Aiman

I’m a psychologist by day and a sociologist by night, constantly trying to tie the loose ends of the two disciplines together. I trained in psychology first, but it wasn’t giving me the whole story behind people’s suffering — why some of us are plagued by mental health difficulties and others are not. Sociology answered those questions, when I began to learn how much a person’s identity and social location shapes the experiences they have with their own mind.

As a therapist, I take the lead from my clients. Everyone is the expert of their own life and already holds the potential to be the fullest version of themselves. Working from a trauma-focused, queer- and neurodivergent-affirmative approach, and with a non-discriminatory lens, our alliance becomes a place to understand ourselves more deeply and to address and break out of harmful patterns.

Being queer and neurodivergent myself is part of what lets me hold this work safely for people with similar experiences. I’m able to recognise those lived realities, and also to see clearly how discrimination and prejudice shape a person’s mental health. It’s a large part of why my approach is non-pathological — I fully account for the imperialist and colonial structures, the DSM among them, that decide what gets called disorder.

My areas of interest are feminist theory and research, social justice, discrimination, mental justice, and the ways oppressive structures influence our mental health.