Six Years of MMHC - A Reflection

I love to jokingly say it at work, but seriously time does fly when you're having fun.

Six years of MMHC!? When we started this show in November of 2019, I don't really know what we expected. What started off as a hope and dream while we were each in grad school, has become more than what we could have imagined.

We've met a ton of amazing mental health experts, connected with listeners who have found been impacted by our content, and now been able to travel a new country because of our show.

Recently, we had the opportunity to work with an awesome production crew from Sword Health in Porto, Portugal to film mental health content for their "Academy" portion of their service. It was fun, it was hard work, it pushed us as professionals, it was all the things but most importantly it was possible because of MMHC. One of our listeners works for Sword Health and recommended us for mental health content they wanted to create and after months of working on all the logistics, we made it happen! And what really made this all so special was that we wrapped up recording on the 6 year anniversary, to the exact day, of the release of our first episode. That's some full circle, tv sitcom, warm and fuzzy shit - and we like it.

So what's changed in the world of mental health over the last 6 years? Besides everything (cause it really feels like that sometimes), here are a few things we covered in our recent episode

• COVID 19 Pandemic (duh, we can't have a reflection episode and not talk about that

  • COVID has changed so much in all of us. This collective trauma has sparked a lot of changes and the impacts of it can still be felt and will still be felt for years to come

• Social media

  • Tik Tok has exploded

    • One thing that has made Tik Tok better (in my opinion) than the other social medias was that there was a time where realness and authenticity were in charge (think like POVS of Day in the Life, or people sharing about their own struggles)

    • This made it feel like people could be vulnerable for the first time in a while

  • Be Real was poppin for a little, ultimately it lost what made it special (needing to post in the moment and "Be Real") but for a moment in time, it felt like it was here to stay

• Telehealth

  • I have my own thoughts on the potential over use of telehealth BUT the benefits can't be denied and I know it has made a positive impact on my life

• AI

  • HUGE, it's everywhere. The leaps that have been made with AI over the last few years are wild. And it's just going to continue to improve. What does that mean for us? We're not sure yet but it will definitely impact a lot of people

• Other big things we mentioned are the introduction of digital mental health tools, the shift to the 988 hotline, increase in mental health disorders being diagnosed, and the systemic issues that were highlighted in 2020 and beyond

We know this isn't a complete list of the changes of the last 6 years but for this episode, these stuck out to us.

No matter where you joined us in our MMHC journey, whether from the first episode where my mic sucked or just a few months ago, thanks for being here. We're excited to see what comes next!