Doctors should show no weakness

June 24, 2025 Published by Sharee Johnson

Doctors are tending to their human weaknesses in coaching and therapy, they just can’t tell anyone.

There is a very strong cultural message in medicine which says – show no weakness. This story means that doctors who work with a coach or a therapist are reluctant to tell anyone about what they are doing, for fear of being judged that they are weak, or not coping with the job.

This shared belief means that when a doctor is experiencing value and benefit from their coaching or therapy, they feel better, and it stays a secret between them. The helper cannot tell anyone, as they are bound by confidentiality, but the doctor client can tell whoever they like. Mostly they choose to tell as few people as possible, especially not too many other doctors.

In other domains of life when we find something of value or benefit, we want to tell others.

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I can’t help but wonder that if all the doctors who gained benefit from their coaching and their therapy were to tell other doctors, loud and proud, about how it has benefited them, about the value they experienced, that the story of show no weakness would change, rapidly!

Right now, the story is SHOW no weakness, it’s not quite don’t have a weakness, just don’t show it if you do!

In other words, the story of show no weakness is a lie. Most doctors, like all humans, have weaknesses. Many of them are actively tending to their lived humanity (aka “weaknesses”), by engaging a coach and/or a  psychologist for therapy. Good for them, wonderful.

Hundreds of doctors are right now using coaching and therapy to improve their life, work, relationships, performance and wellbeing. But only a small few are sharing what they know with their colleagues.

In public, no doctors need help, it’s imperative to appear like you are coping. The cultural message of medicine is loud and clear: be  strong, resilient, you are different to the rest of the humans who you take care of, you can not afford to be like them.

What if under the covers nearly everyone is having some help, but because no one is talking about it the myth is continually perpetuated – doctors don’t need help. Those who do are weak and not cut out to be doctors.

Keeping coaching and therapy a secret is essentially reputational management… for who’s benefit?

If you are working with a coach or a therapist and it is helping you to be well or to perform well, to have better relationships and a clearer mind, a more peaceful heart, tell everyone around you about it, especially your doctor colleagues.  

Not sharing what is working for you is potentially limiting the development of the profession and your peers. Not sharing your use of coaching and therapy is potentially perpetuating a myth that is doing harm.

You can amplify the benefits of your coaching or therapy, pay it forward, undo an incredibly unhelpful cultural belief that creates stigma for no good reason. Telling others about how coaching or therapy has helped you is leadership, a counter cultural decision that demonstrates good decision making, integrity and whole person care. Sharing who is in your support and development team, and how you work together, allows others to see how they can create a sustainable, fulfilling future in medicine.

Let’s break the myth of show no weakness today and create a culture of integrity, compassion and growth.

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Sharee Johnson is the Founder, Managing Director, Principal Coach at Coaching for Doctors. She is the bestselling author of The Thriving Doctor: How to be more balanced and fulfilled, working in medicine and a Registered Psychologist. She has written extensively about doctor wellbeing, performance and coaching, delivers workshops to doctors and speaks at medical conferences. You can connect with her on Linkedin and Instagram.

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Sharee Johnson’s book The Thriving Doctor is available in all good bookstores or online.

Sharee has been coaching doctors since 2014, find out more about her work