Why This NFL Team’s Hiring of an In-House Therapist is Setting the New Standard in Athlete Mental Health

Earlier this month, the Carolina Panthers announced that they hired an in-house therapist, Tish Guerin. This is a major step forward for the landscape of athlete mental health. I’ve long been a proponent of organizations creating an in-house mental health team. The same way that they’ve created in-house departments to address issues on the physical level, an in-house mental health team is long overdue.

Mental health is something personal. In this article published on the ESPN website by Staff Writer, David Newton, Carolina player Eric Reid was quoted as saying,

“It’s something that hasn’t been taken seriously long enough. We’re dealing with professionals … we bang a lot. We have to lower our guard and know saying something’s wrong isn’t a bad thing. You might not have to say it [to] somebody on the team, but you need to talk to somebody…”

It is believed that Guerin’s hiring marks the addition of the only active in-house therapist in any organization in the NFL. Here’s why I believe that in-house mental health teams will become the standard, not the exception.

1. It’s a game-changer for professional sports.

Although mental health has been talked about more and more in recent years, the discussion in sports exploded earlier this year thanks to athletes like DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Love, and Michael Phelps. The NBPA took notice and hired the first-ever Director of Mental Health and Wellness. With the Panthers’ addition of an in-house therapist, it appears that professional sports are beginning to not only widen the discussion about mental health but also take action. With these steps, over the next couple of years, mental health will be more of a normal discussion among all of professional sports and eventually (I hope) trickle down to the amateur and youth levels.

2. It’s a game-changer for organizations.

Players, coaches, and personnel are all susceptible to mental health troubles in the high-pressure nature of their profession, but also in their personal lives. If you’re human, you’re not immune to emotions. The organization is taking a major step towards a more holistic approach to player wellbeing that goes beyond protecting their physical assets. Developing an in-house mental health team solidifies the message that this is an important issue that the organization is taking seriously.

3. It’s a game-changer for players.

The players now have someone with a set office within their organization, which is majorly significant because they can get to know this person, get used to seeing this person around the facility, trust this person, and it’s easy for them to access this person. A player doesn’t always want to go to teammates and coaches about issues that he or she is experiencing. However, they also don’t want to go to a stranger. Having someone in-house bridges that gap.

4. It’s a game-changer for the discussion on mental health.

Society’s stigma will weaken when “big and tough” athletes make the discussion of mental health acceptable. For a myriad of reasons, society idolizes athletes. We tend to look to them as role models, which can add a lot of pressure on the athlete, but that’s for another discussion. Any blip in mental health has long been viewed as a weak, soft, crazy, and the individual’s treatment is hidden behind closed doors because we as a society tend to treat these issues as if they are something to be ashamed of while also making the sufferer feel like there is something wrong with them. Enough is enough. As I’ve said time and time again and will continue to say, we’re not robots, we’re humans. Maybe if the athletes that we hold as the standard of both “tough” and “successful” can begin to break down the barriers of the discussion on mental athlete, the average Jane and Joe will feel comfortable confronting their own problems and take the steps to get some help so that they can enjoy a happier life.

If you’re looking for a mental health coach to join your team—either personally or as an organization—I welcome you to contact me to discuss further.