From the Margins to the Centre: Reframing Mental Health Through a Community Lens

From the Margins to the Centre: Reframing Mental Health Through a Community Lens with Alberta SinaniAlberta Sinani is a Kosovo-born artist and community psychologist based in Austria. Her work explores themes of migration, intergenerational resilience, and liberation practices within communities. As a Fulbright Student in the U.S., she has focused on immigrant youth mental health and civic engagement—work that inherently demands generational healing as a first step toward sustainable peacebuilding. With a background in political science and social design, Alberta bridges academia, activism, and art to create transformative spaces for collective healing and agency, grounded in cross-communal solidarity.Community psychology is a branch of psychology that looks beyond the individual to understand how wider social, economic, and cultural factors shape people's lives. It focuses on collective wellbeing, social justice, and empowering communities to address the root causes of inequality- such as poverty, discrimination, and marginalisation.In this episode, I am joined by Alberta Sinani, who shares her insights into how community psychology engages with these communities-not to impose solutions, but to work with them, recognising their strengths and supporting grassroots efforts to create meaningful change.Intro music: North-Albanian InstrumentalInterlude: Defatoret Shamikuqet - 'Potpuri'.