For a long time the main focus of health was physical. It’s generally accepted that everyone should visit a doctor at least once a year. The same can’t be said about our mental health. But in many ways that’s beginning to change.

Mental Health Awareness Month is an opportunity to pay more attention. The increased awareness on mental health has shifted the way we think and talk about it—and it is literally altering the way an entire generation communicates with one another.

Terms you would typically only hear in therapy like “trauma,” “gaslighting” and “narcissist” are being used to refer to everyday experiences. Does the adoption of therapy terms in popular language help remove stigma around mental illness? Or does it dilute the terms’ original meaning?

Kristen Abraham, a professor and the chair of the psychology department at the University of Detroit Mercy, joined the show to explain how the mainstream use of therapy terms is changing our understanding of mental health.

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For the first time in decades, more people are seeking talk therapy over medication. 

The good news is there’s less stigma preventing people from accessing care. The bad news: A lot of people struggle to access therapy. Some clinicians argue that one of the big issues is private equity. 

Private equity investments in health care have grown to over $750 billion over the past decade.

Linda Michaels says that’s had devastating consequences for both clients and clinicians. People are less likely to get the therapy they need. And therapists are in a worse position to offer it. 

That’s the premise of Michaels’ talk this Sunday at a local fundraiser for a metro Detroit clinic. She is a psychologist in private practice in Chicago and a co-founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

The Metro reached out to two big health insurance providers, United Behavioral Health and Cigna. We wanted their perspective on how their administrative systems have complicated work for therapists, and made getting therapy harder. We did the same for several private equity groups. None of them offered a comment.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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