Global Mental Health and Human Rights Activism with Brazilian Psychologist Ana Florence
This week I got to talk to my friend and colleague, Ana Florence, Brazilian clinical psychologist and researcher, about the impact of globalization, the export of psychiatry from the global north to the south, and what it means to be a clinician dedicated to consistent self-inquiry.
“In Brazil, that separation between clinician and “patient” is less clear in that in order to become a good clinician it is expected that you have been on the other side of this relationship that you are offering to the person you are working with. And that has multiple consequences to the work. We’re always talking about how people need to change, but I’m convinced we’re the ones, the professionals are the ones who need to be able to change all the time to meet people where they’re at. ”
What you’ll learn about in this episode - Global Mental Health and Human Rights Activism:
Psychology and human rights activism in Brazil;
How open dialogue revolutionizes crisis treatment;
social determinants of health and the power asymmetries between global north and south when it comes to the medicalization of mental health,
subverting academic spaces by fostering critical doubt, self-inquiry, and tolerating uncertainty.
“I feel like a clinical approach is truly not enough to address issues of poverty, of inequality, people not having access and the right to health in public and free healthcare systems, to address things like racism, sexism and other forms of oppression in society and material deprivation.”
About Ana Florence:
Dr. Florence is an early career investigator at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute. She is a Brazilian clinical psychologist fluent in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. As the project manager of the NIMH Early Psychosis Intervention Network -- OnTrackNY Hub -- her current research focuses on early intervention for first-episode psychosis. Other research interests include global mental health and community-based participatory research. She is a person with lived experience.
DEPTH Work - A Holistic Mental Health Podcast
This is a space for those who love to dive into the underbelly, to revel in the mystery, question assumptions about what is normal, play in both/and, and honour the wide range of human emotions.
As a complex trauma survivor, holistic counsellor and co-founder of a mental health institute, I learned that there is immense wisdom in our pain and what we call crazy is just what we are yet not willing to understand and explore. Let’s dive in!
