What have been the shortcomings of the various technologies promising to make mental health care more accessible? And what does it mean to maintain a sense of humanity in our systems of care—in a world where therapeutic support of different forms is increasingly digitized? In this episode, we welcome Emma Bedor Hiland, Ph.D., the author of Therapy Tech: The Digital Transformation of Mental Healthcare. As a feminist scholar, she brings an intersectional approach to analyses of the social and cultural effects of media and new technologies. Her work explores questions of what it means to live well, to be happy, and to pursue health. The song featured in this episode is A Woman and The Universe by Lara Bello. Green Dreamer is a community-supported podcast and multimedia journal exploring our paths to collective healing, ecological regeneration, and true abundance and wellness for all. Find our show notes, transcripts, and newsletter at GreenDreamer.com. *Our episodes are minimally edited. Please view them as invitations to dive deeper into the resources and topics explored.

335) Emma Bedor Hiland: The digitization of mental healthcare

Green Dreamer explores our paths to collective healing, biocultural revitalization, and true abundance and wellness *for all*.

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What do the terminologies we often use to describe plants reveal about human and human-plant relations? How is the current landscape of the plant world entangled with human histories of desire, power, and imperialism? Drawing from her experience living across various countries and continents as a third-generation migrant, Jessica J. Lee delves into the nuances of shifting attitudes towards both plant and human migration stories throughout time. Join us as we explore how terms such as “weeds,” “naturalized” or “invasive” are defined and used to describe the plant world, how we might expand our understandings of belonging through recognizing the movement, as well as rootedness, of plants, and more. Subscribe to Green Dreamer and support our show at Patreon.com/GreenDreamer.

Jessica J. Lee: The entangled histories of human and plant migration (EP424)

How do we show up as sensitive, creative and intuitive beings in a system that does not honor the uniqueness of our spirits? How can we stay true to our calling when we’re so busy simply trying to survive? In this episode, Niharika Sanyal shares sweet fruits of wisdom on the radical act of honoring our unique gifts as offerings during times of darkness. In guiding us towards the deepest desires and whispers of our hearts, Sanyal draws from her personal experiences, yoga philosophy, and Vedic myths. Her teachings shine a light on the collective pathways that can lead us towards more divine ways of being, feeling and co-existing through tuning into our innate inner wisdom, knowledge and unconditional love. Get our transcript and episode show notes at greendreamer.com; support our show at patreon.com/greendreamer.

Niharika Sanyal: Returning to the longing in our hearts and intuition

“We consume not only stuff but also knowledge, experiences, critique. And this consumption, many times, is not even digested. It is the consumption for consumption’s sake so that we can feel better.” What might it mean for humanity to reach a level of maturation to be able to confront the multilayered crises we now face—calling upon us to “grow up and show up” for ourselves and our planet? And how might recognizing the differing historical contexts that we were raised within help us to have more empathy when navigating our generational differences? In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, a Brazilian educator and Indigenous and Land Rights advocate. She is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities, and Global Change at the University of British Columbia. She is one of the founders of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Arts/Research Collective and part of the coordination team of the "Last Warning" campaign. Vanessa is also the author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and Implications for Social Activism.

EVERGREEN | Vanessa Andreotti: Allowing the earth to dream through us

What could it mean to heal our relationship with the dead, the decaying, and the dark in order to move towards more liveable futures? What possibilities might arise when we shift from cultural narratives of fear, discomfort, and disgust with these unseen worlds — to ones which honor the wisdoms that they may be able to offer? In this episode, Perdita Finn draws on her book Take Back the Magic to invite us to find kinship and guidance from beings that have passed. Through a renewal of ancient practices and rituals, Finn invokes the reclamation of our bodies, inner wisdom, and personal mantras that keep us whole and grounded during the troubled times of modernity. Subscribe and listen to Green Dreamer via any podcast app and read on for our episode transcript. 

Perdita Finn: Sitting with the wisdoms of darkness, death, and decay

In this episode, geographer, writer, and sound artist AM Kanngieser invites us to reconsider the diverse ways in which we register both sound and silence — pushing back against the idea that listening itself is a virtuous act with universality in experience. Through their own journey as a geographer and sound artist, Kanngieser sheds light on the colonial repercussions of extracting sound, knowledge, and information from landscapes and communities that have historically been taken from without consent.  What are the moral considerations for using recording technologies initially developed for military surveillance? How do we ask for permission to capture sounds—not just from the people of a place but also from the land themselves? And what does it mean to blur the boundaries of our various senses as we become more attuned and responsive to the world?

335) Emma Bedor Hiland: The digitization of mental healthcare

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