Why “Empower” Mental Health? We chose this term really deliberately. Empowerment is the foundation of our philosophy about mental health, and it might be helpful for you to understand why. Empowerment theory links “individual well-being with the larger social and political environment”1. Our own well-being is important, sure. Even more important is how we make ourselves well in order to best make our systems and institutions well. Second most important, empowerment means that we are seeing mental health as something that everyone has the capacity and capability for – we just have to find it and nurture it. This is very different from “traditional” models of mental health that are about identifying “risk factors,” “pathologizing” or figuring out what is wrong with someone, and diagnosing, blaming, labelling…all of the things that go along (either purposefully or as unforeseen side effects) with an idea about mental health that is focused on identifying and managing things that are going wrong instead of focusing on what is going right, what strengths and resiliencies someone has, and how they can get to where they want to be in life.
“Mental health” in that traditional model is just the lack of symptoms – that you don’t have insomnia, depression, anxiety, and maybe that you had to rely on someone else or a medication to get you to that point. Not having symptoms is great, for sure. It just might not be everything. From an empowerment standpoint, “mental health” is developing deep understanding of your true self – all of it, the things we see as “good” and “not-so-good” – how you got to be the person you are, the amazing things you have been through and conquered to get to this point, and how to tap into that personal power and awesomeness in ways that serve you best. Then, it’s about how you interact with the world around you to create positive change. Because once you feel your best and are able to act authentically from your powerful true self, the ripples can’t help but extend to those around you. That’s empowerment, and that’s powerful mental health.
For more information on trainings we can offer on this topic: https://www.empowermentalhealth.org/training
Watch for upcoming options to do therapy from this philosophy: https://www.empowermentalhealth.org/therapy. This page will become active the first week in September with exciting news!
