Legacies of Activism, Being a Peer Specialist, and Radical Imagination with Noah Gokul
It takes radical imagination to envision a future of mental health that is rooted in community support and multiple ways of approaching healing. Noah Gokul is an artist and mental health educator who embodies this concept in all their work. Grounded and affirmed by legacies of activism before us, we discuss what it was like to be peer specialist working in a clinical mental health setting. Noah shares how having a father who was a culturally affirming family therapist impacted their work, and how they use art to explore frameworks for navigating depression and anxiety.
“I don’t identify with being diagnosed with a depressive disorder. I feel like I have sensitivities to the world. I really started becoming more aware of my anxiety. And also that’s a big gift of mine because I feel when I need to care for the fear or the anticipation and the way trauma is being stored in my body and how that shows up as anxiety.”
What you’ll learn in this episode:
The co-optation of the peer specialist role and how it can prevent progress
the importance of knowing the history of mental health activism
depression as a manifestation of not getting our needs met
navigating anxiety through art
“I really saw that there could be a vision of what the [peer specialist role] could do. Actually rallying the clients and peers and really changing the way policy is, the treatment and the language. A lot of the language that is used [in mental health] is so degrading. There’s so much potential and I think it’s a real threat to the status quo that [the peer specialist role] presents. The potential of the peer specialist role is not being tapped with the way things are now with the co-optation of it.”
About Noah Gokul:
Noah (they/them) is a Queer multidisciplinary artist and educator here to create liberated worlds through art, storytelling, and sound. They grew up in Oakland, CA/unceded Ohlone land, and identify as a trauma survivor with sensitivities to the world around them. They use music and art for meaning-making and the healing of others, integrating these passions into their work as a peer for young adults in a first-episode psychosis program. They have facilitated in a wide variety of settings, at the intersections of anti-oppression, trauma, incarceration, Caribbean ancestry, music, and mental health. Through their incantations they create spaces of radical imagination and possibility.
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!
Resources:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bindiram/
Bandcamp - https://bindiram.bandcamp.com/music
ReKin Art Collective Berlin - https://moritzjekat.de/re-kin
Inside the spiral created by Noah Gokul - https://vimeo.com/749357163
Crossroads of Crisis 2022-2023 Trainings - https://www.idha-nyc.org/crossroads-of-crisis
On Track NY - https://ontrackny.org/
The Icarus Project - https://www.academia.edu/11397502/The_Icarus_Project_A_Counter_Narrative_for_Psychic_Diversity
The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity by Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish
The Family Centre NZ- https://familycentre.org.nz/
