iHeartPodcasts
iHeartPodcasts
From Benches to Breakthroughs: A New Approach to Mental Health with Dixon Chibanda
From Benches to Breakthroughs: A New Approach to Mental Health with Dixon Chibanda
From Benches to Breakthroughs: A New Approach to Mental Health with Dixon Chibanda
Friday 23rd May 2025
Explore how Dixon Chibanda's Friendship Bench uses storytelling and empathy to revolutionise mental health care.
55 minutes
Inspiring
Hopeful
Compassionate
Supportive
Authentic
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Categories:
Mindfulness & Emotional Wellbeing
Spiritual & Personal Growth Journeys
Mindful Recovery
Entrepreneurship for Personal Growth
Sexual Empowerment & Identity
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Get the buttons here!Healing on a Bench: Dixon Chibanda's Radical Mental Health Revolution
Episode Overview
- Storytelling and empathy can be more effective than medication.
- Community grandmothers trained in therapy offer accessible care.
- Labels can hinder mental health recovery; focus on stories instead.
- Hope is a more accurate measure of success than symptom checklists.
- Cultural wisdom combined with clinical science can transform therapy.
"The names we ascribe to things can make or break those things".
In this episode of 'The One You Feed', Dr. Dixon Chibanda shares a groundbreaking approach to mental health that blends clinical science with ancestral wisdom. The Friendship Bench, a project born from tragedy, sees grandmothers in Zimbabwe trained to offer life-changing therapy from wooden benches. These community healers use storytelling and radical empathy to tackle daily-life problems, often with more success than traditional medication-first methods. Dr.
Chibanda reflects on the power of human connection and how labels can sometimes hinder healing. He emphasises the importance of hope over symptom checklists and reveals how the grandmothers he trained ended up transforming him. Host Eric Zimmer brings his own experiences to the table, having overcome homelessness and addiction, creating a compelling dialogue about feeding the 'good wolf' within us.
With light humour and deep empathy, the episode explores how mental health care can be more accessible and effective when rooted in community and culture. It's a powerful reminder that sometimes the simplest solutions are the most profound. Will you let your story be part of this healing journey?