The project

The laboratory aims to develop pathways of research, teaching and clinical activity, and psychosocial intervention within a perspective of critical analysis of human rights, focusing on social injustice and structural inequality and their impact on people’s mental health and well-being, on both the national and international territory. Specifically, our laboratory aims to promote academic and clinical activities in the fields of clinical psychology, health, and diversity. Minority groups and discriminated indigenous groups are the privilege – but not exclusive – subjects of our attention and clinical and psychosocial interventions: migrants, displaced people and refugees, ethnic and religious minorities, LGBTIQ+ groups, marginalized groups from the metropolitan peripheries, over-exploited workers in sectors of social production and reproduction, and women and children victims of violence, exploitation and trafficking.

Through different perspectives, from ethno-psychology and critical ethno-psychiatry, socio- constructivist models, to theoretical and clinical paths on political violence and victims of torture, the activity of our laboratory aims to build opportunities and projects for exchange, discussion, debate, training, and intervention in the field. More specifically, among the activities, the laboratory will focus on: the processes of global migration and the consequent health care policies in Europe; countries affected by armed conflicts and political violence and the health care practices adopted in these contexts; the psychological care pathways analyzed through the lenses of gender studies and queer studies; the state of psychological and general health in contexts of social and economic inequalities and consistent violations of human rights.

The methodological approach adopted within the different activities will be participatory and co- constructed research methods: in a permanent and inseparable relationship between theory and practice, research, teaching and clinical and community activities and interventions will be build working collaboratively with participants in co-constructed research process. The areas of work on which our efforts will be focused are divided into three main areas closely interconnected to each other: research, training, and clinical/consulting activities. The laboratory pays particular attention to fieldwork in at-risk areas – such as in contexts of low-intensity conflict and military occupation – where the mental health of the professionals involved in emergency missions might be compromised.