The effort to have the clinical needs of people living with deep emotional pain taken seriously has resulted in increased awareness about depression and other mental illness. At the same time, those efforts have privileged a medicalized approach to intervention and have ignored other perspectives, including transpersonal, feminine-honoring and transcultural ones.

   

By collecting the stories of women who find ways to thrive in the presence of great sadness, I hope to present depression in a cultural and spiritual context. While the ways it manifests itself can be debilitating, deep emotional suffering need not exclusively be labeled as disordered, but can be held as an opportunity for transformation.

  

In this framework, depression is a signal from the psyche to turn inward and engage in a process that is valuable, healing work.

Organic inquiry, the research method I am using to explore this topic, begins with the researcher’s own story, as topics suited for this method are most times highly personal. If you would like to know more about this research method,this work, or are interested in sharing your own story, please write to me.