Professionals need to spend more time looking after themselves, rather than always putting others first.

I was facilitating some training the other day around mental health awareness. It was in a law firm so the audience was a mix of senior lawyers as well as managers from various business service functions. We were talking about the factors that might make lawyers, but also other professionals, more susceptible to problems, or perhaps less likely to be aware of developing problems. I have various ideas but one participant asked astutely whether it is simply that we are trained to serve clients, to put their interests first, to worry about their needs and their demands, to the ultimate exclusion of our own. We learn not to take care of ourselves, or at least only to do so if there is no client need to meet. I think there is something in there.