Transformative Mental Health Talks: Radical Hope & Experiments in Care

We are ...a community of mental health workers, clinicians, psychiatrists, current and prior users of mental health services, advocates, artists, and survivors of trauma and adversity, who are interested in exploring the link between personal and societal transformation.

Institute for the Development of Human Arts

Exploring the importance of radical imagination in care work and sharing strategies to cultivate hope and possibility

<h2>About the Series</h2>This event is part of an ongoing talk series inspired by IDHA’s <a href="https://www.idha-nyc.org/core-curriculum" title="https://www.idha-nyc.org/core-curriculum" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Transformative Mental Health Core Curriculum</a>. It features members of our teaching faculty team and dives into timely topics that intersect with our transformative mental health lens. A <a href="https://www.idha-nyc.org/events/2023/9/18/rejuvenating-our-practice-redefining-care" title="https://www.idha-nyc.org/events/2023/9/18/rejuvenating-our-practice-redefining-care" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">first</a> panel explored how to bridge the gap between the reality of mental health services and a world in which people’s autonomy and self-determination are truly centered, and a <a href="https://www.idha-nyc.org/events/2024/2/20/analyzing-power-in-mental-health-care" title="https://www.idha-nyc.org/events/2024/2/20/analyzing-power-in-mental-health-care" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">second</a> grounded us in the notion that mental health is political, discussing the role providers can play in co-creating a more liberatory and equitable future with their clients. Learn more about the curriculum and enroll <a href="https://www.idha-nyc.org/core-curriculum" title="https://www.idha-nyc.org/core-curriculum" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>.<h2>About the Event</h2>Many mental health providers work within systems that don’t fully align with their values, which can lead to disillusionment, moral injury, and burnout. Even though this is a common experience, providers rarely have the opportunity to share these experiences with one another, and to collectively practice bridging the gap between personal values and professional ethics. Further, due to the dominance of Western approaches to mental health, there is often little room for experimentation.Abolition teaches us about the value of radical hope and imagination; in the words of Mariame Kaba, we must try “a million different little experiments” on the journey to build a more liberated future. Transforming mental health practice requires risk and invites failure – all of which teaches us invaluable lessons to carry us forward. Within this moment of political upheaval and collapse, it is paramount that care workers continue to engage in experiments of transformative mental health, large and small. Even in repressive environments contained by rules and restriction, providers can create places of refuge – moving away from oppressive and pathologizing paradigms, towards liberatory and life-affirming care. All of these smaller experiments contribute to the larger sea change of transformative mental health.Join IDHA on Monday, August 19 to hear from a panel of community members who are creating spaces of refuge and transformation in and outside the mental health system. Panelists will share their experiments in transformative mental health, and how they have been cultivated over time. The conversation will approach experimentation through a multiplicity of roles and relationships to mental health including provider, activist, educator, and lived experience. This event seeks to remind us about the importance of radical imagination, and how we can all create spaces of hope and possibility within our current work.This event is open to mental health workers and clinicians, researchers, educators, activists, survivors, peers, current and prior service users, writers, artists, and other advocates – anyone who is interested in exploring the link between personal and societal transformation.After registering via Eventbrite, you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to join the event. We will also send you a reminder email the day of the event.DonationsIDHA is a small organization that strives to meet the accessibility needs of our community to the best of our ability. Our events are by tiered suggested donation to ensure we can provide closed captions on our events and other programs, though we strive to never turn anyone away. The suggested donation for this event is $10, and we appreciate donations of any size for those who have capacity to give.AccessASL interpretation + automated closed captioning will be provided. The event will be recorded and shared with all registrants. Please submit any additional access needs to contact@idha-nyc.org.<h3>Panelists</h3>Arita BalaramArita Balaram (she/her) is a member of the faculty at the Evergreen State College teaching in the areas of community studies, psychology, gender, sexuality, and queer studies, and ethnic studies. For her doctoral research, she explored the uses of storytelling to break intergenerational cycles of violence among Indo-Caribbean women and gender expansive people. She is also a co-founder and member of Ro(u)ted by Our Stories, a collective of Indo-Caribbeans in the U.S. interested in community archiving and distributive justice. She holds a PhD in Critical Psychology from City University of New York, the Graduate Center.Roxie EhlertRoxie Ehlert, LPCC, ATR-BC (she/her) is a disabled artist, art therapist, educator, and writer. She offers individual therapy, art therapy supervision, and ongoing “Breaking the Silence” support groups for mental health providers who are labeled with mental illness. Roxie is passionate about offering groups that create solidarity spaces for providers to process their experiences of sanist discrimination, stigma, and silencing in the field. Roxie teaches in the Art Therapy and Counseling graduate program at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, NM. As an educator she is committed to creating anti-oppressive learning spaces that politicize practitioners and foster the development of critical consciousness. Roxie’s art practice explores themes of ritual, grief, nostalgia, and queer belonging.Chacku MathaiChacku Mathai (he/him) is an Indian-American, born in Kuwait, who became involved in consumer/survivor/ex-patient advocacy when he was 15 years old. Chacku’s and his family’s experiences with racism and xenophobia-related assault and trauma resulted in his own loss of safety and confusing extreme states, including hearing voices and other sensory changes as a youth and young adult. These experiences, including continued racism in schools, with police, and the behavioral health system, launched Chacku and his family towards a number of efforts to advocate for alternative supports, equity, and inclusion in the community. Chacku immediately experienced the challenges of being both seen and unseen as a person of color in the psychiatric survivor/ex-patient movement, leading him to search for ways to dismantle racism in every role and initiative. He has since accumulated over thirty-five years of experience in advocating for alternatives such as peer support and racial equity in community and in behavioral health systems in a wide variety of roles, always centering lived experience and human rights. He has held important leadership roles in youth leadership and community organizing, executive and board management, and behavioral health infrastructure development.Peter StastnyPeter Stastny (he/him) is a co-founder of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), a New York based psychiatrist, documentary film-maker and a co-founder of the International Network toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). He is a Lecturer at the Global Mental Health Program of Columbia University and until recently was a consultant to the New York City Department of Mental Health in connection with the New York City Parachute Project, a federally-funded project aimed to redesign crisis responses for individuals experiencing acute psychosis and altered states. Peter has frequently collaborated with psychiatric survivors by spearheading peer specialist services and peer-run businesses, as well as in research and writing projects. Examples are a book and traveling exhibition (with Darby Penney) called The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic and the edited volume (with Peter Lehmann) Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry. Peter has directed several documentary and experimental films, some dealing with the experiences of survival and recovery.<h3>Moderator</h3>Robin SempervirensRobin Sempervirens (they/them/elle), LMSW, is a multiracial, queer, trans/nonbinary therapist and artist. They have worked for over five years in direct and clinical services with youth, family, and adults. Their work focuses on healing trauma and building meaning through a liberatory, relational, somatic, and creative framework. Their advocacy work has focused on LGBTQIA+ identity, intergenerational resilience, housing justice, land back efforts, police and prison abolition, and other intersecting causes.

When Help Hurts

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Transformative Mental Health Talks: Radical Hope & Experiments in Care

More events from Institute for the Development of Human Arts

Discover more events from Institute for the Development of Human Arts, from Health to other experiences you might love.

When Help Hurts

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.

Transformative Mental Health Talks: Radical Hope & Experiments in Care

More events from Institute for the Development of Human Arts

Discover more events from Institute for the Development of Human Arts, from Health to other experiences you might love.

When Help Hurts

You might also like...

Browse more events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.