The Positionality Project at the South Southwest MHTTC aims to provide resources for the mental health workforce in Region 6 to understand positionality and how it shapes their work. For mental health providers, it is the hope that such understanding can translate to improved quality of care by identifying social positions impacting relationships, impacts of systems and culture, and providing culturally-responsive care. For researchers and advocates, positionality can help identify limitations of our work and expand representation and inclusion within it. Positionality statements may allow for improved community partnership and solidarity across social positions, as individuals build understanding of their biases, privileges, and insider or outsider status.
I am a white, pansexual woman with living experiences of mental health conditions. My lived experiences have inspired my passion for mental health awareness and advocacy. I believe that positionality in mental health is important because we can use it as a tool to center lived experiences in care and research and advocate for better representation and equity in mental health spheres. I am excited to serve on the Positionality Project as both an author and designer of this project.
As someone who holds a position of relative privilege in the United States–white, able-bodied, middle-class citizen with access to upward mobility through education–I work on analyzing ways that white supremacy culture shapes knowledge and discipline in the US. Although I identify as queer and gender fluid, I am generally able to keep these aspects of myself private until it is safe to share them. I believe an honest reckoning with position and privilege not only creates more just research but fosters humility and solidarity across difference.
I am a white, cis, college-educated woman whose work is strongly influenced by my lived experience of trauma and psychosis. Positionality has been an important means for me to reflect on my own perceptions and privileges, and I believe it has an invaluable role in helping foster more cooperative, collaborative, and person-centred approaches within mental healthcare. Given the impact of solidarity and inclusivity within my personal recovery journey, it has been an honour to collaborate on a project which is seeking to make these frameworks more broadly applicable and accessible across different communities in the future.
My positionality is shaped by experiences of marginalization as a Black woman and the privilege associated with having a PhD. It is through my own family’s experiences and that of being a Black person in the U.S that informs how I navigate life which includes my work. Work focused on shedding light and addressing inequities. But it is the lived experiences and stories from others that are shared with me that provide me with a better understanding.
As a White Cis Woman with a PhD, I am a person with predominantly privileged social positions whose work focuses on individuals who have more marginalized social positions. I am alert to the potential for harm in my doing this work and reflection on my positionality is critical for me to mitigate such potential harms. My family’s multigenerational legacy of trauma motivates a passion for social justice, and positionality has helped me to collaborate across difference and center lived experience and marginalized perspectives to advance equity.
As a trans, muslim, autistic, indigenous palestinian, mental health care, equity, and justice are deeply rooted in my survival. Positionality is a critical and essential framework that supports building equity into every sphere.
