Nonprofit Quarterly: Prof. Belkin Martinez & Liberation Health Model Cited as Solution to Modern Therapy Methods
Many biomedical therapy methods don’t emphasize how to address systemic inequities that affect mental health. The liberation health model, co-founded by Prof. Dawn Belkin Martinez from BU School of Social Work, shows practitioners how mental health care can be reimagined by emphasizing the interconnectedness of mental health with larger issues like racism, poverty, and discrimination. A Nonprofit Quarterly article recently illustrated how this model promotes community-based solutions, culturally responsive care, and addresses structural barriers to ensure better mental health support.
Excerpt from “It’s Not in Your Mind: Addressing Mental Health Through a Social Justice Lens” by Megan McGee:
When Osheroff was in school, he realized that he wanted to focus not just on the individual and psychology of the inside of the brain but also on the context. In his studies, he became aware of the liberation health model, a framework defined by one of its founders, Dawn Belkin Martinez, as ‘a theory of human behavior that conceptualizes the problems of individuals and families that cannot be understood in isolation from the economic, political, cultural, and historical conditions which give rise to them.’ The objective of the approach is to help people identify factors that have contributed to their distress and change them by engaging in social justice work.
Belkin Martinez, a clinical professor at the Boston University School of Social Work, developed the model over 20 years ago along with some of her social work colleagues at Boston Children’s Hospital, drawing on both Brazilian educator Paolo Freire’s theory of popular education; and liberation psychology, conceived by Spanish/Salvadoran psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró. These practitioners later formed the Boston Liberation Health Group.”
Learn More About Prof. Belkin Martinez’s Research