‘‘Rhizomes’ and how they are different to trees! — A community psychology approach’

19.06.2020: For this week’s Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) blog for Centrepoint, I have given over my usual space as PIE Lead to the other members of the PIE Team, who have recently joined the organisation. I have taken great pleasure in welcoming Dr Natalie Seymour and Dr Louise Peters, both Clinical Psychologists to the team over the past few months, to support the development and delivery of the PIE within Centrepoint. This is a very exciting time and we have many plans for the future, particularly how we can continue to co-produce psychologically informed approaches to enhance the work that Centrepoint undertakes with homeless young people in London, Bradford, Barnsley, Manchester and Sunderland.

Moreover, I have personally had many interesting, reflective and challenging conversations with them in our PIE supervision meetings, and it was as a result of these discussions, that they have kindly jointly written this week’s PIE blog with the wonderfully intriguing title of ‘Rhizomes — and how they are different to trees!’ Read on to find out more….

‘Don’t worry, we aren’t about to give a lesson in horticulture! Maybe you are wondering why Centrepoint’s two new Clinical Psychologists, Lou and Natalie, are talking about Rhizomes? What is a Rhizome and what has it got to do with psychology? We explain more below, but if you would prefer, these videos are a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_yikwW15o / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2rJWwXilw. We are using this as a metaphor to talk a bit more about a community approach to psychology, share some of our ideas and pose some questions to get us all thinking!

A ‘rhizome’ is a root, like ginger. In contrast to a tree, which has a central root system and trunk, from which its branches grow, a rhizome has no central system and is instead an underground mass of roots that lots of other plants are connected to. Other examples are bamboo and a wide variety of weeds. Therefore, in this instance, the ‘rhizome’ represents ‘interconnectivity’. It is about a process, like reading a map, rather than a beginning and end. This is different to a tree because a tree is a hierarchical structure from a central root and trunk system. Historically, society’s structures have been built on this basis, more a tree than a rhizome but this blog seeks to make suggestions and share ideas about ways to do things differently.

So how might we apply this to the way we think and act? Writing in the Clinical Psychology Forum in 2019, Emma Santhouse proposed “that we [as a profession of Clinical Psychologists] widen our aperture of analysis beyond clinical problems to psychological processes as they occur in our experience of living as evolved relational beings in ever-changing societies on this fragile planet”. Furthermore, she noted “we need to start taking ourselves and our responsibility towards the societies we live in seriously”.

Community Psychology approaches therefore attempt to address this point by emphasising a community-level of analysis, and focuses making changes to the material and social contributors to distress — ‘Inequalities’, which include poverty, patriarchy and racism. One of the ways community psychology works is by acknowledging that inequality effects everyone and that key indicators of psychologically healthy societies are agency, security, connection, meaning and trust (c.f. Psychologists Against Austerity: http://www.psychchange.org/psychologists-against-austerity.html). In the same way that community psychology focuses on the importance of processes to achieve social change, we can seek justice by creating a ‘Rhizome’ to strengthen the ways we are all connected.

Here are some ideas and ways this can be achieved:

1. A values-based approach to distribution of power (This video is may be useful in considering this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT2TQGFWcko).

2. Participation in, and a bottom-up approach to, decision-making or leadership.

3. Collective action.

4. Ensuring that change is sustainable, by reducing distress and improving wellbeing.

5. Early intervention and prevention, before the need for specialist services emerge.

6. Making change accessible to all and empowering from within — upskilling and enabling of others within communities.

The ambition of community psychology is therefore to be truly transformational. It is not just about offering support when difficulties have already been identified nor is it just about supporting specific professionals and organisations. It requires community-led identification of challenges, and community-led creation of solutions. To take part and make an impact we must all increase our awareness of the conditions necessary to support wellbeing, as well as increase our understanding of the context of distress, and then move toward increasing levels of support in this context. However, it is equally as vital that communities are given the opportunities and support to identify their needs and develop the right solutions. One example of this in Centrepoint, which we are looking to develop is the People Strategy, wherein we are focusing on co-producing with staff meaningful support and interventions to develop their sense of well-being and inclusion. Another example is the newly forming Black, Asian and Ethnic Minorities (BAME) working group, both of which we hope will utilise these key community psychology principles in their development and delivery in the future.

To reflect further on these community psychology principles, we thought we would share some relevant and interesting quotes with readers of this blog, to see what you think? Maybe they could even be used to prompt reflection with your colleagues, or with the homeless young people we are supporting within the organisation?

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society” — Krishanmurti

“When thousands and even millions of people experience essentially identical problems, defining these problems as ‘individual’ oversimplifies to the point of absurdity” — Prilleltensky & Fox

“When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower” -Alexander Den Heijer

“If you’ve come to help me you’re wasting your time. But if you’ve come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together” — Australian Aboriginal Social Worker, Lilla Watson

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty” — Anonymous

Mental Health is often explained through an individual, illness or medical model, such that you go to an expert for help. Through these quotes, and thinking about the connectivity of a ‘rhizome’ structure in this blog, we prefer to consider the issue of mental health through a social and economic inequalities lens, thereby suggesting that we all have a role to play. Consequently, we need to acknowledge that everyone has expertise and knowledge in their own experience and find ways to share power with those who are most affected by inequality, rather than asserting ‘power over’ by situating the problem just within them as individuals.

Finally, we acknowledge that we are new to this community within Centrepoint, and therefore we as a PIE Team are here to listen and to learn from our colleagues and the homeless young people that we work with. We would love to discuss this community network idea with you further and better understand how this could work in practice. For example, how can we join the wider interconnectivity or ‘rhizome’ in Centrepoint, that ensures that the Centrepoint PIE approach is meaningful, effective and most of all useful for all its constituent parts? Perhaps this blog has prompted some ideas, or has reminded you of the community networks you have already created in your services? Maybe there are opportunities to include young people in the community too? Consequently, we would love to hear from you about how we can work together in the future, so please do get in touch and we look forward to continuing our PIE journey with you within Centrepoint…