When Your Therapist Becomes an Influencer: Psychologists Navigate Instagram's Uncharted Territory
Scroll through Instagram and you'll likely encounter them: psychologists sharing infographics about anxiety, posting carousels about attachment styles, and offering mental health advice to thousands of followers. But what's it actually like for these professionals to navigate the space between being a trained psychologist and a social media influencer?
A recent study explored this question by interviewing twelve UK psychologists who maintain active Instagram accounts as mental health influencers. What emerged was a portrait of a profession grappling with unclear ethical boundaries, personal burnout, and conflicting motivations.
The Boundary Dilemma
One of the biggest challenges these psychologists face is setting boundaries in a space that wasn't designed for professional mental health work. Instagram thrives on accessibility and authenticity, but therapy thrives on clear professional limits. The psychologists in the study described constantly having to remind their followers that they're a psychologist, but not their personal psychologist.
This distinction matters more than you might think. Traditional therapy keeps the focus on the client, with therapists revealing little about their personal lives. But being an influencer requires authenticity and personal connection. The question becomes: how much should a psychologist share about themselves when any post could be seen by past, present, or future clients?
The research found that psychologists struggle with what counts as appropriate self disclosure. Some existing guidelines suggest therapists should hide their social media profiles from search engines and use pseudonyms to avoid being found by clients. But mental health influencers need to be visible and accessible. Some advice says to avoid posting personal information entirely, but this can make psychologists seem robotic and prevent them from humanizing their profession.
When Followers Are in Crisis
Then there's the issue of risk management. When followers send direct messages describing suicidal thoughts or severe mental distress, what's the psychologist's responsibility? They're not this person's therapist. They haven't established a therapeutic relationship. But they're still a mental health professional who's just been told someone is in crisis.
Current professional guidelines don't clearly address this scenario. Some regulatory bodies suggest that anyone who interacts with a practitioner's social media account could be considered a service user, which would extend the psychologist's duty of care to potentially thousands of followers. That's an overwhelming prospect.
The psychologists interviewed described feeling anxious about managing these situations. They know they can't provide individualized crisis support through Instagram, but they also can't simply ignore someone who's reaching out. Most settle for signposting people to appropriate crisis services, but this feels inadequate to many of them.
The Time Trap
Another major theme was time management. Many psychologists reported spending hours on Instagram each evening after already working a full day. Some kept their phones by their beds to maximize time online. What started as a way to share helpful information became an exhausting second job, whether or not they earned money from it.
The constant availability expected by social media culture clashes with the need for professional boundaries. Followers might assume mental health influencers are always available to respond to messages or provide support. The reality is that these psychologists are already managing full caseloads in their day jobs, and Instagram was supposed to be a way to help more people, not another source of stress.
Several psychologists mentioned feeling burned out from this additional workload. They receive messages from people sharing traumatic experiences and describing risk to themselves or others. Reading these messages takes an emotional toll, especially when psychologists feel powerless to provide real help through social media.
Professional Identity vs. Influencer Identity
The study also uncovered tensions around maintaining client confidentiality and professional boundaries while simultaneously building a personal brand. Psychologists who see clients in private practice have to be careful that their Instagram presence doesn't interfere with their clinical work.
Some wondered whether it was appropriate to post about their day or their feelings when current clients might see it. Others worried about accidentally encountering content posted by their own clients while scrolling through Instagram. The line between professional and personal life becomes blurred when you're both a therapist and an influencer.
The Anxiety of Getting It Wrong
A recurring theme throughout the interviews was anxiety about making mistakes. The psychologists described feeling constant worry about "not wanting to do the wrong thing." This affected their mental health in significant ways.
They worried about posting inaccurate information, even when they were drawing from their professional training and evidence based research. They worried about oversimplifying complex mental health concepts to fit them into Instagram's format. They worried about using their professional credentials in ways that might manipulate followers into buying products or services.
This anxiety was compounded by the lack of clear guidance. Professional bodies have published social media guidelines, but these tend to focus on personal use of social media rather than professional use as a mental health influencer. The rules weren't written with this type of public facing professional work in mind.
Mixed Motivations
Perhaps most interesting was the contradiction in why psychologists use Instagram professionally. Many described genuinely wanting to make mental health information more accessible and to advocate for social justice issues. They saw it as a way to reach people who might not otherwise access mental health support, providing free psychoeducation that could be a first step toward therapy.
