When the Professional Becomes Political: Navigating Identity, Boundaries, and Care as a Helper

Back in 2017, I joined classmates and faculty to present a symposium at the American Psychological Association annual conference. Recently, I revisited that experience to find grounding in these turbulent times, and I’m sharing the highlights here for fellow helpers—therapists, teachers, healthcare workers, social workers, advocates, and community leaders—who may feel an unfamiliar tension beneath their work. 

The Central Question

Many helpers are asking:
How do I show up with integrity, compassion, and steadiness when the world outside my work feels destabilizing, morally charged, or frightening—for me and for the people I serve?

This question isn’t new, but it becomes sharper during periods of heightened sociopolitical stress—when fear is widespread, identities feel threatened, and protective systems seem unpredictable. We as helpers are leaned on heavily, while quietly carrying their own reactions, values, and limits. What we’re experiencing now is not simply burnout. We work and live within the same context and therefore are by no means immune to such distress.

The Myth of Pure Neutrality

Helping professions are grounded in the idea that care requires neutrality, restraint, and deep listening. We’re trained to avoid imposing our values, create safe spaces, and remain attentive to those we serve.
But during times of collective fear, injustice, or uncertainty, helpers may notice:

• Strong personal emotional reactions

• Moral distress about world events

• A sense of being pulled between silence and advocacy

• Fatigue from holding space for others while managing personal concern or grief

These reactions don’t mean you’re doing something wrong—they mean you’re human, embedded in the same systems affecting those you serve. Neutrality, in practice, is not the absence of values; it’s the ability to hold one’s values without centering them. 

Inside the Helping Relationship: A Crisis of Listening

Recently, I’ve found that deeply listening has felt much harder than usual. In these moments, I focus on being as present as I can. Clients, patients, students, or community members may express fear, anger, confusion, or beliefs that differ sharply as well as subtlety from our own.  Internal reactions—sometimes called values-based countertransference—can become louder.

The risk isn’t having these reactions; it’s not noticing when they begin to interfere with presence, curiosity, or compassion. Deep helping work depends on our capacity to stay emotionally regulated enough to listen beneath the content—to the fear, grief, or longing driving it.
A helpful anchor is to shift focus from what someone believes to how their experience is affecting them.

Supporting Others While Not Losing Ourselves

Helpers across professions share a struggle:

“I want to help. I want to respond. But I don’t want to cause harm—to the people I serve, to myself, or to my professional role.”

Professional integrity often means:

• Knowing when to speak and when to listen

• Setting boundaries around what you can and cannot hold (what Dr. Skovholt calls Boundaried Generosity)

• Seeking consultation rather than carrying everything alone

Many helpers realize that self-care is not enough. What’s needed is collective care—connecting within your community, deleting social media, and creating spaces for reflection and support. If you work with a team, develop a space where helpers can reflect together, make meaning, and support one another without needing to perform certainty or strength. 

Supervision, Mentorship, and Peer Support Matter More Than Ever

Reflective spaces are essential. Whether through supervision, consultation, peer groups, or communities of practice, helpers need places to:

• Name moral and emotional strain

• Think through ethical boundaries

• Explore how identity, power, and context shape their work

• Be supported without being told what to think or do 

Outside of Work: How Strong Can My Voice Be?

How visible can I be about what I care about without undermining the safety of my professional relationships?

There’s no universal answer—context, roles, and communities matter.

Ask yourself:

• Who is this action for?

• What impact might it have on those I serve?

• How does it align with my professional responsibilities?

• Where do I need consultation rather than certainty?

A Public Health Lens: Naming What Is Happening

When fear becomes chronic, it affects learning and attention, emotional regulation, physical health, trust in institutions, and community cohesion. Children are especially vulnerable. So are helpers.
Naming this as a public health concern—rather than a personal failure or political disagreement—allows us to respond with compassion, evidence, and coordination instead of blame or burnout. It’s okay to decrease expectations in the short term around learning and attention, just as it’s okay to take a mental health day when you feel particularly unregulated. 

You Are Not Alone in This

One of the clearest messages from professional communities is this: helpers are struggling together, even if quietly.

If you feel stretched, conflicted, or uncertain right now, it does not mean you are unprofessional. It means you are navigating a complex moment with care.

The work ahead is not about having the perfect stance. It’s about staying connected—to our ethics, to one another, and to the people we serve—while acknowledging the realities of the world we are all living in.

And that, too, is part of helping.

- Tom

Burke, C., & Skovholt, T. (2017, August). The professional is political, or is it? Navigating identity in therapeutic practice and supervision [Symposium]. American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, DC.

Nelson, K., Elenz, D., & Cronin, S. (2017, August). A crisis of listening: Compassionate therapy in interesting times [Paper presentation]. In C. Burke & T. Skovholt (Chairs), The professional is political, or is it? Navigating identity in therapeutic practice and supervision [Symposium]. American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, DC.

Martyr, M., & Allen, T. (2017, August). Outside the therapy hour: How strong can my identity and voice be? [Paper presentation]. In C. Burke & T. Skovholt (Chairs), The professional is political, or is it? Navigating identity in therapeutic practice and supervision [Symposium]. American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, DC.

Transparency note: I used Microsoft Copilot as a writing assistant while drafting this post. The ideas, interpretation, and final wording are my own.