Emotional Literacy for Better Mental Health | Shahana Alibhai | TEDxAbbotsford
Shahana Alibhai reimagines treating youth suffering from mental health. While intertwining her story of vulnerability, Sharing the concept of emotional literacy and how this knowledge can lead to understanding connection and hope. Medicine was never the plan for Dr. Shahana Alibhai. She discovered her passion at age 15 when she went to her first fitness class. She became a BCRPA certified fitness instructor at age 17. Coupled with her love for cooking, by the age of 16, Dr. Shahana had also appeared on a number of cooking shows, demonstrating her ability to create innovative nutritious meals that highlighted her cultural background.
With the determination that an integrative approach to medicine is truly the future, Dr. Shahana went on to complete her undergraduate degree in Kinesiology followed by her medical degree. She completed a 2-year residency in Family Medicine which took her back home to Abbotsford BC.
Now as a family physician and the mother of two young boys, Shahana is a staff physician at a Youth Health Clinic where she works with youth between the ages of 12-24. She was a member of the UBC Family Medicine Residency Faculty for the last 3 years, has served on the BC College of Family Physicians Board and works as an accreditor for the National College of Family Physicians. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
26 Comments
I was lucky enough to get some mental health support when I was a teen, but it was unfortunately kind of ineffective- this approach sounds a lot better.
It's interesting to think about emotions in this way, like that some people just have a higher emotional literacy, in the same way that people just "get" mathematics or language…
What an eye opening talk Shahana. I had never considered food as an escape, a punishment or a painkiller on reflection I can see how this is true for me too.
How gratifying to hear that young people who have experienced adversity are showing empathy and want to help others.
As the Bible says "Physicians heal thyself". Appropriate in Shahana's case.
I had no idea 50% of mental health issues start at 14. The pressure of puberty is enormous so it's not surprising.
The burden on our mental health programs would be considerably less if children were taught emotional literacy alongside their usual subjects.
One in five Canadians suffer with a mental illness. What a sobering statistic especially when the health care system is one of the best in the world.
After listening to Shahana who makes so much sense, I've decided to make peace with food and look for what good it brings to my health.
It took me intensive therapy to be able to even identify my emotions – who knew we had that many we could feel in a day! Understanding is the first step! Thank you Shahana.
My peers and I were parented by post WWII people and were taught to touqhen up and get on with the job regardless of your state of mind. Safe to say our emotional literacy can only improve from there.
So sad that Shahana suffered from post natal depression for over a year before she realised it…..and she's a doctor.
I like the idea that it's possible to learn how to regulate our emotions.
It's pretty obvious to me how beneficial it would be to understand and manage our emotional state but unfortunately there are still people out there who would prefer to just shut themselves down to avoid hurt instead trying to understand and grow.
This is so needed right now, our young men in particular are in total crisis concerning their mental health
Emotional literacy is crucial for mental health and wellbeing!!! It's so lame that learning about it isn't encouraged in school or anywhere else really, you just have to seek it out for yourself and a lot of the time for people who are already depressed it's just another task they don't have the energy for
Anything that helps teach people about self-awareness and self-regulation should be encouraged.
I wish I had found advice like this when I was younger instead of just developing a druq habit as a coping mechanism 😅
I can't imagine what it must be like as new mother, going from being a pregnant woman, spending the better part of a year preparing and being seen as this special miracle for growing another human and then after the fact… you've served your purpose. It's all about the baby now. Not hard to understand how PND happens.
This sounds so wonderful Shahana and a really great way of building relationships between our youth
Unfortunately some people feel things so strongly that it can be very overwhelming and scary. This can actually be kind of dangerous, particularly for young people who haven't been taught how to identify those feelings or how to manage them.
I wish there had been more discussion around this when I was growing up, and education around how to express your emotions healthily.
Honestly I was in my late twenties before I even started to hear phrases like "emotional intelligence" or "emotional literacy" there is still so much educating to be done
In this talk I have realised why older generations get resentful of younger generations – its because as we see the younger ones having access to these types of support that we did not, we cannot help but wonder what difference it would have made. A big difference I assume, and that's why we need to start pushing these types of practices for future generatons.
Shahana is an angel. Not many are willing to do this hard work
This will always be difficult because different people experience their emotions at different levels of intensity, and I don't know that changing this is something that could be taught?