Prince Harryis getting candid about how mental health is approached in the U.K. versus California.
The Duke of Sussex, 37, appeared on the newest episode of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale podcast on Tuesday alongside BetterUp CEO Alexi Robichaux. It was announced last year thatPrince Harrywas taking on the role of chief impact officer for the coaching and mental health company.
Harry worked to spread awareness about theimportance of mental well-beingalongside his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate Middleton in the years before and after he met his wifeMeghan Markle, yet he says it’s still very much a taboo topic in the U.K.
Hoffman said on the podcast, “As a born and raised Californian myself, we would tell jokes. ‘Hey, my therapist will talk to your therapist,’ as a way of building a connection. I’m aware that that is a very Californian perspective.”
Harry, who moved to Montecito, Calif. in 2020, replied, “You’re absolutely right, Reid, about the cultural differences, they’re immense. You talk about it here in California, ‘I’ll get my therapist to call your therapist.’ Whereas in the U.K. it’s like, ‘Therapist? What therapist? Whose therapist? I don’t have a therapist. No, I definitely don’t, I’ve never spoken to a therapist.’ "
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.ANP via Getty
Last year, Harry opened up about hispersonal experience with therapy, sharing how Meghan helped inspire his mental health journey.
“I am one of the first people to recognize that firstly, I had a fear of – when I first went to therapy — a fear of losing,” he said in the docuseriesThe Me You Can’t See, which he co-created withOprah Winfrey.
“It was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn’t do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with,” he said.
Through therapy, Harry said he gained “one of the biggest lessons” in his life. “You’ve sometimes got to go back and to deal with really uncomfortable situations and to be able to process it in order to be able to heal. For me, therapy has equipped me to be able to take on anything. That’s why I’m here now. That’s why my wife is here now.”
“The chief impact officer role for me at BetterUp is 100% about driving advocacy and awareness for mental fitness,” he said. “99.9% of people on planet Earth are suffering from some form of loss, trauma, or grief. It doesn’t matter what age you are, but the majority of us have experienced a lot of that in our younger years, therefore we’ve forgotten about it. Now, the body doesn’t forget, the body holds the score as we know. And therefore just as much as there’s a mental health aspect to it, there’s also the emotional aspect to it as well. And I think the more that we can talk about it, the more we understand it. The more we understand it, well, the more we understand each other.”
Prince Harryalso understands the link between physical fitness and mental wellbeing. He recounted meeting a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who was “physically shaking” and “unable to look me in the eye.”
“It was maybe four months later or six months later after he came back from a ski trip, had basically almost completely healed him,” the Duke of Sussex recalled in the podcast. “He came back, and he was a different person, it was like I was speaking to his twin brother. But it wasn’t, it was the same guy.”
He added, “That’s the power of sport. It literally has the ability to completely transform an individual.”
Prince Harry and Jelle van Der Steen.Chris Jackson/Getty
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Harry also wanted to shift the mindset of a patient’s journey.
“Why do we keep calling it PTSD? Why do we keep calling it a disorder?” he said. “If you’re going to turn around to someone and label them with a disorder, that’s them screwed for the rest of their life. Why are we not calling it PTSI? It should be an injury. And if you’re telling someone that they’ve got an injury, then guess what they’re going to do? They’re going to try and get better.”
BetterUp made PEOPLE’s annual 100 Companies That Care list in 2021. To nominate a business demonstrating outstanding respect for its employees, community and the environment, visitGreat Place to Work.
source: people.com
