Wellbeing and the Ethical Sellout | Dr. Inge Hansen | Palo Alto, CA

In this two-part discussion, Dr. Hansen and I talk about shifts in mental health approaches and offer suggestions to help reframe the subtle yet strategic outcomes. In the beginning portion of our discussion, Dr. Hansen wears her hat as the director of the Stanford’s Well-being Initiative and speaks on her perspective of the ‘pillars of well-being’. She elaborates on her experience by introducing 8 main pillars of wellbeing that focus to offer an approach of holistic care to students and staff. These pillars include, Eat, Connect, Sex, Sleep, Money, Feel, Seek, and Move. As times have changed, so have mental health tactics. When it comes to the discourses around mental health, there seems to be a global shift from a disease-based model to a more holistic, accepting, and integrated model. We used to believe that the absence of disease meant wellness and now we are reframing our lens to look into a person’s overall sense of wellbeing. With this in mind, Dr. Hansen brings her realistic and practical tips to help us look at creating balance amongst all these factors. In the second half of our conversation, Dr. Hansen shifts gears and wears her hat as the co-author of The Ethical Sellout. Through this perspective she guides us to make sense of what may seem as some rather impossible decisions that we have to make in our daily lives. With this frame of reference, Dr. Hansen provides a structure to help us maintain our integrity in the age of compromise.

Dr. Inge Hansen is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of Well-Being at Stanford University. She is also the co-founder and Director of the Weiland Health Initiative, which is dedicated to promoting mental health and wellness across all genders and sexualities. This initiative has generated a variety of innovative clinical and educational programs at Stanford and beyond.  Dr. Hansen is also a co-founder of Gender-Inclusive Stanford, a campus-wide initiative dedicated to improving the campus environment for trans and non-binary students. Dr. Hansen has developed several new academic courses in the realm of gender and sexualities, including Challenging Sex & Gender Dichotomies in Medicine, Human Sexual Diversity and Health, and Transgender Studies.  She is a popular speaker and consultant on diversity and inclusion topics. Last spring she was the inaugural winner of the Christine Griffith Award for Student Well-Being. For four years she has had the honor of co-organizing and hosting North America’s World Sexual Health Day together with Dr. Sara Nazzerzadeh. Dr. Hansen’s book, The Ethical Sellout, co-authored with Lily Zheng, was released in October 2019