“Men don’t fall from trees - they subscribe to societal messages, they follow rules,” says Dr. Shahieda Jansen, clinical psychologist, scholar in masculinities, and author of Masculinity Meets Humanity: An Adapted Model of Masculinized Psychotherapy. 

In this episode Shahieda takes us through her own journey of research, practice and discovery, devising all-male group therapy that would re-integrate, re-contextualize, and pull back together elements that Western style psychology has compartmentalized, distorted and split apart.

Working from the creed that “the minute something is out of sync with its context, you're busy with lunacy”, Shahieda weaves together belief systems rooted in the cultures, histories and identities of the men with whom she works. She draws on ancient and vibrant African relational ethical philosophies and understanding of the self, combines it with the latest science from around the globe, and builds bridges across the divides we all are shaped by - ancient from modern, culture from science, thinking from feeling, men from women - self from others.

In this sweeping conversation we talk about Ubuntu, African identity and morality, Afro Eastern model of the self, Umoya, the ravages of colonization, the centrality of emotion, how “belonging is not recognized in the healing professions for the radicalness that it is”, and how Shahieda uses her wholeness approach to tend to the men in her all-male therapy groups.

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Credits

Host: Elle Kamihira

Produced by Elle Kamihira

Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio

Cover Art by Bee Johnson

Music by Beware of Darkness