Brenda Froyen

Brenda Froyen has studied Germanic Philology. For several years she worked as a teacher of Dutch didactics at the Teacher training college. After the birth of her third son she suffered from a post partum psychosis, followed by a severe depression. She was admitted to different psychiatric hospitals. Despite her very traumatic expericiences, Brenda recovered well and went back to work. About her psychosis and treatment she wrote the novel ‘Kortsluiting in mijn hoofd’ (Short circuit in my brain – 2014). It was a very critical book, questioning the overmedicalisation, the use of coercive measures and the absence of family supported treatments in Belgian mental health care. In 2016 Brenda’s second book ‘Uitgedokterd’ was published in which she interviewed several caretakers, family members, peers and described alternative treatments in order to strive for a more humanic psychiatric care.  Brenda is spokesperson for the Flemish patient organisation UilenSpiegel and is regarded as a key role player in rethinking mental health care in Belgium.