Career Counselling & Mental Health: Bridging the Gap

By Tara Shuster

As career professionals, we encounter a large number of people with some kind of mental health issue, yet most of us do not have any specific training in the mental health field. This can lead to feelings of ineffectiveness and frustration. A well-publicized statistic is that one in five people experience some form of mental health issue in their life. As such, it’s not surprising that many of our clients may be struggling with something – especially when you consider the stress they’re under.

We are not mental health professionals. However, it is important to understand our clients’ mental health issues as best we can so that we can fully help them navigate through the job search process and find the right job. It’s also important to know how the stressors of working may impact their mental health in order to ensure they are set up for success.

Some career professionals may be a bit fearful to work with people with mental health issues due to negative stereotypes, often perpetuated by the media, that they are violent and unpredictable. It is extremely important to understand that this is simply not the case. As the Canadian Mental Health Association states, “people with mental health issues are not more violent than any other group in our society. Multiple studies have proven that there is very little relationship between most of these diseases and violence.”

In this article, I will discuss some of the challenges that many of us encounter in our work with people with mental health issues. I will also propose some suggestions for how we can make our work more effective.

Sometimes the recent stressors that clients encounter by being unemployed and job searching may trigger a mental health issue for the first time in their life. In this case, it is very likely undiagnosed and they probably have little or no supports in place to help them deal with it. In other cases, the client may have been dealing with this issue for a long time but has never been diagnosed or reached out for assistance. In these instances, even if you try to broach the topic, they may be very unwilling or unable to discuss their issues with you because they don’t fully recognize it themselves.

Even if the client is well aware of their mental health issue, they may be very hesitant to discuss it with you due to fear of stigma and a repeat of negative reactions they’ve experienced in the past. They may even worry that you would stop working with them or refuse to promote them to an employer because of their mental illness. This might be a completely unfair assumption on their part but their inherent fear is understandable as they may have been burned many times before.

Another challenge that you may encounter when working with people with mental health issues is that their behaviour and mood may change over time, or even fluctuate from week to week. This can be especially frustrating for you if they haven’t told you anything about their mental health issue. If you don’t know what’s going on, it’s easy to assume that the client isn’t interested or motivated to work as they don’t reliably attend appointments. However, this may very well not be the case. They may simply not have developed effective strategies to manage their symptoms.

In addition, it’s important to note that people with mental health issues often have a number of appointments. In addition, they may struggle with certain times of the day due to their mental health or medication side effects. For these reasons, they may not be able to be as flexible with appointment times. Again, if they have not disclosed their mental health issue to you, this may unfortunately seem like lack of motivation.

What can career professionals do?

So, as a career professional, what can you do? My first suggestion is to create an open space for clients to talk about their mental health. Developing a positive and trusting relationship with the client is the first step for them to feel more comfortable opening up. Asking open-ended questions like “How are you doing in general?” can often start a conversation around this. In addition, having visual cues around the office (like posters and pamphlets) on mental health resources can help clients see that they are in a safe space and may reduce their fears of stigma.

It’s also important to normalize the negative feelings that clients are experiencing. Many clients will be experiencing more stress, anxiety and depressive feelings than ever before. It’s often hard to tell whether this is due to a mental health issue or simply due to the stress of being unemployed and job searching. Either way, it’s important that they understand that what they’re experiencing is completely normal. Sometimes simply having so many negative emotions can be a stressor in and of itself, which can start a vicious cycle leading to further emotional turmoil. If they understand that what they’re going through is very normal, they may not be as stressed about their stress.

If a client does open up to you about their mental health issue, ensure that you don’t make any assumptions. Two people with the same diagnosis may experience very different symptoms, so that doesn’t tell us anything about their experience. Ask the client what their mental health issue looks like for them and how it may impact their job search and/or work life. If you’re looking to improve your own mental health literacy, Mental Health First Aid can be a useful course and is offered across Canada. Go to mentalhealthfirstaid.ca for more information.

However, it’s extremely important to note that, as career professionals, our role isn’t to be a mental health counsellor, even if you have the skills and training to do this. Therefore, if your discussions with your client start to cross the line into more personal issues, set boundaries and be clear about what your role is and isn’t. If the client is open to talking more about their mental health, great! You can refer them to other resources for them to do so, such as their family doctor or counselling services. If the client is new to mental health services, case management services can also be helpful to connect them to resources.

Despite our best efforts, some clients may not open up about their mental health concerns, and that’s okay. All we can do is set up a space and create a relationship that makes them feel as safe as possible to do so. Raising awareness and working to bring mental health issues to light will help, over time, to create more spaces that feel safe so people can open up. Let’s start the movement!

Tara Shuster has a BAH in Psychology from Queen’s University and a Career and Work Counsellor Diploma from George Brown College. She has worked in career counselling with both the general population and specifically in mental health. She is currently the Employment Specialist at Reconnect Mental Health Services where she developed and implemented the Reconnect to Work program to assist clients with mental health issues re-enter the workforce.