Like most adults participating in any sort of small talk with someone you’ve just met, I often am asked what I do for a living.  It’s curious to me that some individuals seem to struggle with my answer.  I say “I am a therapist” and they say “oh yeah?, like physical therapist?” or “cool, my sister is a massage therapist” or “I thought about going in to speech therapy too”.  Then I usually say something like “no, no, I am a psychotherapist”.  “Oh, okay”, they reply.  And, then, this is usually the end of the conversation.   So this leaves me wondering – are we still not comfortable, even in 2016, with the idea of tending to our mental health? Is there still such a strong stigma attached to mental illness or even just emotional struggle that it’s a conversation ender or a small-talk buzz kill?  Unfortunately, it seems like the answer is still yes. 

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