I have yet to meet a clinician who doesn’t agree that inner work is a vital part of our ongoing personal and professional development. This sentiment is automatically followed by the next universal agreement that the profession itself doesn’t necessarily reflect these shared truths—at least, not when it comes to academic and licensing requirements.

With the progression of the mental health field and our accompanying skill sets toward more integrative, experiential modalities, we are what we have to offer our clients. When we experience inner work as therapists in the ways we ask our clients to, we receive a secondary gain—deeper empathy—setting us up to richly attune with them on their healing journey. It’s like the difference between reading a book about a trip to Italy versus actually traveling there. We can imagine the adventure with great detail, but nothing allows it to come to life like experiencing it in person.