Let’s tackle mental health’s biggest irony
— together
"My journey didn’t just inform this project—it disrupted what I once believed about this field. Every struggle, every moment of clarity, pushed me to question the old systems and ask why I kept accepting them. This project is born from that disruption. This isn’t just personal healing. It’s a reclamation and revolution of care—a shared effort to reclaim our energy and reimagine how we support ourselves, each other, and this work.”
Intentional Disruption
Interwoven is a community based intention experiment that I am launching to hold space to explore, uncover, and challenge the status quo around "care" in the mental health field. In working with willing practitioners and partners, we will intentionally discover what needs to shift or be put in place to provide better support for those who work in the field to bring better balance and support for those we serve.
This is your personal invitation to join me. Here is how you can get involved.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
join an online or in person discussion group
Consider the following 4 questions. What comes up for you?
As a Mental Health Practitioner, what support do you feel is missing for you to fulfill your role in a meaningful and fulfilling way?
What challenges do you see facing the mental health field that leave you feeling concerned for the future?
What do you wish people entering into the mental health field would know about how things "really" work?
What would you love to see change in the field and why?
My Name is Melanie
Hiya! I’m Melanie, a Licensed Independent Social Worker. I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2000 and spent most of my career working in community mental health. By 2008, I was completely depleted—exhausted, deeply sad, and frustrated by the quality of care I was able to provide. After just eight years in the field, I had to step away. It took me a year and a half to fully recover.
At the time, I was living in New York City and made a major shift into real estate—which, honestly, felt like a huge relief. All I had to do was help someone find an apartment. It was bliss.
But before long, I found myself missing the field and felt compelled to understand what had happened to me. As I began exploring the work of Christina Maslach, the pioneering researcher on burnout, I was stunned by what I discovered. Despite the significance of her research, hardly anyone I spoke with had ever heard of it. That discovery sparked something in me. I created a seminar based on her work, got it approved for national CEUs, and went on to present it to more than 3,000 social workers.
Though I was passionate about this work, I found it difficult to gather the support needed to keep the initiative going. Eventually, I set it aside—but the vision never left me.
I returned to community mental health from 2011 to 2017, before shifting into tele-mental health, where I continue to practice today.
In 2024, I returned to the initiative—this time with a fresh perspective, a stronger foundation, and a more focused plan. It’s important for you to know that I am not an expert on burnout—but I am a curious learner, a connector, and someone committed to seeing this open process through. It's also important to note that when I talk about “the field”, I’m not referring to the entire mental health profession, but speaking specifically from my own experiences—places where both care and support often felt scarce.
I’m deeply committed to creating a new model that supports both current and future mental health professionals—rooted in the belief that when caregivers are supported, it creates a ripple effect of healing and strength throughout communities.