Mental Health Champions: Why & How Dr Stuart Shanker Of The MEHRIT Centre Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness
An Interview With Michelle Tennant Nicholson
Reframe behaviour, distinguishing between misbehaviour and stress-behaviour; laziness and limbic braking; psychological trait and arousal state.
As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Stuart Shanker.
Stuart Shanker is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Psychology at York University. He is the Founder and Visionary of The MEHRIT Centre, and author of the Self-Reg trilogy Calm, Alert and Learning (2012), Self-Reg (2016) and Reframed (2020).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in Toronto and was educated at Oxford University (BA, B Phil and D Phil). After I came back to Canada to teach at York University, I ran the Milton and Ethel Research Initiative, a state-of-the-art research facility staffed by therapists, psychologists, and neuroscientists. We primarily treated children with autism, working with their parents on the children’s self-regulation, and then studying the impact on their brains. MEHRI was the basis for the creation of The MEHRIT Centre, an educational organization that works on enhancing children’s mental health throughout Canada and around the world.
You are currently leading an initiative that is helping to promote mental wellness. Can you tell us a bit more specifically about what you are trying to address?
There has been an explosion of mental health problems, starting prior to COVID and made considerably worse by the pandemic. We are seeing a surge of mental health problems in all ages: children, teens, adults and the elderly. Our institute is concerned with three primary issues:
- The high levels of stress, not just emotional, but physical, social, cognitive and prosocial.
- The growth of maladaptive modes of self-regulation.
- The decline of healthy modes of self-regulation, which arrest the stress-response and promote mental health.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
I was the President of the Council of Early Child Development in Canada. In that capacity I worked with parents, educators and therapists across Canada and around the world. I was alarmed by the explosion of mental health problems and determined to share what we had learned at MEHRI with as many people as possible. That was the dream of our founder, Milt Harris, and I have worked very hard over the years to turn that dream into a reality.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
In my case, it was a 12-year-old child who had been labelled a “bad” kid because of his constant meltdowns and violent outbursts. But what I saw was a child whose sub-cortex was dysregulated because of all the different stresses he was under. What he needed above all else was soothing, and then, to learn how to self-regulate in healthy ways. When his parents and teachers began doing Self-Reg with him they saw a completely different kid. Some time after this I gave a lecture entitled “There is no such thing as a bad kid” that was picked up by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Before I knew it The MEHRIT Centre had been born and we’ve been helping kids, their parents and educators ever since.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
I had just given a long lecture and a woman came running up to me to tell me that her kids were doing great on Self-Reg, but the one who had benefitted the most was she herself. She had been dieting her entire life and beating herself up for her “lack of self-control.” But Self-Reg is all about the difference between self-regulation and self-control, and why over-eating is a stress-behaviour and not due to a lack of willpower. We had an Institute shortly after this and on Day 1 I asked all the attendees — parents, educators, therapists and administrators — how many of them shared a similar story. I was astonished: every single hand went up! Not just about dieting, but struggling with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, loneliness. On that day TMC became a listening and not just a teaching organization.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
I could not agree more. I was mentored by Stanley Greenspan. There is simply no way I could have done any of this work without him. But then there is our ED, Dr. Susan Hopkins. Same thing. All of our staff. Ditto. Susan’s daughter Siena came up with the name “Self-Reggers” for all of our followers (she was 8 at the time). Her too. There are now many thousands of Self-Reggers across Canada and around the world. Are they “cheerleaders” or “mentors”? I don’t know.
According to Mental Health America’s report, over 44 million Americans have a mental health condition. Yet there’s still a stigma about mental illness. Can you share a few reasons you think this is so?
I talk a lot about this issue in my last book, Reframed (chapter 9). The reasons ultimately go back to the ancient Greeks and their influence on early Christian thinking. But the biggest influence on us is today the persistence of the Victorian mindset. The Victorians regarded mental illness as a character weakness. To this day, there is a feeling that we need to conceal mental illness — whether or own or that of a family member — for fear of social opprobrium. But the revolution occurring in neuroscience has completely overthrown this way of thinking. We have learned so much about how excessive stress, coupled with maladaptive modes of self-regulation, causes the homeostatic imbalances that lead to or exacerbate mental illness. But most important of all is the lack of those caring interactions and treatment that turn off the stress-response and help the individual on the road to restoration.
In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?
The focus of our organization is on the mental health needs of children and teens. Everyone needs to learn that mental illness is not a weakness. Neuroscience has made the most extraordinary advances over the past few decades in our understanding of the biological and environmental causes of mental illness and the things we can do to nurture mental health. As individuals, we need to learn how these neuroscientific advances relate to our own mental health needs and those of our loved ones, friends, neighbours and strangers. As a society, we need to do everything we can to learn about and teach Self-Reg, starting with young children and parents. And the government needs to support all those organizations that your magazine interviews, so that they can reach and touch the lives of everyone.
What are your 5 strategies you use to promote your own well-being and mental wellness? Can you please give a story or example for each?
As it happens, there are five steps in the Self-Reg model that perfectly answer your question:
- Reframe behaviour, distinguishing between misbehaviour and stress-behaviour; laziness and limbic braking; psychological trait and arousal state.
- Recognize the stressors (biological, emotion, cognitive, social & prosocial).
- Reduce the stressors and the stress-response.
- Reflect: enhancing Calmness, Embodied awareness, Listening and self-Reflection (CLEAR).
- Restore: energy, social connections, emotional balance, positive outlook.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?
I am inspired by therapists whose work is grounded in neuroscience. For example, Alan Fogel, Body Sense and Restorative Embodiment and Resilience. Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven, The Archaelogy of Mind; Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score.
If you could tell other people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Everyone needs to learn that there is no such thing as a bad, lazy, or stupid kid.
How can our readers follow you online?
Readers can download all sorts of free information at www.self-reg.ca
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Inspired by the father of PR, Edward Bernays (who was also Sigmund Freud’s nephew), Michelle Tennant Nicholson researches marketing, mental injury, and what it takes for optimal human development. An award-winning writer and publicist, she’s seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Michelle co-founded WasabiPublicity.com.
