The Collective Shift Co
heart in coffee being served by caring hands

  • May 1, 2025

Mental Health Is Mission-Critical: Leading Change Without Losing Ourselves

Mental health isn’t a luxury for systems leaders—it’s mission-critical. In this reflection for Mental Health Awareness Month, Lynn Debilzen explores how self-care, collective care, and organizational culture intersect to create sustainable leadership. Practical actions and personal stories included.

Content Warning: This post contains references to sexual assault and mental health challenges.

May marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Month—a topic I’m very passionate about. It’s a good time to pause, reflect, and be honest about what it truly takes to sustain leadership over the long term.

We can’t transform broken systems if we’re breaking ourselves in the process.

Over the years, I’ve learned—many times the hard way—that leading change means tending to our inner lives just as intentionally as we tend to our strategies and partnerships. This month, I’m reflecting on what it means to honor both our missions and our well-being, and I’m offering a few simple ways we can do this together, starting now.

If you’re interested in my own mental health journey and how it’s impacted my career (more like the other way around), I’ll weave a bit of it in, but you can hear more in these three episodes of Redraw Your Path:

And the last 6 months have been enough to record a Part 4! 

Mental Health and Systems Leadership Are Inseparable

When we step into leadership, especially in systems change work, yes, we are at work and doing day-to-day tasks, but we are also carrying people’s hopes, histories, and futures with us. I found this to be especially true in community organizing and racial equity work. 

It’s meaningful work. It’s necessary work. But the weight of history, and the urgency of hope, can feel heavy. 

It’s work that can quietly, steadily, exhaust our inner reserves if we aren’t paying attention. And depending on how you’ve been socialized, you may have been taught to override or ignore the “Empty” on your own inner reserve tank–until it’s flashing orange and your body shuts down. 

In spaces where urgency, scarcity, and high stakes are the norm, leaders are often praised for “pushing through” and “holding it all together.”

But what gets celebrated in the short term can cost us dearly in the long term: emotionally, mentally, and physically.

The truth is, none of us were designed to carry this kind of weight alone—or endlessly. Or even consistently over a few years with only 15 days PTO. 

I’ve seen it in my own journey, which has led me to a slew of chronic health conditions, including fibromyalgia, panic disorder, and PMDD (I ignored the cycles in my body for 25 years before finally paying attention). I have always loved this work and felt called to it, but I often sacrificed my own human needs, as I had never been taught how to prioritize them. 

Leading systems change means being willing to reimagine the way we lead—not just externally, but internally too. I don’t have all the answers, but there are a few things I know to be true. 

It means recognizing that mental health is not a personal shortcoming to overcome. It’s a vital resource we must protect if we want to do this work well—and for the long haul.

Collective Care > Self-Care Alone

Often, when discussing mental health in leadership, the focus shifts to individual “resilience.” No matter how much progress we’ve made, the stigma still lingers. There’s a quiet whisper: maybe they just couldn’t hack it. And the solutions? Usually some form of “self-care.” (Don’t get me wrong—I’m a proponent!)

“Take a walk.” “Have you tried meditating?” “Set boundaries.” “Go on a vacation.” 

And listen—I love a good walk. I believe in boundaries. I will gladly go on a vacation. But when we place the burden of wellness solely on the individual, we miss the crucial truth: we need collective care just as much as we need self-care.

Because if the environment is still chaotic, extractive, and unsustainable… no amount of journaling is going to save us. And if I feel like I can’t be my whole self at work, I spend energy masking and just trying to get by.

I am going to share something for the first time here. Recently, I told my BFF about a sexual assault I experienced in 2019, at the age of 35. 

In the six years since then, I had only revealed this to my therapist and a small handful of friends. One of those people blamed me, gaslit me, and made me feel more internal shame and guilt about the experience than I already did. 

Throughout this whole time, I showed up at work. I kept up on my to-do list. I contributed to my team, but I didn’t tell anyone or get the critical support I needed. That’s partly on me, but I can’t help but think - what if I did feel safe at that time to ask for the time off? Or felt safe enough to tell others in my life, without fear of judgment? I’m not saying that the workplace is the primary place from which people should get support, but these days in our epidemic of loneliness, it is one of the only containers most people are part of. 

So when we build workplaces grounded in psychological safety, we’re not just improving performance–we’re creating containers where people can navigate the real, messy, non-work parts of life with a little more support. 

In my work, I’ve seen burnout play out again and again, particularly since the pandemic. Brilliant, compassionate leaders burning out—not because they lack discipline or self-awareness—but because the systems around them reward urgency, penalize rest, and confuse martyrdom with commitment. 

And in American culture, we equate professional identity with personal worth. 

We have to shift that.

We need work cultures and team norms that expect rest, normalize imperfection, and prioritize well-being as a strategic asset. Because it is.

This is especially true for those leading place-based and community-rooted work, where the emotional labor is constant and the boundaries between personal and professional are often blurry. In these spaces, well-being isn’t a perk—it’s infrastructure.

Ways to Honor Mental Health in Your Leadership This Month

If we want to build organizations and movements that truly last, we need to care for the humans who are carrying the work forward, including ourselves.

Here are a few ways to start:

🌿 For Individuals:

  • Audit Your Sustainability: Take 15 quiet minutes and journal or ponder:
    What would a truly sustainable version of my leadership look like? Where would I move slower? Where would I invest in more support?

  • Set One Gentle Boundary: Boundaries don’t have to be dramatic to be powerful. It could be as simple as ending meetings 5 minutes early, protecting one afternoon a week for deep work, or not checking email after 5 p.m.

  • Normalize Check-Ins About Spirit, Not Just Work: Try weaving questions like “How’s your spirit these days?” into conversations with teammates, partners, and friends. Systems change work is human work. Let’s talk to the human, not just the job title.

🌿 For Organizations:

  • Create Space for Real Conversations: Hold intentional, non-performative spaces where staff can share what’s supporting or stretching their well-being right now, without fear of judgment or performance consequences.

  • Resource Mental Health, Not Just Talk About It: Budget for mental health resources: therapy stipends, coaching, mental health days, restorative retreats. Show people that their humanity is a strategic priority for your work, not just their individual responsibility.

  • Model It at the Top: Leaders: take your PTO. Block your calendar for mental health days. Share (appropriately) when you’re hitting capacity. Normalize what it looks like to care for yourself in public, not just behind closed doors.

'🌿 For Movements:

  • Shift from Hero Culture to Healing Culture: Systems change is not about being the most tireless warrior. And staying in the work long enough to see it through will contribute to sustainability. Let’s celebrate care and collective strength—not burnout disguised as bravery.

We Need You Whole

Mental Health Awareness Month might only come once a year, but the invitation to care for our inner world is always present. Especially for those of us working toward a better, more just future. 

In case no one has told you:

👉🏼 You deserve to do this work in a way that doesn’t hollow you out.

👉🏼 You deserve systems that support your nervous system.

👉🏼 You deserve to feel like a human being first, not just a title, a function, or a role.

And the people you serve?

They deserve leaders who are resourced, rested, and supported enough to keep showing up—not because they pushed through, but because they were held.

My hope is that this month will open up space for reflection, reconnection, and a renewed commitment to doing things differently. This isn’t just for your own sake, but for the long-term health of our teams, communities, and movements.

Because in this work, your well-being is not a luxury.

It’s mission-critical.

And your presence—whole, steady, and well—is the real power behind the systems we’re trying to shift.

A Few Resources That Have Supported My Healing Journey

What resources have helped you to heal and support yourself in this work? Please share! 

0 comments

Sign upor login to leave a comment