Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her)

DCounPsy| Complex Trauma, Neurodiversity, Harmful Behaviour & Intersectionality. Systemic approach in the community. Enabling service delivery @GMMH_NHS

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

We got there eventually @DrTerryHanley Thank you for not giving up! 🍾🙏🏼😀

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

At @letsfacechange conference 2024. Race, Intersectionality and Healthcare.
Legislative theatre, spoken word, percussion & reflective interactions.
Some good learning. @GMMH_NHS

[Panos Vostanis @pv11Panos]

Addressing secondary trauma requires systemic interventions https://t.co/0tMBdqh7ER

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

@shinieantony @shinieantony Aye Aye! x

[Sara @SaraxAmber]

At 16yo, my psychiatrist asked what career i wanted, I said a mental health nurse, he laughed& said i wldnt achieve this because i would “spend the rest of my life in/out of hospital”
Well, i did it ✌🏼
Dont put patients in boxes, we can achieve anything we want if supported well.

[Dr. Nicole LePera @Theholisticpsyc]

THIS IS GOING VIRAL SO I WANTED TO SHARE IT HERE TOO:

A bit from my past:

My first job after getting my PhD was working as a therapist for people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Almost all of them were diagnosed with depression, GAD, bipolar, or BPD. Most were highly medicated— some to a point that still sticks with me years later.

As I got to know their background and lives 3 things were very clear:

1. A vast majority had been emotionally neglected, emotionally abused, or physically abused as children.

2. A vast majority had experienced domestic violence or were currently living in it.

3. Basic needs were never met. Life was an hour by hour struggle. Treatment was an attempt to allow them to get to work in most cases. To just continue to surviving.

It was the start of me questioning the field I had been trained in. One that diagnoses people with disorders without taking a look at the whole picture. It began my path of holistic understanding.

A person cannot be well when one unexpected bill will have them fall behind on rent. When they lay their head on a pillow and all they can think about is expenses piling up. When a bill at the grocery store is almost double what they paid last year when their income has stayed the same.

An entire family unit deeply struggles within survival mode. When a job is lost. When daycare needs to be paid, but so does the light bill— what do you choose? When parents can’t even think about the emotional needs of their children because they have to figure out where their next meal is going to come from.

In 1942, 10 years before the diagnostic manual of mental illness was released Maslow knew what was once just common sense: we have a hierarchy of needs.

At the bottom are basic needs food and shelter. Then safety (resources, security). Then belonging (connection, friendship, intimacy.) Without three things we *will* be sick, period.

I get pushback for questioning the status quo. And I’ll continue to do it. The status quo is keeping people sick. It denies their experience. And it says we should bandage people’s symptoms so they can return to the environment that made them sick.

May we wake up, heal ourselves, and build conscious communities to help each other.

Retweet if you feel this is true in your body 🙏

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

Communicating distress doesn’t always have to verbal. 👇🏼

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

🖤

[Nate Postlethwait @nate_postlethwt]

It wasn’t just people pleasing to please people. It was survival to keep unpredictable behavior away. The fear of not being able to make someone happy isn’t about their happiness but how they use power in harmful and unexpected ways.

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

This 👇🏼

[Juliet Young (she/her) @Juliet_Young1]

If we can look beyond the all too often devastating consequences of addiction to the underlying need, then we have a road map for prevention, problem solving and recovery...

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

@247Compassion 💔💔

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

And then they are diagnosed with ‘EUPD’. Do you know how many young women get misdiagnosed/over diagnosed due to struggling with emotional regulation & complex relational needs? Emotionally unstable - Personality disorder, that is what are labelling a human with. 💔

[DCoP @dcopuk]

Many members have voiced mixed feeling about NHS England Long Term Workforce Plan. Great to see commitment to fund mental health & psychology, but again failure to recognise contribution of Counselling Psychologists. We have contacted Chief Exec at NHS England on your behalf.

[CityLife Manchester @CityLifeManc]

Manchester's historic Little Italy parade fills the streets with colour.

https://t.co/uIKpvqeu02

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

What a brilliant read! :)

[Mick Cooper @mickcooper77]

Paying homage to a higher authority is pretty much the polar opposite of a therapeutic understanding of good mental health #Coronation #kingcharles https://t.co/D23tE90u0B

[The Psychology mum @EmmaNeuropsych]

And day 10 of an advent for your mind

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

@drjanaway Working with parts rather than the whole, working with the inner child and developing a formulation collaboratively through lenses of trauma, social justice and intersectionality. These are helpful while working with someone with complex needs rather than using labels.

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

@drjanaway Though the definition of trauma has been evolving for the past couple of years, the system has long way to go in being understanding the metal health needs of an individual through lens of trauma.

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

@drjanaway Though the definition of trauma has been evolving for the past couple of years, the system has long way to go in being understanding the metal health needs of an individual through lens of trauma.

[Dr Malaika Fernandes (She/her) @MalaikaFernand7]

@drjanaway PD/ EUPD seem to be labels given to service users to fit the professional needs, the whole social care/funding system is based on labelling- the more complex your diagnosis the more funding you get towards your care.