How your mental health lived experience can heal others | Pheobe Ho | TEDxUWA

Although many individuals experience mental illnesses, they often do not seek professional help due to reasons of perceived judgment or inability to relate personally to a therapist. Using her lived experience of anorexia and bulimia, Pheobe explores how one can turn their mental health lived experience of challenge and hardship into a tool for inspiring others to heal, and how the universality of experiences can facilitate one’s mental health recovery. Pheobe Ho is an Honours student studying Psychology at The University of Western Australia. Largely driven by her personal experiences of anorexia and bulimia, she is a passionate mental health advocate and avid mental health lived experience speaker, having spoken at local and national levels. Pheobe currently works with Headspace Australia and is also a clinic receptionist at Western Australia’s only eating disorder outpatient clinic, and a research assistant at the UWA School of Psychological Science, evaluating a universal eating disorder risk reduction program. Determined to encourage others to be their best in her role as the UWA Student Guild Welfare Officer, Pheobe has been involved in training mental health lived experience speakers in safe, purposeful ways. She has expanded welfare initiatives and organised platforms encouraging open mental health conversations, in hopes to reduce mental health stigma. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx