ABSTRACT
The dominant approach to mental health challenges for a very long time has been a biomedical perspective which assumes that the problems lie primarily, if not exclusively, in defects of brain chemistry. However, there is now a growing body of literature that strongly challenges the validity and appropriateness of such an approach. This chapter presents the HEART framework as a way of pulling together different aspects of this critique. HEART stands for Holistic, Emotion focused, Alienation aware, Reconsidering our assumptions, and Trauma and loss informed. It is argued that the HEART framework offers a more adequate way of understanding the relationship between mental health and resilience than a narrow biomedical model can.
