Yet another thought-provoking, well written topic. When I spent time at Laurel Ridge (psychiatric institute), I was in a wing that dealt specifically with military veterans, yet none of the therapists were themselves combat veterans, and only one was an actual military veteran. More than anything, I felt bad for the therapists, for they had the most daunting task of all. And therein lies the problem. It's not that I needed the therapist to be a veteran or have experienced combat, (though, more empathy could have been achieved), but rather, when we think of mental health now, I think it suffers the same problem healthcare faces. An overburdened system. How can anyone expect a therapist to truly empathize with anyone when they have an enormous case load, already thinking of the fifty patients they have to see that day. I think modern mental health care is so sanitized, that the basic human connection is lost, much like the doctor that comes whisking into a waiting room, punches notes into the computer, asks a few generic questions, shrugs off the questions asked, spends their average 8-minutes with you, then rushes off to the next patient. This modern day culture is struggling with mental health, and I don't think current mainstream practices are equipped to handle it, (of course that's just my own opinion, based on my experiences), just in sheer volume alone. It's too rigid in its approach to mental health. The system seeks to identify, categorize, isolate, fitting everything into neat little check-marked boxes and handy little questionnaires. The brain, and therefore, mental health, is far more complicated than that. I could be way off base here, apologies if I am. Either way, great work! I enjoyed this.