But there's also a business angle. Many of these psychologists have private practices and use Instagram to market their services. Some receive sponsorship deals or sell products. This creates an inherent tension: are they influencers who happen to be psychologists, or psychologists who happen to have an influencer presence?
The study found that psychologists often felt uncomfortable with the business side of being an influencer. Traditional influencer strategies, like putting content behind paywalls or aggressively promoting products through direct messages, felt incompatible with their values as mental health professionals. They worried about exploiting the trust people place in their professional credentials.
The Misinformation Problem
Professional guidelines emphasize that psychologists are responsible for the accuracy of any mental health information they share online. This is crucial because there's growing concern about misinformation in the mental health influencer space.
Some worry that certain content pathologizes normal human experiences or uses therapy language incorrectly. Terms like "attachment issues" or "trauma response" get thrown around in ways that might create confusion or lead people to self diagnose incorrectly. When this content comes from someone with "Dr." in their Instagram handle, people assume it must be reliable.
The psychologists interviewed were aware of this responsibility. Many mentioned being careful to share evidence based information and to cite research when possible. Some focused on sharing straightforward concepts that could genuinely help people, rather than oversimplified versions of complex psychological theories.
When Instagram Replaces Therapy
There's another concerning trend: some people value these parasocial relationships with mental health influencers over actual therapeutic relationships. Followers sometimes claim they've learned more from Instagram posts than from paid therapy, leading them to reduce or even stop their therapy sessions.
This is problematic because Instagram posts aren't tailored to individual needs. They can't replace the personalized care that comes from working with a therapist who knows your specific situation. The psychologists in the study emphasized that social media content should be seen as psychoeducation, not as a substitute for therapy, but this message doesn't always get through.
What Needs to Change
The researchers made several recommendations for how professional bodies could better support psychologists working as mental health influencers.
First, there needs to be clearer guidance specifically about professional social media use as an influencer, not just about personal social media use. The current guidelines don't adequately address the unique ethical situations these psychologists face.
Second, psychologists should clearly communicate their boundaries through pinned posts or highlights. This should include stating that they can only provide signposting to support services, not direct crisis management or individualized support. They should also clarify that therapy wouldn't take place via social media, even if they have space in their private practice.
Third, guidance should help psychologists set boundaries around time spent online. Treating this professional social media presence as a second job, whether paid or unpaid, could help psychologists implement better boundaries and avoid burnout.
Fourth, there should be guidance on combining the roles of psychologist and businessperson. This includes discussing what types of products psychologists could ethically promote, how to handle sponsorship deals, and how to obtain proper consent for sharing client testimonials.
Fifth, psychologists should use their professional titles clearly in their Instagram name and bio. This helps distinguish trained practitioners from people sharing advice based solely on lived experience or using unregulated titles. It also helps the public identify credible sources of information.
Finally, guidance should address how to create content that isn't detrimental to public mental health. This includes ensuring information is evidence based and within the psychologist's area of competency, not oversimplifying concepts to the point of creating confusion, including trigger warnings for sensitive content, and providing appropriate signposting to support services.
Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and ethical guidance will need to keep pace. Different platforms are used for different purposes, with Instagram currently favored for marketing therapeutic services while TikTok is used differently. Any guidance needs to account for this variety.
The study had limitations worth noting. All participants were UK based, predominantly white, female, and aged 29 to 45. More research is needed into the experiences of mental health influencers from different countries and with different backgrounds.
It would also be valuable to hear from the public who follow these accounts. How do people decide which mental health influencers to trust? Can they distinguish between reputable advice and misinformation? What do they find helpful or unhelpful about this content?
What's clear is that psychologists using social media professionally are navigating largely uncharted territory. They're trying to use their expertise to help more people access mental health information and support, but they're doing so without clear ethical guidelines and often at personal cost to their own wellbeing.
The tension between wanting to help people and needing to maintain professional boundaries runs through every aspect of being a mental health influencer. These psychologists genuinely believe they can use their training to provide valuable psychoeducation that might encourage someone to seek help. At the same time, they're exhausted, anxious about making mistakes, and unclear about where the ethical lines should be drawn.
As more psychologists move into this space, and as social media continues to be where people increasingly look for mental health information, professional bodies will need to provide better support and clearer guidance. Until then, these psychologists are largely figuring it out as they go, trying to balance their desire to help with their professional responsibilities and personal wellbeing.
White, E., & Hanley, T. (2025). “What I share is not the same as therapy”: Psychologist experiences of Instagram use as a mental health influencer. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
