In his work on synergy, Richard Katz argues that Western academia has much to learn from Indigenous traditions of psychology and healing. The problem of applying synergy, however, is practical as well as philosophical: Western institutions have emerged from a particular intellectual tradition, and continue to bear the stamp of Western philosophical assumptions. These institutions have been designed to operate hierarchically rather than synergistically, and in practice, synergy is often contrary to the established working culture. This article consists of interviews with Genée Jackson, Raghav Suri, and Kareem South (three mental health professionals at various stages of their careers) and explores the challenges involved in working synergistically within the context of modern mental health bureaucracies. As an alternative to top-down bureaucratic processes, synergy can be an effective way to address historic and ongoing injustices, and can lead to better outcomes in general. But it requires practitioners to be willing to acknowledge the value of traditions of thought—including those commonly defined as “spiritual”—that are outside the mainstream of contemporary Western academic thought.