Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart
The American mental health system is broken beyond repair. Rather than trying to tweak a system which fails everyone, it is time to commit to a bold vision for a better way forward. This podcast explores the American system against the plumb line of an international best practice, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), in Trieste, Italy. The 40-year old Trieste model demonstrates how a community-based treatment system upholds the human rights of the people served. The Trieste story is anti-institutional and models the therapeutic value of social connection. Topics will address contemporary challenges in the American failed mental health system as contrasted with the Italian approach toward accoglienza – or radical hospitality – as the underpinning of their remarkable culture of caring for people. Interviews will touch upon how the guiding principles of the Italian system – social recovery, whole person care, system accountability, and the human right to a purposeful life – are non-negotiable aspects if we are to have any hope of forging a new way forward in our American mental health system. This podcast is curated and hosted by Kerry Morrison, founder and project director of Heart Forward LA (https://www.heartforwardla.org/). Heart Forward is collaborating with Aaron Stern at Verdugo Sound as the technical partner in producing this podcast (https://www.verdugosound.com). Kerry Morrison is also the author of the blog www.accoglienza.us.
Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart
Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons: A Discussion with author Dr. Mary Watkins
Liberation psychologist Dr. Mary Watkins is the co-founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute’s MA/PhD specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies in Santa Barbara. Her 2019 book, Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons, challenges us to come alongside people in relationships grounded in “horizontality, interdependence, and potential mutuality.” Her book explores examples where radical hospitality and intentional community have created communities of resistance and places of recovery for people marginalized by their disabilities or social status. Franco Basaglia’s vision and how it played out in Trieste is explored in her book. She imagines a model of mutual solidarity which has the potential to help us navigate the complex dynamics of a society that is more dis-unified than unified.
Biography:
Mary Watkins, Ph.D., works at the interface between Euro-American depth psychologies and psychologies of liberation from Latin America, Africa, North America, and Asia, promoting peacebuilding and social and environmental justice through the teaching and practicing of critical, dialogical, and participatory approaches. She is chair of the M.A./Ph.D. Depth Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, co-founder and co-chair of its specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies, and founding coordinator of community and ecological fieldwork and research at Pacifica. She is the author of Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons, Waking Dreams, and Invisible Guests: The Development of Imaginal Dialogues, a co-editor of Psychology and the Promotion of Peace, and a participatory research team member of the community education project In the Shadows of Paradise: Testimonies from the Undocumented Immigrant Community in Santa Barbara. She is co-author of Toward Psychologies of Liberation, Talking with Young Children About Adoption, Up Against the Wall: Re-Imagining the U.S.-Mexico Border.
She has worked as a clinical psychologist with adults, children, and families, and has also worked with small and large groups around issues of immigration, peace, alternatives to violence, envisioning the future, diversity, vocation, and social justice. Her present community-based work is with asylum seekers in detention and with prison education initiatives. In 2019 she received the award for Distinguished Theoretical and Philosophical Contributions to Psychology, Society for Philosophical and Theoretical Psychology (Division 24, American Psychological Association).
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