Diana Kopua's guest appearances

Diana Kopua

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

NUKU

Kelly Brogan

Zach Bush

Johann Hari

Will Davies

Darcia Narvaez

Lucy Johnstone

David Healy

Jessica Taylor

Peter Breggin

Nicole Beurkens

Jodi Aman

David Cohen

Peter Sterling

Laura Delano

Chris Hansen

OwlTail

Dr Diana Kopua (Ngāti Porou) is a psychiatrist that is changing the system by preferencing Indigenous approaches to orangatanga. As the developer of Mahi a Atua, she uses Māori creation stories and pūrākau to transform mental health frameworks, providing an affirmation of our amazing genealogy and validation for our resilience. Dr Di is teaching communities of practice an alternative to the Western model, using a culturally sensitive new therapy to address mental distress and suffering amongst Māori. In this episode we talk about her upbringing, her career journey, and how her approach to health is smashing white supremacy.

Dr Diana Kopua (Ngāti Porou) is a psychiatrist that is changing the system by preferencing Indigenous approaches to orangatanga. As the developer of Mahi a Atua, she uses Māori creation stories and pūrākau to transform mental health frameworks, providing an affirmation of our amazing genealogy and validation for our resilience. Dr Di is teaching communities of practice an alternative to the Western model, using a culturally sensitive new therapy to address mental distress and suffering amongst Māori. In this episode we talk about her upbringing, her career journey, and how her approach to health is smashing white supremacy.

//034 Dr Diana Kopua

MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Diana Kopua about the Mahi a Atua approach, the global mental health movement, and the importance of language and narratives in how we understand our world and ease our suffering. Diana Kopua’s life resembles the stories she uses in her work. From a psychiatric community nurse to the head of the department of psychiatry for Hauora Tairawhiti in Gisborne, New Zealand, her 13-year long, arduous journey is both deeply personal and profoundly political. Kopua says she did this to “become a wedge that kept the door open to allow for indigenous leaders” in her world to change the system. One may call her a storyteller, but a story-gatherer might be more appropriate. As a psychiatrist, Kopua deals in human distress but her interest does not lie in neat psychiatric classifications; instead, she focuses on understanding suffering through Maori creation stories, Purakau. She has developed  Mahi a Atua, “an engagement, an assessment, and an intervention” to address the mental distress and suffering among the Maori of New Zealand. Mahi a Atua is not just a set of techniques or a culturally sensitive new therapy, but a drastically different way of conceptualizing the lived experience of the Maori. Recently, along with art and culture expert Mark Kopua and critical psychiatrist Pat Bracken, she published a paper on this approach in Transcultural Psychiatry. Their work can be seen as an alternative to Western pharmaco-therapeutic interventions currently being promoted throughout the global South via the global mental health movement. Researchers have critiqued the exporting of Western psychiatric practices, often citing the famous  WHO study that reported better outcomes for people diagnosed with mental disorders in the developing world. As the only Ngati Porou (a Maori nation) psychiatrist in the world, working with a population known for poor mental health outcomes, Kopua’s work offers insight into what can be learned from local, Indigenous, and traditional healing methods. There are many now calling for a “paradigm shift” in Western psychiatry, and in our interview, we covered topics ranging from the specifics of the Mahi a Atua approach, the global mental health movement, and the importance of language and narratives in how we understand our world and ease our suffering. © Mad in America 2019

MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Diana Kopua about the Mahi a Atua approach, the global mental health movement, and the importance of language and narratives in how we understand our world and ease our suffering. Diana Kopua’s life resembles the stories she uses in her work. From a psychiatric community nurse to the head of the department of psychiatry for Hauora Tairawhiti in Gisborne, New Zealand, her 13-year long, arduous journey is both deeply personal and profoundly political. Kopua says she did this to “become a wedge that kept the door open to allow for indigenous leaders” in her world to change the system. One may call her a storyteller, but a story-gatherer might be more appropriate. As a psychiatrist, Kopua deals in human distress but her interest does not lie in neat psychiatric classifications; instead, she focuses on understanding suffering through Maori creation stories, Purakau. She has developed <a href="https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/05/maori-approach-mental-health-offers-empowering-alternative-western-psychiatry/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Mahi a Atua,</a> “an engagement, an assessment, and an intervention” to address the mental distress and suffering among the Maori of New Zealand. Mahi a Atua is not just a set of techniques or a culturally sensitive new therapy, but a drastically different way of conceptualizing the lived experience of the Maori. Recently, along with art and culture expert Mark Kopua and critical psychiatrist Pat Bracken, she published a paper on this approach in Transcultural Psychiatry. Their work can be seen as an alternative to Western pharmaco-therapeutic interventions currently being promoted throughout the global South via the <a href="https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/09/globalmentalhealth/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">global mental health movement</a>. Researchers have critiqued the exporting of Western psychiatric practices, often citing the famous <a href="https://www.madinamerica.com/2010/05/%EF%BB%BFa-schizophrenia-mystery-solved/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> WHO study</a> that reported better outcomes for people diagnosed with mental disorders in the developing world. As the only Ngati Porou (a Maori nation) psychiatrist in the world, working with a population known for poor mental health outcomes, Kopua’s work offers insight into what can be learned from local, Indigenous, and traditional healing methods. There are many now calling for a “paradigm shift” in Western psychiatry, and in our interview, we covered topics ranging from the specifics of the Mahi a Atua approach, the global mental health movement, and the importance of language and narratives in how we understand our world and ease our suffering. © Mad in America 2019

Diana Kopua - Learning a Different Way