John Larsen
John is head of the Rethink Research Department and is leading the evaluation strategy for Rethink services. He has a background as an anthropologist and has for more than 10 years conducted research in mental health, developing innovative ways of working together with people with lived experiences of mental illness in co-construction of knowledge and seeking to facilitate recovery-oriented service improvement. John is a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey.
Areas of expertise
- Service evaluation and practice development
- Mental health recovery and identity theory
- Existential phenomenology and meaning-making
- Qualitative methodology (ethnography, in-depth interview, focus group, thematic and interpretive analysis)
- Participative methods (action research, collaboration with service users, practitioners and managers)
Current projects
Selected publications
Larsen, J.A. (2007) ‘Symbolic healing of early psychosis: Psychoeducation and sociocultural processes of recovery’, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 31: 283-306.
Larsen, J.A. (2007) ‘Understanding a complex intervention: Person-centred ethnography in early psychosis’, Journal of Mental Health 16(3): 333-345.
Larsen, J.A. (2007) ’Embodiment of discrimination and overseas nurses’ career progression’, Journal of Clinical Nursing 16: 2187-2195.
Larsen, J.A. (2005) ‘Becoming mentally ill: Existential crisis and the social negotiation of identity’, In V. Steffen, R. Jenkins, and H. Jessen (eds.) Managing uncertainty: Ethnographic studies of illness, risk and the struggle for control, pp. 197-223. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Larsen, J.A. (2004) ‘,Finding meaning in first episode psychosis: Experience, agency, and the cultural repertoire’ Medical Anthropology Quarterly 18(4): 447-471.
Larsen, J.A., K. Acott, B. Birtwell, T. Dorey, A. Steele and M. Volante (2007) Clinical engagement and risk assessment: Acute mental health services practice development project University of Surrey and Sussex Partnership NHS Trust.
Larsen, J.A., K. Acott and S. Hudson (2008) Improving Inpatient Care: The Therapeutic Engagement of Nurses on Acute Mental Health Wards University of Surrey.
