There is a quiet expectation in the field of mental health that clinicians will know how to hold everything. They are trained to sit with trauma, to navigate uncertainty, to guide others through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. What is less often discussed is what it takes to sustain that work over time, and what it means for clinicians to care for themselves while caring for others.
For Stephanie Crockett, PsyD ’16, that understanding has been shaped not by having the answers, but by learning to sit with discomfort, both her clients’ and her own.
Crockett’s path to clinical psychology began with a deep curiosity about people and their stories. She recalls being drawn less to abstract facts and more to the lived experiences of those around her. Early exposure to mental health challenges within her own community led her to ask questions about how trauma shapes the way people understand themselves and move through the world. That curiosity took on a clearer direction during her undergraduate studies, where she enrolled in her first clinical psychology course and began working on a crisis hotline. Later, in community mental health settings in Santa Cruz County, she encountered the far-reaching impact of trauma across different populations.
When she began exploring doctoral programs, Palo Alto University stood out for its emphasis on clinical training and its cohort model. It offered both the rigor and the relational learning environment she was seeking. Yet it was not only the structure of the program that shaped her development, it was the people within it.
She credits her mentors with helping her recognize her strengths while also guiding her through moments of uncertainty. The most impactful among them were those who invested in her as a person, not just as a trainee. They offered feedback that was both honest and supportive, encouraging her to trust her instincts while continuing to grow.
One experience in particular marked a turning point. While training in a hospice and palliative care setting at the VA Palo Alto, Crockett found herself working in an environment where no two patients or families were the same. Cultural values, lived experiences, and relationships to illness and death shaped each interaction in ways that could not be reduced to a manual or protocol. In that setting, she began to notice her own anxiety emerging in the work.
With the guidance of a supervisor, she learned to recognize how that anxiety was influencing her clinical approach. Rather than trying to eliminate it, she began to understand it as information, something to be acknowledged and worked with. That shift helped her move toward more intentional, principle-driven care and continues to shape how she now approaches supervision. She encourages trainees to trust their intuition while remaining open to growth, a balance she once had to learn for herself.
Over time, Crockett’s understanding of mental health has expanded beyond the individual to include the broader systems that shape people’s lives. She speaks candidly about the ways in which the field has historically emphasized personal responsibility while overlooking the impact of systemic oppression. Recognizing that healing does not occur in isolation has become an important part of her work, particularly in her focus on trauma and race-based stress.
Her clinical and teaching work reflects that perspective. At the San Francisco VA, where she completed her fellowship, she was exposed to complex and developmental forms of trauma, experiences that shape identity, relationships, and functioning over time. She also began to explore gaps in training related to race-based trauma, working alongside colleagues to adapt existing approaches and provide more culturally responsive care.
Her identity as a biracial woman has further informed that work, shaping how she understands the intersection of lived experience and clinical practice. It has deepened her commitment to creating spaces where clients feel seen and understood within the full context of their identities.
Despite the depth and intensity of this work, Crockett is careful to challenge the notion that clinicians are meant to have everything figured out. In her view, therapy is not about providing answers, but about creating a space where exploration and change can occur. She approaches both her clinical and supervisory roles with curiosity and humility, recognizing that her perspective is inherently shaped and limited by her own experiences. Clients and trainees, she says, bring their own expertise, and meaningful work happens when those perspectives are held together.
That same philosophy informs how she thinks about sustainability in the field. Clinical work is demanding, and she emphasizes the importance of understanding one’s own limits. For some, that may mean recognizing when they are approaching emotional exhaustion. For others, it may involve identifying what aspects of the work feel energizing and building a professional life that allows for balance.
For Crockett, variety has been key. Balancing clinical work with teaching and supervision allows her to remain engaged while also maintaining her capacity to show up fully for others. She speaks with particular enthusiasm about working with trainees, describing their curiosity and energy as both grounding and inspiring.
Outside of her professional roles, she focuses on small, consistent practices that support her well-being. That may include paying attention to internal cues, setting boundaries between work and home, or finding moments of mindfulness in everyday life. She is quick to note that balance is not something that is achieved perfectly or permanently, but something that requires ongoing attention and adjustment.
She also emphasizes the importance of community. Whether through personal relationships, conversations with colleagues, or participation in peer consultation groups, connection plays a central role in sustaining her work. In the group therapy spaces she helps facilitate, particularly those focused on race-based stress, she sees that same principle at work. Even when the material is heavy, there is a shared sense of understanding that allows participants to feel less alone.
As a supervisor and mentor, Crockett is intentional about what she models for the next generation of clinicians. She encourages trainees to recognize that caring for themselves is not separate from their professional responsibilities, but essential to them. In a culture that often prioritizes productivity and perfectionism, she sees rest as both an act of care and an ethical obligation.
She hopes emerging clinicians will learn to pay attention to what sustains them, to notice what lifts them up and what weighs them down, and to shape their work in ways that align with their values and capacity whenever possible. Even when those choices are limited, she believes there is value in developing awareness and making small, intentional shifts.
At the heart of her work is a belief that there is space for people to bring their full selves into the field. She often returns to a line from Jacqueline Woodson's children's book, The Day You Begin, which speaks to the experience of entering a room where no one else seems quite like you, and the transformation that can happen when stories are shared. It's a story she often reads with her children and one that continues to resonate deeply in her own life and work.
For Crockett, that idea is more than a reflection, it is a guiding principle. In a profession centered on helping others feel seen and understood, she sees that same invitation extended to clinicians themselves. There is room for their experiences, their identities, and their humanity, and in making space for those things, the work itself becomes stronger.
In the end, caring for others and caring for oneself are not competing priorities. They are deeply connected, each one shaping and strengthening the other in ways that allow both clinicians and the people they serve to move toward healing.
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