Bio — Long

Laurie Irelind, an RN specializing in cardiology, was working as a nurse ​educator ​ ​at a large teaching hospital before becoming disabled due to the adverse...

Matt Stevenson is a formerly psychotic American man. After suffering through and recovering from severe psychosis, he now works a normal job and is...

Dr. Liat Ben-Moshe is an Assistant Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Toledo. She is currently working on a manuscript examining the...

David Guttman is a father, an entrepreneur and a crossfitter. He is also a voracious reader, a world traveler and president of First Stop...

Ronda Richardson is an artist and peer support worker from Canada. She wants to see reforms within smaller communities and rural areas, including more...

Dr Sarah Carr is Associate Professor of Mental Health Research, Middlesex University London and also runs her own mental health and social care knowledge...

Jen Constantine is a psychiatric system survivor, mental health advocate, wife, and mom. Jen grew up in the Black Hills of rural South Dakota....

Nesrin Shaheen is a director and founding president of the Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis Foundation in Canada. Her daughter was the first positively identified case...

Catherine Clarke is a former nurse (SRN), midwife (SCM) and chiropodist (MSSCH MBChA.) Following her son’s violent propulsion into the mental health system, she...

Beatrice Birch began her career as a teacher in an inner-city Waldorf/Rudolf Steiner School in Bristol, England in 1975.  Deeply inspired by the healing...

Aimee Inomata, PhD, is a writer, researcher and reformed academic who uses her training in philosophy and literature to critically analyze the underlying rhetoric...

Reid Bertino is a 30 year old man with a long history with the mental health system. From start to finish, the mental health...

Stephen LaCorte is an attorney in Texas who has worked in the oil and gas industry.  He was harmed by benzodiazepines after being negligently...

Dr. Ken Blatt trained at a time psychiatry was steeped in a humanistic, philosophic and social/relational tradition. Ken believes that over the course of...

The Wrong Profession? Amy Beausang is a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) and certified health coach. She’s also a wife, mom, and group fitness instructor. After...

Dr. Christopher Gordon is a board member of the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care and Medical Director and Senior Vice President for...

Hearing Voices, Living Fully Claire Bien, M.Ed., is a writer and grant writer at The Connection. She is also a voice hearer and formed the Hearing...

Otto Douglas is a York University graduate whose psychiatric incarceration opened his eyes to a previously unknown world — a world in which human...

MIA-UMB NEWS TEAM Marta E. Pagán-Ortiz is a doctoral student and research assistant in the Counseling and School Psychology PhD program at UMass Boston. Prior...

MIA-UMB NEWS TEAM Peter Simons comes from a background in the humanities. Before earning a graduate degree in psychology, he studied English, philosophy, and art....

MIA-UMB NEWS TEAM Akansha Vaswani is a therapist and a researcher with a particular interest in the lived experiences of people’s lives. Her early history...

MIA-UMB NEWS TEAM Shannon Peters is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston and has a master’s degree in mental health counseling. Shannon...

Merry Citoli is an award-winning singer/songwriter and screenplay writer whose life went into a downward spiral after being put on lorazepam for insomnia and...

David Baksh,  co-director and cinematographer for Yoghurt Utopia, has had a diverse directing career, which spans broadcast TV, commercials, event visuals and award-winning digital ad campaigns,  making...

Anna Thomson, co-director/producer of the Yoghurt Utopia documentary, is a director of documentaries and drama-docs who has worked for Discovery, Nat Geo, History Channel, BBC, Sky Arts and...