Dave Leon, the co-founder of the mental health nonprofit Painted Brain, is a licensed clinical social worker who is open about living with depression.

He thinks that as someone who has experience with mental illness, he brings humility to his work as a therapist.

“Someone who hasn’t struggled ... and just enters into our field as a clinical professional might literally think they’re sane and everyone else is not,” he said. “And so they’re just trying to help everyone be more like them.”

Leon said that generally he’d rather change the environment around his patients than change his patients.