You Can't Do It Alone: Mental Health in Cybersecurity Teams

You Can’t Do It Alone: Mental Health in Cybersecurity Teams

In this episode, Triad hosts Jessica Lidh and Kristin Rydland welcome Chelsea Bryan, a cybersecurity analyst, for a conversation about a topic rarely discussed openly: the mental health and wellness of cybersecurity and IT teams. Chelsea shares her personal journey from burnout to balance, describing the relentless pressure of working in a Security Operations Center (SOC) where alerts never stop and the stakes are high. She explains why cybersecurity is a “team sport” that requires trust, honest communication, and strong leadership—especially during incident response. Chelsea challenges the outdated stereotype of the solitary IT professional, arguing that today’s most successful security teams are built on collaboration, vulnerability, and mutual support. She also offers practical advice for building community both inside and outside organizations, from mentorship programs and Toastmasters to local Meetup groups and even starting your own group if one doesn’t exist. Her core message is powerful: you cannot protect your organization alone, and prioritizing human connection is not optional—it’s essential for sustainability, growth, and avoiding burnout.

Learning Burnout the Hard Way—and Finding a Way Back:

“There’s forever alerts coming in, and if you don’t set boundaries for yourself and balance your day, workday, morning, your time afterwards, you absolutely will get burnt out, and that is something that I faced really heavy, where I wanted to just give up my love for technology, and move in the middle of the woods, or be a barista somewhere, have a calm, wonderful day… But there is that passion for the topic, so it did take some learning and figuring out what worked for me, and once I did that, I started to see people around me asking, how do you handle this stress? …it is not something that you just wake up knowing how to do. It forever takes growth and looking into yourself.”

Cybersecurity Is a Team Sport:

“Being a cybersecurity analyst, SOC analyst, You are almost just like an air traffic controller or a first responder. These alerts are coming in, and you have to make that decision of how to escalate or remediate… It takes a lot of work, and sometimes that is not a decision you can make alone. So you have to be able to communicate with your team… you have to feel comfortable admitting that you don’t know the answer to something. Often in cybersecurity, you can’t know the answer to everything… it’s a team sport now… They know you can learn a technical skill. What they can’t teach you is how to be a team player, and that’s the type of person that is going to be successful in a cybersecurity role.”

Imposter Syndrome and the Courage to Say “I Don’t Know”

“It can be difficult to grasp that imposter syndrome of not knowing everything, and it takes years into the field to then become okay with that, and it was kind of my own experience… seeing everyone around me so knowledgeable, and feeling like, wow, I’m not even qualified to be in this room right now. But that was not the case… no matter where you are in your career in cybersecurity or technology, it’s ever evolving. So being okay with not knowing the answer was something of a growth for me.”

Find Your People—or Start Your Own Group:

“Cybersecurity is much more than just protecting an organization from getting sued… there’s a whole hobby out there, there’s this whole universe, and those communities already exist. So, by just doing a little search to find which community you might fit well in, and putting yourself out there… I am a woman in cybersecurity, and I meet so many amazing, intelligent people, but I wanted more in my Richmond community. I wanted to interact with more women in my community, and I couldn’t find one in Richmond, and so I tried to start one… it just takes a little bit of time and energy out of your daily life to then create something that adds so much positivity and value back to you.”