I recently had a conversation with a friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer about a few different topics, one of which was our mental health. We were checking in on one another, both making sure the other had resources and support when needed. He mentioned the Peace Corps' therapist in passing, and I was thrilled, thinking I could set up a monthly session with our therapist in Bangkok.
When I lived in Colorado, I went to therapy twice a month (which was all I could afford, but it was something). I went to therapy for the same reason some people choose to take vitamins, exercise, see the chiropractor: for me, therapy was - IS - all about preventative health care.
Although I have struggled with both my mental health alongside a series of various traumatic events in my life - although I asked several different doctors for help finding a therapist throughout University - I was always very nervous about reaching out by myself, and I never received the support I needed to find a good therapist. When I was a little older - 24, to be precise - I finally reached out to a friend and fellow member of my poetry community, and she gave me the information for her personal therapist.
I only attended therapy for about half a year before I was working too many jobs to make time to continue going, but I can't begin to explain the immense relief having a safe place to be heard without judgement - without feeling like I was bothering anyone - gave me.
When my friend informed me the Peace Corps had a therapist, I was over the moon. Reaching out for help is not something I've ever been good at - though I am much MUCH better at it now than I was when I was young - and the prospect of having a safe space to open up once a month was incredibly relieving... until my friend told me we are only allotted six sessions with said therapist.
I felt deflated. Six sessions over two years. As someone who takes a while to open up, six sessions would be about the amount of time it would take me to even begin to say anything of any significance about myself. What's more, if anything were to happen while I served in-country, and I actually needed a therapist, I'd be well out of luck if I'd already used my sessions.
Mental health care and preventative mental health care is a shamefully new concept to America. The conversations about mental health have only just begun, and talking about one's mental health is still ignorantly taboo in most circles, though discussing physical ailments is totally normalized and accepted.
When I applied to the Peace Corps, I had to write several essays chronicling my depression over the last 10 years, as well as my anxiety. I had to be mentally and emotionally capable of recounting (and thereby reliving) traumatic experiences - such as my mom's death and my rape - in a way that demonstrated my ability to distance myself enough from each situation to, at the very least, appear to be "healed." I take my personal mental health care very seriously, and I held nothing back; and at one point, my Peace Corps nurse told me she didn't think I would pass my medical clearance due to my mental health history and self-reported on-going mental health maintenance.
Look, the fact if the matter is this:
I wouldn't have come to Thailand if I had any reservations about my own mental health or my ability to maintain my mental health in the unique and challenging environments PCVs find themselves in. I have spent years developing coping strategies, finding resources, and building an unshakable support network. BUT having the additional option of seeing a therapist - one of the mental health resources I most value - would absolutely help me monitor and maintain my mental health while living in Thailand, alone, in a new community, as the only native English speaker, with all of my Peace Corps friends scattered across the country (and doing their best to maintain their own mental health), while my family and life-long support network is literally half a world away.
Reactionary health care is fine and dandy, but it's an outdated model. I truly believe that preventative mental health care is a huge mitigating factor for many of the situations that might leave Peace Corps Volunteers - and anyone else, for that matter - needing reactionary mental health care.
Holding space for and understanding the emotional needs of others is a health care necessity that is way overdue. The Peace Corps, as a program that is - on the whole - progressive, empathetic, and working to serve the betterment of humankind, would do well to realize its volunteers would be able to give so much more if given access to the simple resource of therapy. Therapy would help so many of us keep our cups full, so we could maintain the emotional energy levels necessary to continue the work we do everyday, pouring from ourselves to fill our communities with the knowledge and intentions we came here to impart.