GlowingPainsPsych

From the Ashes of what remains,
I turn my ache into GlowingPains

I am a life-long learner, continuously researching living a life of adversity with intersectional identities. A life-long experimentalist who tries to find variables and methods best suited for turning challenges into channels for growth. Growth comes with growing pains. Growing pains can be illuminating. After being burnt to the ground, our ashes can hold ember. It takes just one spark to glow a flame. A flame deserving of fostering and funnelling. The birth of GlowingPainsPsych would not have been possible without the debris. The fragments in the wind gather into a dance with vision. Just like us, when we come together, they are stronger, more fierce as a collective.

I am a lyricist, a singer, a creative. Officially, I am an Applied Social Psychologist, doing what I can, as a minoritized person, to make spaces more inclusive to voices often neglected, often under-heard. My methods are not unidimensional, and neither am I. So I will work on fostering and funnelling the flame, imperfectly, yet passionately, through different means. Sometimes through authoring, researching, or teaching. At times consulting. And at times through writing songs. But always, always, through persevering (even when it does not feel like it…).

If you are here for content that is relatable to you as someone who is weathering the storm of adversity with intersectional identities and often feel you are at the margin of borders, then welcome, my friend. If you are here as an ally with a loved one in mind or just love on your mind, rather than exclusion for the sake of hanging on to privilege (which we all have to some extent), then I am so glad to have you here. In both cases, I hope that the creative expression page for stories related to adversity, grief, and lived experience, as well as the blog posts that combine lived experience, professional insight, and research will be helpful to you in your journey. If you are here as a leader of an organization or a cause, looking to start or continue a journey of openness and inclusivity, then you are also at the right place. Let’s collaborate.

Read more about me and what I do here.

[email protected]

Blogs & Research/Evaluation Projects

When silence becomes the loudest oppressor, sharing one’s voice becomes the only antidote. Research is one of the ways I share voices. Research to me includes learning from first-hand lived experience.

Research is a deeply personal act. It is the parts of me that for most of my life have been denied voice and coated in shame that have propelled me towards doing what I do. Growing up as a refugee kid separated from my parents, being targeted for looking and acting “different” due to a variety of intersectional identities has given me a unique perspective. So I use my voice in many different ways to share what I have learned and to share also what I still have to learn. I share through blogs, as well as audio-visual content. Please see my blogs here for a variety of content related to adversity, grief, oppression, but also resilience and hope.

For the past 12 years, having had the privilege to have worked with individuals, communities, and organizations on how to turn stigmatization and bereavement into resilience and empowerment has taught me a few things along the way, too.

See my work here and let’s collaborate if this resonates with you.

Click here for research projects

Click here for blog posts

Arts Based/Creative Expression

Creativity is another way in which I share voice. I have found in the alliance between creative expression, critical thinking and questioning lies a platform that honours my multifaceted nature, and my work will be reflective of that.

I create from the standpoint of someone with the lived experience of identity-based stigma and marginalization. Through lived experience and my professional background as a psychologist, researcher, and educator, my creative and evidence-based approach is one that embraces key parts of me holistically.

I am a singer/song-writer, creative writer, author and poet. However, I also like to employ visual arts or videography for story-telling. Here, I use this space to shed light on experiences of adversity, but also resilience and hope to offer inspiration for both people with lived experience, as well as allies.

Click here for creative expression pieces