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Podcast pulls back the curtain on getting mental health help

CBC's Other People's Problems lets listeners in on actual therapy sessions with Vancouver psychologist

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Fifteen months into the global COVID pandemic, the answers to the question, “How are you doing?” range anywhere from, “I’m okay,” to, “I am throwing tea parties for the cat.”

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Vancouver psychologist/clinical counsellor and host of the popular CBC podcast Other People’s ProblemsDr. Hillary McBride explained recently that the lack of physical human contact is, and will be, a major issue coming out of these COVID times.

“Social support is one of the pillars of mental health,” said McBride, who has had a private practice since 2014. “It’s great that we can pick up the phone and text someone. Thank God we can do that, but there really is no substitute for our bodies being in the same room together.”

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McBride explained that loneliness, combined with increased stress and panic, has led to frayed nervous systems and failing mental health.

“I have put more people in the hospital in the last year than I ever have in my entire practice because of suicidality,” said McBride.

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While it is not a substitute for one-on-one clinical help, McBride’s podcast Other People’s Problems may be a soothing balm for those feeling alone in the world, and for those who may be thinking about getting some therapy but know little about the process or what to expect.

The podcasts have McBride — an empathetic, calming and reassuring presence — speaking with actual clients whose names are changed for privacy.

The conversations are wide-ranging and can be eye-opening. What they are not, though, are judgmental.

There is none of the finger-pointing alarmism that often comes from the TV counsellors looking for trauma porn to boost their ratings.

“It moves beyond healing for the patient and family to all of us,” said McBride about the accessibility of the format of the podcast.

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CBC producer Jodie Martinson (l) and Dr. Hillary McBride have been working together on the podcast Other People’s Problems since 2018. The podcast brings listeners into actual therapy sessions with McBride and some of her long term clients. Photo credit: Francis Georgian / Postmedia Vancouver
CBC producer Jodie Martinson (l) and Dr. Hillary McBride have been working together on the podcast Other People’s Problems since 2018. The podcast brings listeners into actual therapy sessions with McBride and some of her long term clients. Photo credit: Francis Georgian / Postmedia Vancouver Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

CBC podcast producer Jodie Martinson said Other People’s Problems exceeded her early expectations. She said when they began, she thought the podcast, which dropped season four in mid-May, would be a niche show that would appeal to a “certain crowd.”

She was wrong. From Sept. 6, 2020 to May 2 of this year, the podcast had 500,000 downloads.

“It came out in April 2018 and it went to the top of the Canada podcast chart, the overall chart. It is pretty easy to get there for a day or two, but it is difficult to stay there, and it stayed there for a long time,” said Martinson.

For further confirmation of its popularity, you need go no further than the comments section.

Normally, you never, ever want to encourage someone to read the comment section, but in this case, it is actually a positive, safe environment.

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People, this reporter included, upon first checking out Other People’s Problems will likely scroll the episode list looking for subjects that they want to talk about. However, that specificity soon slips away as more episodes load and more people open up to McBride.

“It is not so much the detail of their trauma or stories that stands out, it’s kind of more of that universal experience. It’s the experience of being human,” said Martinson. “It’s amazing to hear someone else speak and I hear myself.”

The idea for the podcast came up several years ago when Martinson began to think overall health coverage was a little sickly.

“We do a lot of physical health stories in this kind of news-you-can-use way,” said Martinson. “I started to think we sure didn’t talk about mental health the same way. We do either a boring awareness campaign or address crisis situations when it is already too late to really think of some way you can intervene.”

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At the same time, Martinson herself was discovering counselling and was notably surprised and frustrated at the cost. A clinical counsellor can run well over $200 an hour. And that cost, unlike psychiatry, is not covered by Medical Services Plan.

“I started to think what could we do as broadcasters, as journalists, to shine more light on this part of our society. We give a lot of lip service to mental health, but we actually haven’t dug into what it actually looks like to work on your mental health. I thought wouldn’t it be cool if you could put a microphone in a real therapy office,” said Martinson.

The people you hear in the show are McBride’s own clients. She does not solicit their involvement and they are not paid. If clients show an interest in wanting to be part of the podcast then a conversation about ethics, agency, choice, risks and benefits takes place.

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Of course, none of this happens if McBride has reservations.

“We have extensive conversations about the limits, the risks, the benefits. Why they are saying yes? I think it is important to note there are some people who maybe would have loved to say yes, but I as their psychologist didn’t feel like it was a good fit for their mental health, or didn’t trust their ability to say no to me,” explained McBride.

Once the episode is recorded, clients hear both a rough cut and the final cut before the episode is posted. Martinson says, to date, only small changes have been requested and no one has stopped, which they can, an episode from being posted.

McBride, who is the principal investigator for a research project that is looking at growth and thriving during COVID, says the pandemic has nudged people toward making meaning of this strange time.

She said her clients are trying to transform their lives, and through participating in this podcast process, they hope their personal stories will help others.

At the very least they offer some connection in this time of social distance.

dgee@postmedia.com

twitter.com/dana_gee

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