Women Who Changed History: Mental Health

Celebrating Women’s History Month

When we talk about the history of mental health, the spotlight often lands on a handful of big (usually male) names. But behind (and often ahead of) them were women who fundamentally shaped how we understand the mind, emotions, and healing.

In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s take a moment to highlight some of the women who pushed boundaries, challenged norms, and made mental health care more humane, accessible, and effective.

Back in the 1800s, mental health care was… not great.

Think overcrowded asylums and very little understanding of what patients actually needed. Enter Dorothea Dix, who basically said, “We can do better than this.” She spent years investigating conditions in mental institutions and advocating for reform.

Because of her work, new facilities were built and standards of care improved dramatically. She wasn’t a psychologist in the modern sense, but her impact on mental health systems is impossible to overstate.

Image of Dorothea Dox: Fine Art America

At a time when women weren’t even allowed to earn official degrees in psychology, Mary Whiton Calkins completed all the requirements for a PhD at Harvard and was denied the degree because she was a woman.

Still, she went on to become a pioneering psychologist, contributing to memory research and even serving as the first female president of the American Psychological Association. Not bad for someone the system tried to sideline.

Image of Mary Whiton Calkins: Wikipedia

The early days of psychoanalysis weren’t just shaped by Freud, women played a huge role in evolving those ideas. Anna Freud, his daughter, expanded psychoanalytic theory into child psychology and developed foundational concepts about defense mechanisms.

Meanwhile, Melanie Klein was busy developing her own theories about early childhood development and the unconscious, sometimes directly challenging Freud’s ideas.

Then there’s Karen Horney, who pushed back against the male-centric assumptions of early psychoanalysis. She introduced ideas about social and cultural influences on personality — and called out some of Freud’s theories as, essentially, biased. Iconic behavior.

Image of Anna Freud: Freud Museum of London

Fast forward to the 20th century, and women were redefining therapy itself. Virginia Satir helped pioneer family therapy, emphasizing communication, relationships, and emotional honesty. Her work shifted the focus from individuals in isolation to the systems they’re part of — something that feels very intuitive today but was groundbreaking at the time.

Mamie Phipps Clark, along with her husband Kenneth Clark, conducted research on the psychological effects of segregation on Black children. Her work was instrumental in the Brown v. Board of Education decision, showing how deeply mental health is connected to social justice.

Image of Mamie Phipps Clark: The British Psychological Society

In more recent decades, women have continued to shape the field in powerful ways.

Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), transformed treatment for people with borderline personality disorder and those struggling with intense emotional dysregulation. DBT is now used worldwide and has helped countless people build safer, more stable lives.

And while she’s not a traditional clinician, Brené Brown has brought conversations about vulnerability, shame, and emotional resilience into the mainstream. Her work has made mental health concepts more accessible — and a lot less stigmatized.

Image of Marsh Linehan: The University of Washington

In Conclusion

Mental health care didn’t evolve in a vacuum. It changed because people, many of them women, questioned the status quo and insisted on something better.

They challenged harmful systems.
They expanded who gets to be heard.
They redefined what healing even looks like.

And we’re still building on their work today.

So this Women’s History Month, it’s worth remembering: the way we talk about mental health, the therapies we use, and the compassion we try to practice didn’t just happen. Women fought to make it that way.

Imposter Syndrome, Comparison, and Learning to Love Where You’re At

Imposter syndrome has a way of showing up quietly. It doesn’t always sound dramatic. Sometimes it sounds like, Everyone else has this figured out except me. Or, If people really knew how unsure I am, they wouldn’t take me seriously. It often gets louder when we start comparing ourselves to others, especially online, where we mostly see polished outcomes and very little of the uncertainty that came before them. If you’ve been feeling behind, unqualified, or like you somehow missed a crucial step everyone else took, you’re not alone. And more importantly, you’re not broken.

What Imposter Syndrome Is

Imposter syndrome isn’t proof that you’re failing. It’s usually a sign that you care, that you’re growing, or that you’re in a space where you’re still learning. It tends to show up during transitions, new jobs, new roles, new identities, or moments when expectations shift faster than our confidence can keep up.

It thrives in environments where worth feels conditional: on productivity, achievement, or comparison. When success feels like something you have to earn every day, it makes sense that safety starts to feel fragile.

Comparison as a Threat to Safety

Comparison often gets framed as a motivation problem, but it’s more accurate to think of it as a nervous system issue. When we constantly measure ourselves against others, our body receives the message that we’re at risk of falling behind or being excluded.

