Relationships and Mental Health

Zoë Boden-Stuart (née Boden) is Lecturer in Critical and Psychosocial Mental Health at The Open University. She is also a psychotherapist in private practice. Her research focuses on relational experience in the context of mental health.Michael Larkin is Reader in Psychology at Aston University, a founding member of Aston’s Phenomenology of Health and Relationships (PHaR) group, and an experienced researcher in mental health.

• 1: Introduction: Why relationships matter for mental health.- 2: Conceptual Foundations: Relational thinking for mental health contexts.- 3: Clinical Foundations: A brief history of relational practice.- 4: Family relatedness for Māori survivors of familial childhood sexual abuse.- 5: Relational contexts as causal and curative pathways in recurrent suicidal distress and repeated police Mental Health Act (Section 136) detention.- 6: Working through relational trauma: An exploration of narratives of lived experiences of trauma and recovery.- 7: Understanding the value base that supports the development of peer support relationships.- 8: Exploring family experiences and relationship dynamics where one member experiences psychosis: “We’ve Been On That Journey Together”.- 9: Relatedness and connectedness over time: How young people make sense of their relationships during their recovery from first-episode  psychosis.- 10: Hunger trauma, relational care, and emergency food support.- 11: Implicating the institution: Who is responsible for sexuality-related silence in mental health settings?- 12: Romance in the context of psychosis: A risky business or are mental health services just risk averse?- 13: “You don’t even get a hug”: Sexuality and relational security in secure mental healthcare.- 14: The Development of a Relational Practice Movement.- 15: Concluding thoughts: Relational hopes, relational realities.