Mental Health and Recovery across International Contexts
Global Insights, Local Realities
How can recovery be understood across different cultures and contexts?
Mental health and recovery are shaped by cultural, social, and institutional contexts. This international symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, and individuals with lived experience to explore diverse perspectives on recovery-oriented mental health care.
Through keynote talks, research insights, and personal narratives, the symposium fosters dialogue, interdisciplinary exchange, and international collaboration to advance mental health research, education, and practice.
Programme
| Time | Session |
| 16:00 | Welcome and introduction Dr. Ramona Hiltensperger |
| 16:10 | The impact of recovery for the transformation of mental health care A perspective from social and transcultural psychiatry Prof. Dr. Iris Tatjana Graef-Calliess |
| 16:30 | Peer research - what is it like to tell your story? Two voices on storytelling, teaching, and lived experience Jakob Kilian & Paul Strübel |
| 16:50 | Mental health across cultures: recovery trough community and nature Insights from the RECOLLECT and REACH research networks Dr. Yasuhiro Kotera |
| 17:10 | Short stretch break |
| 17:20 | Exploring recovery within Egyptian mental health services Insights from professionals. service users, and peer support workers Dr. Nashwa Ibrahim |
| 17:40 | Global Mental Health Perspectives on trauma-informed treatment development and implementation in different settings Parzheen Jabar Mohammad & Prof. Dr. Sarah Wilker |
| 18:00 | Discussion led by PD Dr. Annabel Müller-Stierlin |
| 18:20 | Closing & Networking Reception Chair: Dr. Ramona Hiltensperger |
17 September 2026
International Symposium
16:00 - 19:00 | Multimedia Lecture Hall | N27 | University of Ulm
Register now ➔
About
This symposium is being jointly hosted and organised by the RAIC teaching lab and the UGo! project.
RAIC (Recovery across International Contexts) is a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) teaching lab connecting universities in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Egypt. It integrates international perspectives on global mental health into existing study programmes in medicine and clinical psychology, in cooperation with peer co-educators who contribute lived experience of mental health conditions and recovery.
The UGo! project is Ulm University’s initiative to strengthen international teaching and learning. RAIC is funded through the Global Teaching Labs programme of the UGo! project.
Funded by
Meet the Speakers
Researchers, practitioners and experts contributing to the symposium
Medical Director, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy I, University of Ulm, where she heads the research group for Social and Transcultural Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Her work focuses on unmet needs of minority populations, mental health care for immigrants and refugees, and diversity management.
Research assistant in the Department of Biometry at Ulm University. He contributes his experience in teaching and research alongside his lived experience of mental health conditions, working as a peer co-educator within the RAIC project.
Music artist and founder of the Ulm-based collective Mauerblumen. He brings a creative, lived-experience perspective on storytelling, recovery, and community building as a peer co-educator within the RAIC project.
Associate Professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham, also affiliated with Osaka University and Azerbaijan University. He coordinates the RECOLLECT consortium on Recovery Colleges and leads REACH, connecting researchers across dozens of countries in cross-cultural mental health research.
Associate Professor of Mental Health at Mansoura University and the British University in Egypt, Cairo. Her research centres on psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery for people living with severe, persistent mental health conditions.
Lecturer, psychotherapist, and clinical supervisor in mental health settings in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a focus on trauma-informed care and gender-based violence. She is now pursuing her PhD, researching perinatal mental health in conflict-affected settings.
Professor of Global Mental Health at Ulm University and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on trauma-related mental disorders in the context of war, conflict, and forced displacement, particularly in post-conflict and refugee settings.
Researcher at the Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University. Her work covers expanding community-based, recovery-oriented care and improving somatic care for people with mental health conditions through lifestyle-related interventions such as nutrition.
Psychologist and research associate at the Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University. Her work focuses on implementation science, participatory research approaches, and recovery-oriented psychosocial interventions.