And the truth is, comparison usually isn’t fair. We compare our internal doubts to other people’s external highlights. We compare our current chapter to someone else’s curated summary. That doesn’t build confidence, it keeps us in a state of quiet hypervigilance.

If your self-trust feels shaky, constant comparison can make the world feel unsafe.

Feeling “Behind” Is Often a Story, Not a Fact

There is no universal timeline for when things are supposed to happen. No deadline for clarity. No age at which confidence magically locks into place. Feeling behind often comes from absorbing expectations that weren’t designed with your context, identity, or lived experience in mind.

You’re not late. You’re just in your own process.

And processes are, by nature, unfinished.

Building Safety Instead of Chasing Confidence

Confidence is often treated as something you have to find before you can move forward. But safety usually comes first. When you feel grounded and regulated, confidence has room to grow naturally.

Some ways to practice safety where you are:

• Noticing when you’re pushing yourself to prove something

• Letting “good enough” be enough more often

• Creating routines that signal consistency instead of urgency

• Reminding yourself that uncertainty doesn’t equal incompetence

Safety doesn’t mean complacency. It means you’re not constantly bracing for failure.

Redefining What It Means to Be “Enough”

A lot of imposter syndrome comes from believing that worth is something that fluctuates. That it rises and falls depending on performance, feedback, or external validation.

But worth isn’t something you graduate into.

You don’t have to be more accomplished, more healed, or more certain to deserve rest, stability, or self-respect. You’re allowed to take up space even when you’re unsure. Especially when you’re unsure.

Let Yourself Be Where You Are

You don’t need to rush past this phase of your life. You don’t need to compare your pace to anyone else’s. And you don’t need to have everything figured out to be doing something meaningful.

Imposter syndrome loses some of its power when you stop arguing with it and start grounding yourself in the present. Right now, you are learning. You are adapting. You are showing up.

And that’s not something to dismiss.

You’re not pretending your way through life. You’re living it: one imperfect, honest step at a time!

Habit Stacking: How to Actually Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions tend to come with a lot of pressure. New year, new you. Big goals. Big announcements. Even bigger expectations. By February, many of those goals are quietly abandoned, not because we’re lazy or lack discipline, but because the way we set resolutions often asks too much, too fast, and too publicly.

If you’re tired of resolutions that feel more like a performance than a plan, habit stacking offers a quieter, more attainable alternative.

What is Habit Stacking?

Habit stacking is the practice of attaching a new habit to something you already do consistently. Instead of trying to build a brand-new routine from scratch, you use an existing habit as the anchor.

For example:

• After I brush my teeth, I’ll stretch for 30 seconds

• While my coffee brews, I’ll write one sentence

• After I open my laptop, I’ll take three deep breaths

The key is that the “stack” relies on something already stable in your life. You’re not reinventing your day - you’re slightly rearranging it.

Why Resolutions Fail (It’s Not a Moral Issue)

A lot of New Year’s resolutions fail because they’re designed for the version of us we wish we were, not the one we actually are on a random Tuesday in January. They’re often:

• Vague (“be healthier”)

• Overly ambitious (“work out every day”)

• Public-facing (posted, tracked, announced)

This turns self-improvement into a performance. The goal becomes looking disciplined instead of becoming consistent. When life inevitably interferes, the all-or-nothing mindset kicks in, and one missed day feels like failure.

Habit stacking sidesteps this entirely by focusing on integration instead of transformation.

Smaller Is Not Settling

One of the most uncomfortable parts of habit stacking is how unimpressive it can look. Drinking one glass of water. Reading one page. Meditating for one minute. There’s nothing glamorous about it - and that’s why it works.

Habit stacking values repetition over intensity. You’re not trying to overhaul your identity on January 1st. You’re teaching your brain that change can be safe, boring, and doable.

Small habits done consistently don’t just add up - they compound. And unlike dramatic resolutions, they don’t require motivation to survive.

Making Resolutions More Private (and More Real)

Not every goal needs to be shared. In fact, some goals are more likely to stick when they’re kept intentionally small and quiet. Habit stacking naturally supports this because the wins are internal.

You don’t need a fresh notebook, a new app, or a perfectly designed morning routine. You need one existing habit and permission to start imperfectly.

Try framing your resolution like this:

“After I already do ___, I will ___.”

That’s it. No timelines. No streaks. No punishment for missing a day.

Progress Without the Performance

Habit stacking isn’t about becoming a better version of yourself overnight. It’s about building trust with yourself slowly. It’s about showing up in ways that don’t require applause.

This New Year, you don’t need a dramatic reset. You don’t need perfection. You don’t even need to call it a resolution.

You just need one habit you already have - and one small thing you’re willing to place gently on top of it.