About Us
We believe mental health professionals are ‘hard to reach’, not communities
Why we exist
Evidence shows that mental health and wellbeing support is not accessible for many children, young people, families and communities.
Consequently needs often go unmet, leaving people vulnerable.
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Traditional mental health services meet the needs of some people but are often not flexible enough to meet the specific and complex needs of those who are marginalised, stigmatised and excluded
For good reason these communities often have difficult relationships with help and negative experiences with our current systems; where whiteness prevails, the evidence base for interventions is Eurocentric, mental health trainings are underpinned by theories that are rooted in slavery and colonialism, and racial trauma is pathologized
These services may have long waiting lists, be in areas where people feel unsafe, staffed by professionals with limited understanding of their cultural contexts and worlds, have rigid appointment times, and are bureaucratic
Marginalised, stigmatised and excluded communities are often left feeling judged, uncomfortable, unsure who they can trust, and further harm is caused as a result of our existing systems and services that are often trauma-inducting, rather than trauma-informed
As a result people often don’t engage and services lose resources.
Communities have long felt the effects of these discriminations
What we do is different
“I knew that mental health and wellbeing services needed to look different, and so I started by doing something different.”
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“I started my career as a Youth Worker, before training as a Child, Adolescent, and Family Psychodynamic Psychotherapist. The intention for embarking on clinical training was to better support the people I was working with in the community. However the further along this route I travelled, the further I distanced myself from the people I’d sought to help in the first place. I found myself in clinics and working for organisations that had little flex, where attendance rates were low, and Black and Brown young people in particular were not engaging. I knew this couldn’t be it.
I started connecting and aligning more with community psychology approaches, which seemed to combine my youth work beginnings, with my clinical training, and my passion for equity, social and racial justice, and systems change. However putting the values behind this approach in to practice was difficult whilst working inside the system, my ideas and suggestions often weren’t heard and I was constantly reminded of my Psychotherapeutic boundaries when I tried to do something different. Being person of colour in such big, well established institutions where whiteness prevailed was tough.
I was still being asked by people from the communities I’d worked alongside if I could help out, and I missed being on the frontline. But it was the comments of three young people I used to work with that really stuck with me, I bumped in to them in the community and told them about the spaces I was now working: one said “you wouldn’t catch me in dem places”, another said “I thought you’d always be in the community”, and the other asked for my help… but I couldn’t think of a way he could access me or mental health support quickly.
At this point I knew that mental health and wellbeing services needed to look different, and so I started by doing something different. I set up Partisan.”
The Team
We are a diverse, culturally sensitive, forward thinking team of experienced Psychotherapists and Clinical Psychologists.
We are best known for our work on the borders of traditional mental health systems; alongside children, young people, families, and communities.
Our vision is a future world where help systems centre marginalised and racialised communities, and where power, knowledge and resources are shared as part of a more connected, just and equitable world.
This means unlearning that the current colonial and capitalist systems are fit for purpose, and relearning how to act, live and be.