The Saint Luke Institute (SLI) comprehensive and multidisciplinary mental health and spiritual care model responds to the needs of each person as an integrated whole. Our quality care is assured by our professional clinicians and expert spiritual integrators. Recently, A. Mechelle Haywood, Psy.D., from our Silver Spring, Maryland office, discussed the meaning she finds in her nearly 10 years of work at SLI as a clinical psychologist supporting the mental wellness of priests, religious and others high-responsibility caregivers.
What is your general background and your specific work at SLI?
I have had the pleasure of working at SLI for almost ten years. My specialty areas are trauma, preventative psychology, and supporting individuals in high-responsibility caregiving or ministry roles. As a clinical psychologist, I draw on experience working with complex trauma, stress-related disorders, and resilience-building across diverse populations. My work is grounded in helping clients understand their stories with compassion, integrate their strengths, and develop sustainable practices for emotional and spiritual well-being. Over the past decade at SLI, I’ve been honored to walk alongside priests and religious as they navigate both personal healing and the unique demands of their vocation.
If you could give one message to all healers or caregivers, e.g. therapists, nurses, teachers, social workers, what would it be?
Take care of the parts of yourself you’ve learned to hide in order to keep going.
As healers, especially in communities where strength is expected and vulnerability is often judged, we become experts at tending to others while quietly neglecting our own wounds. But the truth is: you cannot sustainably pour from a well you never replenish. Healing work is not just emotional labor, it’s generational labor. We carry our history with us. We carry the expectations of being strong, capable, unshakeable. And while there is beauty in that resilience, there can also be exhaustion. The world needs our compassion and your wisdom. But it also needs your wholeness. Give yourself the same grace you so freely give your clients, your students, your patients, your communities. Because when you honor your own healing, you don’t just show up better for others, you model what true wellness looks like. And that is one of the most powerful gifts any healer can offer.
So, I want to remind you:
- Your rest is not a luxury; it’s a responsibility.
- Your boundaries are not barriers; they are protection.
- Your humanity is not a weakness; it’s your greatest credential.
We are hearing a lot today about the concept of “compassion fatigue.” What is it, and how does it show up in therapists or caregivers?
Compassion fatigue is a very real and very common occupational hazard for anyone in a helping role. It’s often described as “the cost of caring” the emotional and psychological wear that accumulates when you’re continually exposed to others’ suffering and feel responsible for supporting or holding it. Compassion fatigue is a state of emotional depletion that occurs when a caregiver’s ability to empathize becomes overwhelmed. It’s not a lack of caring, actually, it often develops in people who care deeply and consistently go above and beyond. It’s related to, but distinct from burnout which is more about workload, system stress, and exhaustion.
Some symptoms of compassion fatigue are emotional numbing, boundary erosion, reduced sense of efficacy and irritability. Helpers hold space for others’ pain, day after day. Without adequate rest, boundaries, supervision, and self-compassion, the emotional load accumulates. Compassion fatigue is reversible. With awareness, connection, rest, and intentional boundaries, empathy can be restored.
What inspired you to become a psychologist, and how has that path shaped your understanding of healing?
What inspired me to become a psychologist was a deep curiosity about people, why we hurt, why we cope the way we do, and how we change. Early in my life and training, I found myself drawn to the quiet moments when someone felt truly seen for the first time. There’s something powerful about witnessing the shift that happens when a person realizes their experience is valid and their pain makes sense in the context of their story. That moment, for me, was the sparkle. As I moved through graduate training, clinical work, supervision, and years of sitting across from people in both crisis and transformation, my understanding of healing changed dramatically.
- Healing is culturally shaped.
- Healing is relational, not solitary.
- Healing is collaborative, not prescriptive.
- Healing requires honoring both resilience and pain.
Ultimately, what inspired me to become a psychologist is the same thing that keeps me here: the belief that people can transform, especially when someone meets them with compassion, cultural sensitivity, curiosity, and consideration.
Why is it important to you to work at SLI when you have a choice of practicing in different sectors?
Yes, I could practice in many different sectors, but this work offers something uniquely meaningful: the opportunity to support individuals who have dedicated their lives to serving others, often at great personal cost. Priests and religious are expected to be spiritual anchors, yet they are human beings with real emotional, psychological, and relational needs. Providing them with a place where they can be vulnerable, understood, and supported is invaluable. When their well-being is strengthened, it ripples out to the communities they serve.
Here, my clinical expertise isn’t abstract, it directly helps individuals reclaim joy, integrity, purpose, and health. There is nothing more fulfilling than watching someone who serves others so faithfully rediscover their own inner strength.
Saint Luke Institute is committed to promoting healthy ministry in a way that honors faith, humanity, and dignity. I chose to be here because I want to contribute to a mission that uplifts both individuals and the broader community and Church.