The PhenoLab was set up in 2019 as a series of seminars and lectures that I organised during my post doc period in Freiburg (Germany).
Originally born with the support of Dr. Prisca Bauer (Systemic Research and Psychotherapy Section at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the Freiburg Medical Centre - Germany), from October 2021 the PhenoLab activities have proceeded autonomously under the my scientific responsibility.
Through academic lectures, clinical phenomenology courses, and an international summer school, the PhenoLab aims to develop person-centred approaches to psychological care that recognize mental health challenges as profound existential experiences.
The overarching aim of the lab is to promote and improve the interdisciplinary dialogue between phenomenology and mental health sciences, nourishing the vision of a broader dialogue between philosophy and medicine, with at its centre the person with her constitutive vulnerability as a potential transformative resource in the healing journey.
The intersection of phenomenology and mental health presents a transformative approach to understanding psychological experience that transcends traditional diagnostic frameworks. By employing the phenomenological method of careful, non-reductive description, mental health practitioners can move beyond categorical classifications to explore the lived experience of psychological suffering as a complex, embodied phenomenon.
This approach invites clinicians to engage with patients' subjective experiences not merely as symptoms to be categorized, but as rich, nuanced expressions of existential meaning-making that illuminate the intricate ways individuals experience and construct their psychological reality.
Phenomenological inquiry in mental health creates a dialogical space that respects the patient's unique perceptual world, challenging the biomedical model's tendency to objectify psychological distress and instead recognizing mental health challenges as profound existential experiences deeply embedded in personal, cultural, and relational contexts.
The PhenoLab offers a variety of activities, from academic lectures available also on our YouTube channel to courses in clinical phenomenology, which are mainly focused on the following goals:
- to facilitate the interdisciplinary dialogue between mental health professionals and philosophers at an educational level;
- to build bridges between the phenomenological tradition and the VBP;
- to improve social and clinical practices in the meaning-making process;
- to implement the PPI in research and in education.
From 2024, the PhenoLab organises an International Summer School in Umbria, in June.
From 2022 to 2024 the PhenoLab has been Network Partner with Wellcome Trust Grant “Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology”, University of Birmingham (UK)
From November 2024 the PhenoLab has been officially recognised as an Organisational Partner at The Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care at the St Catherine's College at the University of Oxford.
If you would like to find out more about the PhenoLab activities please visit our blog and website, and feel free to get in touch by email at info@phenolab.academy