow me ##tiktokpsychologist to ##learnontiktok about ##mentalhealth ##mentalhealthawareness ##todayyearsold ##mealprep
♬ Emotional Piano Instrumental In E Minor – Tom Bailey Backing Tracks
Julie is a Clinical Psychologist based in England. Whilst running her own private practice as her main occupation, she is another professional who has successfully turned to social media to provide support for those who are unable to access it formally.
Just like Lindsay, she produces quick and easy to watch tips for improving mental health, but from the perspective of a psychologist. To add to this, she also posts on the quirky ways that the brain works, encouraging interest in just how amazing the mind can be. Her videos often include visual representations to re-frame common misconceptions.
Working across 3 social media platforms, she is perhaps the most well known and most widely accessed of all those we feature here. Her TikTok has over 2 million followers and there she tackles many mental health matters in a fun way. She looks at what symptoms, warning signs and ways to address many different concerns are including anxiety, depression, relationships, exam stress and many others. She has gained her 2 million followers in less than a year so much be doing something right!
Who is it best for?
Young people and adults, especially those who may want a little more information or for information presenting in a novel way.
Platform – TikTok (@drjuliesmith)
Summary
These are just 3 (sorry 4) examples of the many, many mental health professionals who are putting out great and accessible content for people. Whether you are thinking about taking that leap onto social media yourself or looking for good resources for your clients there is probably a space on the internet for it!
These posts are different styles, different messages and in differing format. For fear of pointing out the obvious, it’s important to check through the posts to make sure they suit the client you are thinking of recommending them to. Whoever the client is, and their needs, there will be someone perfect to follow.
Working Online?
Are you moving your practice online or looking to understand the skills needed for online therapy? Check out our Diploma in Online and Distance Counselling.
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How to Reference this Blog Post
Suggested Reference for this post:
School of Applied Mental Health (2020). Top 3 Mental Health Professionals on Social Media. Available from: https://www.schoolofappliedmentalhealth.com/social-media-mental-health-2020
References
Unusually for us, there are no additional references for this post.
Image Credits
Header photo by Ismael Trevino on Unsplash
Images of Social Media accounts are all embedded from the individuals own accounts. Click on each of the images to be taken to their profiles.