Storytelling Saves Lives, and So Does Listening: Supporting Perinatal Therapists

This Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (May 5–11, 2025) centers on the theme Storytelling Saves Lives, affirming the healing power of narrative. Throughout the week, individuals and organizations are encouraged to share lived experiences of perinatal mental health challenges—stories that reduce stigma, offer solidarity, and remind others they’re not alone.

Touchstone is proud to stand alongside Postpartum Support International and The Blue Dot Project in honoring the power of perinatal mental health storytelling. This article centers the clinicians who hold these stories with care—often quietly, behind the scenes.

For therapists in the perinatal mental health field, storytelling is not confined to one week. It is part of the clinical encounter—daily, sustained, and emotionally complex.

Therapists as Story Holders

Perinatal therapists hold stories of loss, transformation, ambivalence, and grief. Many clients speak their stories aloud for the first time in the presence of a clinician who is there not to judge or fix, but to witness and reflect.

Recent research affirms the clinical power of narrative frameworks, especially when integrated with mindfulness. Narrative therapy approaches have been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and trauma by helping clients reconstruct identity through storytelling (Lesley University, 2025; Ruiz-Robledillo et al., 2024).

In this context, storytelling does more than raise awareness—it lays the groundwork for integration, repair, and reconnection.

The Invisible Labor of Awareness Campaigns

While mental health awareness campaigns shine an important spotlight, they can also bring an added layer of emotional labor for therapists. Clinicians may be asked to participate in events, share personal experiences, or speak on behalf of their practice in public forums.

The emotional toll is real. Therapists working with trauma-exposed populations—especially in perinatal settings—are at increased risk for vicarious trauma and burnout (Ruiz-Fernández et al., 2021). This risk intensifies when personal and professional identities intersect, such as when a therapist's own perinatal story echoes the stories they hear from clients.

Sustainable Engagement: Centering Capacity and Consent

While many clinicians resonate deeply with the call to share their story, it's important to acknowledge that participation is not a professional obligation—it’s a choice. Sustainable advocacy begins with recognizing emotional limits and honoring individual capacity.

A 2025 systematic literature review emphasized that regular self-care, supportive supervision, and peer consultation significantly reduce burnout in counseling professionals (Sohail et al., 2025). These strategies are especially critical during times of public engagement, when therapists may feel compelled to “show up” in ways that exceed their emotional bandwidth.

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Not All Storytelling Has to Be Public

As campaigns like #StorytellingSavesLives gain momentum, some clients may feel pressure to share their experiences on social media—even when that doesn’t feel safe or supportive. This tension may surface in therapy, especially when stories of survivorship frequently come across their feeds.

Therapists can gently affirm that storytelling doesn’t have to be visible to be life-saving. Speaking a truth aloud in therapy, writing it in a journal, or simply acknowledging it internally can begin to break shame’s grip. These quieter forms of storytelling can reduce psychological distress, support emotional processing, and help clients make meaning of their experiences (Ruiz-Robledillo et al., 2024). Visibility isn’t what makes a story powerful—resonance, safety, and consent are.

Here are ways therapists can help clients reclaim storytelling as a deeply personal and empowering act, even when it isn’t shared publicly:

• Name the act: “Telling your story in here, with me, is enough.”

• Center consent: “You get to decide how, when, and with whom you share your story.”

• Offer alternatives: Journaling, art, ritual, or voice memos can be meaningful ways to process.

• Normalize ambivalence: “You can feel proud of your healing and choose privacy.”

Storytelling doesn’t need an audience to save a life. It only needs to be heard—sometimes by just one person, or even by yourself.

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Reflective Prompts for Therapists

The pressure to show up publicly, to amplify, to advocate, can be meaningful—but also draining. Research shows that therapists who engage in regular self-reflection are better able to sustain this work with clarity and resilience (Karakose et al., 2024).

As Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week unfolds, perinatal therapists may find it useful to pause and ask:

• What story am I holding—my own or someone else’s—that needs tending?

• Where am I feeling emotionally full, and where do I need restoration?

• What does meaningful (but sustainable) participation look like for me?

• Who do I have in place to help me process what I carry?

The Care Behind the Care

As clients speak boldly into stigma, and awareness campaigns amplify maternal mental health stories, let us not forget those quietly holding space behind the scenes. Perinatal therapists carry immense emotional responsibility—and their wellbeing is foundational to the care they provide. As we elevate the message that Storytelling Saves Lives, let’s also remember: so does the quiet, steady work of those who listen.

Wherever this week finds you—amplifying, witnessing, or resting—you’re part of this story, too.

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References

Karakose, T., Polat, H., & Papadakis, S. (2024). The psychological impact of working with trauma-exposed populations on helping professionals: A meta-synthesis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(2), 511. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21020511

Lesley University. (2025). Healing through storytelling and mindful narrative therapy: A trauma-informed approach to ACEs. https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1108&context=mindfulness_theses

Ruiz-Fernández, M. D., Pérez-García, E., & Ortega-Galán, Á. M. (2021). Quality of life in mental health professionals: Burnout, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7583. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147583

Ruiz-Robledillo, N., et al. (2024). Narrative therapy in adults with somatic disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 29, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.11.005

Sohail, S., Wahab, S., & Rahman, A. (2025). Self-care in prevention of burnout amongst counselling professionals: A systematic literature review. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 47(1), 22–37. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385333568