Renowned scholar and social worker, Matt Jackman, joins Rooted Recovery Stories Podcast with Patrick Custer this week to discuss their complex and victorious journey growing up in the Australian foster care system, processing gender dysphoria and sexuality while grappling with trauma and identity and becoming an international mental health advocate with their organization TACFLE (The Australian Centre for Lived Experience).

Matt Jackman is a nonbinary queer person from Melbourne, Australia who opened the doors regarding mental health labeling and treatment. Growing up in the Foster Care system, they dealt with harsh struggles and traumas that come with abusive parental figures and a suicidal mother.

Matt was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder but does not label themselves with those terms. Matt works to challenge the biological and medical model in mental health, speaking on topics about the monetization and the medical model seeking to blame individuals for their own diagnoses. Instead of labeling themselves as mentally ill. They travel the world as a consultant to The World Health Organization educating others on the overmedicalization of the LGBTQIA+ community and the need for social justice reform to address this issue. Matt identifies as mad, a powerful label and movement that represents empowerment and self-liberty to diagnosed individuals.