Rethinking 'Mental Health': Consultation for Individuals, Groups and Organisations
Mental health difficulties are often understood through the lens of diagnosis, disorder and individual pathology. While these approaches can sometimes be helpful, they are not the only ways of understanding human suffering and often not the best.
Critical psychiatry and critical psychology offer alternative perspectives that place people's experiences within their personal histories, relationships, communities and wider social contexts.
I offer consultation for individuals, groups and organisations seeking alternatives to mainstream psychiatric and psychological models. My expertise is in perspectives that emphasise the interpersonal, social,and cultural contexts of people's lives, rather than locating difficulties primarily within individual minds, brains, or internal functioning.
What Is Critical Psychiatry and Critical Psychology?
Critical psychiatry and critical psychology question the assumption that emotional distress is primarily the result of individual illness or dysfunction. Instead, they explore how psychological difficulties emerge within complex interactions between personal experiences, relationships, social systems, culture, inequality, trauma and life circumstances.
These perspectives draw upon a range of traditions, including:
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Humanistic and existential psychology
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Relational and interpersonal approaches
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Trauma-informed perspectives
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Social constructionist and narrative approaches
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Community psychology
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Open Dialogue and systemic approaches
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Critical mental health scholarship
Consultation for Individuals
I provide consultation to mental health professionals, multidisciplinary teams, educators, service leaders, and organisations seeking to develop more trauma-informed, relational and humanistic approaches to understanding psychological distress. Consultation offers a space to critically examine prevailing assumptions about mental health, diagnosis, treatment, and service provision, while exploring alternative frameworks grounded in relationships, meaning, lived experience, and social context.
I also work with individuals who have received psychiatric diagnoses, been prescribed psychiatric medication, or who wish to explore different ways of understanding their experiences beyond conventional medical or diagnostic frameworks.
Common reasons people seek consultation include:
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Understanding psychiatric diagnoses from multiple perspectives
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Exploring alternatives to purely medical explanations of distress
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Reflecting on experiences of mental health services
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Considering questions about psychiatric medication
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Developing trauma-informed and relational approaches to practice
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Understanding the impact of relationships, adversity, and social circumstances on emotional wellbeing
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Critically examining diagnostic and treatment frameworks
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Developing more meaningful and context-sensitive understandings of psychological difficulties
Consultation is not intended to replace medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Rather, it provides a reflective and collaborative space for exploring different ways of understanding emotional distress and supporting psychological wellbeing.
Consultation for Groups & Communities
I offer consultation and facilitated discussions for groups interested in critical perspectives on mental health.
This may include:
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Reading groups and study groups
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Peer-support organisations
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Community mental health initiatives
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Survivor and service-user networks
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Professional discussion groups
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Reflective practice groups
Topics can include:
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Critiques of psychiatric diagnosis
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Trauma-informed approaches
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The relational understanding of mental distress
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Alternatives to the medical model
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The social determinants of mental health
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Recovery, meaning, and personal narratives
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Contemporary developments in critical psychiatry and psychology
Consultation for Organisations and Institutions
Mental health services, educational institutions, charities, healthcare organisations and training providers increasingly seek approaches that move beyond narrow diagnostic frameworks. I offer consultation to support organisations in developing more relational, human-centred and context-sensitive approaches. Areas of consultation include:
Service Development
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Developing alternatives to diagnosis-centred models
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Embedding relational and trauma-informed principles
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Integrating person-centred and systemic perspectives
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Creating psychologically informed environments
Staff Training and Development
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Critical psychiatry and critical psychology
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Trauma-informed practice
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Relational approaches to distress
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Reflective practice and organisational culture
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Understanding power, context, and meaning in mental health work
Policy and Programme Review
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Reviewing mental health policies and frameworks
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Evaluating service models
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Supporting organisational change initiatives
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Developing more humane and collaborative approaches to care