Lessons from Kenya: Therapy as a rejuvenating revitalizing experience
- Victorya Lunde
- Jan 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 18
"Think about making mental health, especially therapy, move away from this isolating, lonely, one-on-one experience to a more social rejuvenating revitalizing experience" -Tom Osborn, founder of Shamiri
Victorya Lunde
Head of Communications & Global Partnerships
The popular perspective on therapy and mental health today is that the illness lives inside of us as individuals, a foundation for the medical model to have the solutions, treating us as a container of our struggles. A perfect starting point to build a business fueled by medication, a hierarchical power structure of help and receiver of care, where the top of the pyramid is an institution revoking your rights by law in the name of care. But is mental health existing inside us or between us?
Shamiri Health has a mission to bridge the gap of accessibility and affordability in mental health care in Africa. They have provided care to over 4000 youths from East Africa, as well as many Kenyans living abroad.
“Mental health was ”introduced” to Kenya as part of the colonial enterprise. They give people labels, labels that are foreign to them. The consequences of this is that you are taken to an asylum, where your civil liberties are revoked.
It actually makes sense that when you are thinking about mental health from that perspective, it is stigmatized." - Tom Osborn
If we look to the original definition of psychology, it springs out of the Greek word psyche meaning soul, spirit, or breath. Giving it the definition "the study of the soul". Soul being a community and universal connection based word to the Greeks, closer linked to philosophy than medicine. This perspective was shifted through the 18th century towards “the study of the mind”, where some European stakeholders drew it closer to medicine. Becoming the foundation of which today's popular perspective on mental health was built on in Europe, and later the United States. Often challenged from within, like during the transformative era led by Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, focusing on deinstitutionalization which saw mental health hospitals being abolished in 1978 in Italy, but that was blocked elsewhere.
The original definition resonates across time, from powerful civilisations across the African continent, Asia, and South America to the indigenous perspectives across the world. Civilisations that all have traces of a community based notion of soul health, that saw humans as a component of a connected larger whole. Often referring to how we processed and faced natural disasters, illness, grief, faith, and experiences of “another world”, all concepts seen through the lens of community. Something impacting beyond the body through the connection of souls in families, communities and the universe. Especially in descriptions of solutions and ways of facing such challenges and experiences, where solutions derived from nature, if medicine and from the community if social concepts like care, love and support.
Tom named the organization Shamiri meaning "thrive", where their mission sees mental health through the lens of community. To build a world where young people can thrive by creating new mental health care solutions that are more rooted in a social rejuvenating revitalizing experience. In a world where humans grow further apart, disconnected and distracted into an ever growing experience of loneliness, where symptoms of depression and anxiety are rising among youth across the globe, can bringing community back help them and us to connect?
“I do think that a lot of the solutions from mental health will come from the south”
- Tom Osborn
1:1 Therapy
Individual therapy sessions with a professional in-house therapist. The sessions take place at our clinic in Applewood Adams on Ngong Road or virtually via phone call or virtual meeting link based on the client’s preference.
Group Workshops
The in-house therapists and trainers host wellness workshops. These workshops are available for companies, university students, community groups, etc., and are tailored to the group's needs. Topics range from psychoeducation to more specific areas such as grief and anxiety management.
Digital Therapeutic Support
Their wellness app, Rafi (short for Rafiki), is an app that ensures a smooth and streamlined therapy journey. Clients can book and manage therapy sessions and monitor and track their mood.
Learn more: www.shamiri.co
Thank you to Eddah, Moses, Pauline, Esther, Catherine and Joseph for sharing their lived experiences with us.
The interviews are published in the www.thehumanaspect.com as well as integrated in Shamiri Health's services.
The collaboration was supported by
Investing in innovative solutions to empower the inner health of emerging adults and strengthen diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in society.