What if mental health and distress isn’t a personal failing, a broken brain, or something to be “fixed” inside an individual?
What if distress is produced; shaped by bodies, environments, and systems that don’t fit?
In this video, I introduce the Ecosystemic Model of Distress, a way of understanding wellbeing that moves beyond diagnosis, pathology, and blame. This model looks at distress as something that emerges across three interconnected levels, rather than something that lives solely inside a person.
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We explore:
Level 1: The Bodymind- sensory processing, energy, trauma, health, and how the nervous system meets the world
Level 2: The Immediate Environment- sensory spaces, relationships, expectations, routines, and daily demands
Level 3: Systems & Power- institutions, policies, services, and the wider structures that shape access, safety, and autonomy
This framework is especially relevant for Autistic and neurodivergent people, but it applies far beyond diagnosis. It helps explain burnout, crisis, mental health distress, and why so many people are harmed by systems that claim to support them.
If you’ve ever felt like the problem was bigger than you; you’re probably right.
This video is about shifting the question from
“What’s wrong with you?”
to
“What’s happening around you — and to you?”
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