Mental Health Awareness Month Spotlight: Dr. Crosby

This May, FMP is recognizing Mental Health Month, a month dedicated to promoting awareness, offering resources and education, and advocating for mental health and well-being. FMP values providing education and support for our employees’ mental health. FMP was excited to invite Dr. Crosby, Clinical Psychologist and Founder of mental health center Affirmative Spaces, to speak about the impacts of today’s post-pandemic society on mental health and identify healthy coping strategies. FMP’s Work-Life Effectiveness Committee interviewed Dr. Crosby to learn more about his experience and gather helpful insights for organizations that wish to support their employees’ mental health, especially in a remote or hybrid work environment.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your background?

I am a licensed clinical psychologist, originally from San Francisco. I have been in the Washington, D.C. area for 6 years after moving for an internship residency at Howard University Counseling Center. I am the Founder and Owner of Affirmative Spaces, a mental health center.

What kind of work do you do at Affirmative Spaces?

Affirmative Spaces offers therapy services primarily to individuals and couples. We specialize in working with people who meet at the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and race/ethnic minority. As a clinician, I see about 15-20 clients for therapy per week, including individuals and couples, as well as one group. In addition to that, I have other clinicians in my practice who I supervise as they work towards their independent licensure.

What do you love most about the work that you do at Affirmative Spaces?

Seeing and being part of the process of my clients’ transformations. Often, people aren’t fully aware of the healing and joy that they can experience. When life feels so burdensome and heavy, it can be very hard to see the forest from the trees. Since I’ve been in the practice, one of the consistent themes that I’ve seen across clients is the permission to feel and the permission to acknowledge how they feel. It sounds small, but it’s so earth shattering because a lot of times people have been told that their feelings or experiences don’t matter. To see them be able to take up space in that way is extremely beautiful to witness and be a part of.

How has your work changed as a result of COVID?

COVID removed the stigma associated with seeking mental health services and care, particularly within communities of color. In those ways, it has made mental health more normalized. I witnessed the rapid decline in overall wellness as people were forced to stay home and saw a lot of increased severity in terms of depression and anxiety with not knowing when this is going to end. As a result, more people wanted access to mental health services, and providers switched to a virtual platform to meet the need.

As a mental health professional, what is one thing you think is important for leaders in organizations to know about mental health?

People are human beings, not working capital. There is always a mission and output that needs to be produced, but we have to factor in variables of humanity. Incorporate humanity into the space and leave space for people to not be okay or to need help. Make sure that there’s nothing punitive that happens as a result, such as being taken off a project or given additional projects in the future. We don’t want to chastise people for being human beings and needing help.

What steps can organizations take to be more supportive of their employees’ mental health in a remote/hybrid work environment?

Having dedicated space – things like employee resource groups (ERGs) that are affinity/identity based and monthly (more frequent, if possible) workshops/brown bags on mental health and wellness – is important. Often, we tend to be reactive – something happens, and resources are created as a response. It’s a much more effective approach to have something ongoing and preventative. There is something powerful about holding space for different identities – having a shared space for shared experiences and connecting at the human level, not the coworker level. Having a space to just be free and express what you need can be extremely helpful and healing.

I encourage organizations, when approaching ERGs and affinity groups incorporating mental health and wellness, to move towards curiosity as opposed to a solution. Curiosity allows you to be invested in someone’s experience, overall healing, and growth. It hasn’t become a checklist item because now there’s a different type of investment as opposed to an outcome. Often, we approach things just to solve a problem, but mental health and wellness ERGs/affinity groups can’t have an end point because we’re not ever done with them.

Climate check-ins to see how people are feeling are also important. Acknowledge that things are very stressful right now, acknowledge the company culture and check in with people to see how shifts in modality are impacting people’s overall wellness while creating resources that are easily accessible. Having to jump through hoops to access a resource is an additional stressor. For example, holding an affinity group meeting regularly and consistently (i.e., every Monday) that people are free to attend alleviates so much pressure.

Helen Laraia joined FMP in April 2023 and has a Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from George Mason University. At FMP, Helen works with the National Science Foundation on technology implementation and data analysis and reporting. Helen enjoys going to concerts and finding ne