When Helping Others Starts to Hurt: Alexandra Tracy on Clinician Burnout, AI & Mental Load

In this episode of DesignWave Podcast, we sit down with Alexandra Tracy, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, former high-acuity clinician, and founder of Stewardly, to explore the growing mental health crisis facing the people whose job is to care for everyone else.Alexandra shares her journey from working in intensive outpatient programs, adolescent mental health, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention to stepping away from clinical practice not because she stopped caring about her clients, but because she became exhausted by a system that placed an enormous administrative and emotional burden on clinicians.We discuss clinician burnout, mental load, AI in behavioral health, sustainability, neurodiversity, and the future of mental healthcare. Alexandra explains why documentation and administrative work are quietly draining an already stretched workforce and how technology can help reduce that burden without replacing the human connection at the heart of care.As a first-time founder building Stewardly, Alexandra also opens up about what it means to turn firsthand frustration into a technology solution—and why clinicians need to have a seat at the table when AI tools are being developed for behavioral health.A powerful conversation for clinicians, healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and human-centered innovation.#AlexandraTracy #Stewardly #ClinicianBurnout #MentalHealth #BehavioralHealth #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareInnovation #MentalHealthAwareness #Neurodiversity #ClinicalSocialWork #HealthcareTechnology #Burnout #FutureOfHealthcare #Entrepreneurship #AI #DesignWavePodcast #PodcastGuest #PodMatch