William MacPherson is a mental health advocate and activist who currently works as a peer support worker, and also has a position with the Salt Spring Mental Wellness Initiative, which he co-facilitates and is the coordinator for a series of Summits. He is the president of the Chu’an Society, an Arts Society focused on advocacy for marginalized community members. He built his community-building skillset through affiliation with hip-hop company King of the Dot Entertainment. He managed their Vancouver division, setting up and co-hosting rap battles, and managing their shows. He enjoys rapping and singing for the healing benefits of self-expression, with a focus on freestyle, a practice that helps him enter wu wei (flow states).
William MacPherson believes the responsibility for mental illness needs to primarily fall to communities and not allopathic medical systems. While diagnoses have utility, too often people feel reduced to their diagnosis. Do not confuse the map with the territory. The map is the diagnosis, which interprets a person’s experience through the lens of pathology. The territory is the universality of human experience refracted through the unique prism of the individual.
Mental wellness is relational. It’s how we relate to ourselves, our family, our community, and our planet. It’s about building equity in our communities. It comes from inclusivity, creating spaces where we can realize our value is intrinsic and does not come from what we can produce or contribute. It is enhanced by human-to-human mutual support, not the hierarchical delineation of helper and helpee. Our mental health crises will begin to improve once we realize that the reductionist and holistic approaches to wellness are not in opposition, but synergistic.
