It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and this week we’re highlighting people and organisations doing brilliant things in the field of mental health, from spreading knowledge and acceptance of mental health conditions, to providing mental health care to those in crisis, and sharing strategies and tips on how to cope with everything from social anxiety to intrusive thoughts.
Micheline Maalouf | @micheline.maalouf
Micheline Maalouf is a psychotherapist and mental health educator who shares her wisdom along with tips and tricks to help support mental health on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. From sharing the genius strategies she uses to deal with panic attacks in public places, to discussing dissociation and depression, she uses her platform to highlight just how common it is to struggle with mental health.
Ally Salama & EMPWR | @allysalama | @empwr.house
Ally Salama’s first foray into public mental health awareness was through a Facebook page he launched in 2016. ‘Break The Silence’, an anonymous space where Egyptians could share what they were going through, quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers. Today Salama has been listed on Forbes Middle East ‘30 Under 30’ and is known as a mental health ambassador in the Middle East thanks to his mental health focused platform EMPWR. EMPWR is an online magazine with articles covering everything from the stigma surrounding mental illness in the Middle East and coping with eating disorders during Ramadan, to grief and toxic masculinity.
Embrace | @embrace_lebanon
Based in Lebanon, Embrace aims to improve mental health and access to mental healthcare through advocacy, outreach, clinical training programmes and public support services. Embrace runs a 24/7 mental health support hotline called the Lifeline, as well as a Mental Health Centre in Beirut and the Embrace Online Clinic for Lebanese and other Arabic-speaking individuals living in the diaspora.
The LightHouse | @LightHouseDXB
The Lighthouse is a Dubai-based organisation working to improve mental health and mental health awareness in the UAE. As well as their mental health clinic and online therapy services, they run a range of online workshops and support groups. These include mental health first aid courses as well as free online support groups covering everything from coping with grief or the end of a relationship, to mental health for those with ASD / Aspergers, and a support group called ‘Relating Through Race’ which focuses on managing personal and collective racial trauma and ways to combat race-related stress.
HH Sayyida Basma Al Said | @basmaalsaidofficial
A clinical counsellor and hypnotist with a special focus on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, HH Sayyida Basma Al Said founded the first dedicated mental health clinic in Oman in 2012. She champions creative ways of improving mental health, including art therapy. Her clinic has also started an anti-childhood bullying group called Young Minds, and oversees @notaloneoman, an initiative to raise awareness of mental health issues across the Sultanate.
Dr. Essam Daoud & Humanity Crew | @dr.essamdaod | @humanitycrew
Through his work as a child psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr. Essam Daoud became keenly aware of the mental health crisis facing refugees in Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. With his wife, Maria Jammal, he founded Humanity Crew, an incredible organisation which aims to prevent displaced children suffering from trauma-related mental health conditions. Humanity Crew provides emergency psychological interventions and mental health and cultural mediation training programmes for humanitarian aid workers, healthcare workers, and volunteers. You can watch his TED Talk here.
LebMASH | @lebmashorg
LebMASH is an organisation which focuses on LGBTQ+ physical, sexual and mental health in Lebanon. They are working to increase understanding of LGBTQ+ issues within the healthcare system in Lebanon, providing focused mental health training for healthcare professionals in collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Do you know of any other incredible people or organisations working on mental health in the Middle East? Leave a comment below and let us know so we can share their work!
As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re running a fundraiser through the Pink Jinn Souq! Throughout May, we’re donating 10% of proceeds from our fragrance range to Mind, a UK-based mental health charity which provides mental health advice and support, as well as campaigning to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.
We’ve chosen our fragrance range for the fundraiser as we love the natural power of scent to uplift or calm our mood, a power which has been celebrated and harnessed in the Middle East for millennia.
The products included in the fundraiser are our Evelyn Naón perfumes and heavenly natural bakhoor, and of course our Omani frankincense – which has historically been widely used as a natural remedy for stress, anxiety and depression, as well as in spiritual practices to connect people to the divine.
Head to the Pink Jinn Souq to see our fragrance range and support Mind while you shop! We even ship worldwide.