While TikTok has grown into perhaps the largest platform for mental health discussions, Instagram remains a strong contender in its own right.
Mental health influencers on Instagram range from clinical psychiatrists and licensed therapists, to mental health advocates and activists. Many are also ordinary people who simply want to be open about their struggles and have built a large following in the process.
Whatever their training or background, however, it’s become clear that Instagram — much like TikTok — has become a platform for mental health influencers to personalize messaging to almost any audience they choose.
Here are 10 of the top mental health influencers on Instagram.
1. Courtney Tracy
In a recent video, Courtney Tracy, known on Instagram as “the truth doctor,” describes herself as a therapist with mental health issues. With more than 145,000 followers on Instagram, Tracy has built a brand for herself as a licensed therapist who is open about her own behavioral struggles.
“As a therapist with mental health issues, I know what it feels like to be in survival mode,” she wrote in her post. “I also know, after the last 33 years, that we as human beings can both help and heal ourselves.”
Tracy posts videos on her Instagram that are sometimes educational, sometimes humorous, and oftentimes both. In one video, she points out how she went from a “psych hospital client to being a doctoral level psychotherapist.”
Often, she posts tips on how her audience can take care of their mental health and feel better through simple, subtle steps — whether it’s going to sleep an hour earlier than usual or getting two things on your to-do list done.
2. Dr. Alfiee
Alfiee Breland-Noble, who goes by Dr. Alfiee on Instagram, is a leading voice for Black women and people of color in the mental health space.
Breland-Noble regularly posts about the importance of tailoring mental health care toward people of color and marginalized groups.
“This is why culturally relevant mental health care and support — this is why they’re important,” Alifee says in one video. “This is why we have to support and uplift organizations that center the needs of people of color and our mental health. Because we have unique circumstances that impact how we are perceived in the workplace, how they respond to us, and what they do about it.”
Breland-Noble also posts tips for staying productive, avoiding burnout, and practicing mindfulness.
3. Caroline Leaf
Neuroscientist Caroline Leaf has more than 850,000 followers on Instagram, but has also built up an audience on her YouTube channel speaking about psychological health.
In her videos, Leaf addresses a variety of mental health topics from “toxic positivity” to healthy aging.
“We have an incorrect mental health philosophy… that as soon as you feel uncomfortable or bad, you’ve got to suppress that feeling… Instead of embracing, processing and reconceptualizing, there’s this suppression, which is really not good,” she explains in one video about toxic positivity.
In order to get through the “painful stuff,” Leaf explains, you have to “feel it — embrace, process and reconceptualize it.”
Leaf also hosts the Clean Up Your Mental Mess podcast, which delves into topics like how to untangle the “social media perfection trap,” addressing trauma and finding the roots of anxiety.
4. Nicole LePera
Nicole LePera dubs herself “the holistic psychologist” on Instagram, where she has an audience of nearly 8 million followers.
LePera notes on her page that she teaches her audience how “to heal and consciously create a new version of yourself.”
In a step-by-step guide posted to her account, LePera walks her followers through how to process their emotions, starting with naming them — followed by being curious about them, journaling through them and finally accepting them.
“When we don’t try to change emotions, they relax and fade through the body,” LePera continued. “Think of your emotions as a small child. Emotions change quickly, they’re fickle, and they just need to be acknowledged. The more you say to yourself: ‘It’s safe to feel this way and this will pass’ the more you can flow through emotional states.”
In another post, she offers tips on how to regulate the nervous system in natural ways: planning social time with people “who make you laugh so much your stomach hurts,” addressing your vitamin B levels and doing a relationship inventory to remove toxic relationships that keep you in a dysregulated state.
5. Kojo Sarfo
You may have seen him across any number of social media platforms — Kojo Sarfo is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who is perhaps one of the most well-known mental health influencers on the internet.
He has 310,000 followers on Instagram and posts videos about handling depression, managing negative self-talk, being neurodivergent and identifying the signs of bipolar disorder.
Sarfo crafts highly personal and compassionate messages to his followers in his videos, sometimes coaxing people to do something as simple as brush their teeth when they’re in a depressive state.
6. Sundas Pasha Fick
Sundas Pasha Fick is a behavioral medicine psychologist at Kaiser Permanente who has built a social media brand for herself on Instagram, where she has accrued more than 100,000 followers.
Fick approaches her content from a neuroscience lens, offering neuroscience-based tips on how to boost mood, for example.
In one post, she suggests five evidence-based ways to improve your mood: Practice gratitude, exercise, build social support and connections with others, undergo mindfulness meditation and get enough sleep.
“My interest in psychology originated from a fascination with the human brain and how uniquely complex the brain-behavior relationship is,” her bio on the Kaiser Permanente website reads. “I wanted to understand how and why various psychological disorders affect people, and how cognition plays a role in behavior.”
7. Yolo Akili
As a writer, poet, counselor and activist, Yoko Akili Robinson has a slightly different spin on mental health advocacy compared to your average therapist or psychiatrist.
Robinson is also the founder and executive director of the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM), which brings together resources like peer support groups and mental health hotlines for the Black community (including a directory of local resources that are alternatives to calling law enforcement).
Robinson covers a wide range of mental health topics, from suicide to homophobia in the Black community. In another video, Robinson discusses how he learned how to advocate for his own wellness.
In 2022, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy highlighted Robinson and his work as being part of a list of leaders who support minority mental health.
8. Sophie Gray
While Sophie Gray is more of an entrepreneur than a mental health expert, per se, she is still a major player in the mental health influencer space on Instagram, where she posts about her personal journey with therapy.
Gray is the founder and CEO of DiveThru, a mental health platform that offers in-person and online therapy, community and resources.
“I struggled with my mental health for years, then went to therapy, did the work, then opened my dream mental health studio that I wish I had when I was struggling,” she wrote in a post last year.
“I struggled for a long time and it was so hard,” she continued. “It was so hard to feel so alone in my struggles and getting help was also challenging. When I started DiveThru, I had the end vision of creating spaces where people could access professional and peer support.”
9. Todd Baratz
“You should go to therapy if you’ve ever experienced childhood or breathe,” Todd Baratz writes in one post on his Instagram.
It’s a bold statement, but not one Baratz is afraid to make. Going by “yourdiagnonsense” on Instagram, Baratz has gathered more than half a million followers where he posts clear and concise statements in bright colors about mental health, relationships and sex.
They’re meant to grab your attention. As a sex and relationship therapist, Baratz largely focuses on what he calls “relational hygiene,” or the ability to maintain your personal relationships in the healthiest ways possible.
“If you want your relationship to feel safe, secure and connected — affection, praise and meaningful conversations are fully crucial,” he explains in one video. “So do these things daily, do these things explicitly.”
10. Justin Puder
Also known as “a modern therapist” or simply as “Dr. J,” Justin Puder is a psychologist who’s on a mission to reduce stigma around mental health through his social media accounts.
“Although it’s not always easy, I believe in the power of vulnerability and sharing my story with you,” he notes in his bio. “Speaking openly about my mental health struggles and being known to you as a real person is what I take pride in the most.”
While many mental health influencers post about serious and heavy topics, Puder manages to take a more lighthearted approach to therapy-posting.
Many of his videos are humorous examples of a day in the life of a first year therapist or offer jokes that make it a little easier to discuss mental health.
