Dr. Ismahan Soukeyna Diop

Short Bio

Dr. Ismahan Soukeyna Diop (Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal) is a clinical psychologist. She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology and leads the graduate program of Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology. Her work on African mythology and storytelling has allowed the development of Tampsy a psychotherapeutic tool using a Decolonial approach to mental healthcare.

In addition to several publications in French in peer-reviewed journals, her contribution of two books (African mythology, femininity, and maternity (2019), Adornment, masquerade and African femininity (2023)) to the collection Panafrican Psychologies of Palgrave Macmillan had a very good reception. Ismahan’s participation in the Global Psychology Alliance of APA has allowed various international partnerships for the Senegalese association of psychologists of which she is a founding member and past president. As the director of an international Publication team, she coordinated the publication of a toolkit on Indigenous psychology aimed at professional psychologists, working in multicultural settings. She is currently leading a team of clinical psychology and psychopathology academics from a francophone network of 10 universities located in 6 African countries for the writing and publication of their course handbooks promoting an interafrican curriculum in clinical psychology.

Selected Publications

• Diop, I. S, (2022). « L’emprise maternelle peut-elle être favorisée par la culture ? (Can culture reinforce maternal enmeshment ?) », Annales de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Études sur l’Homme et la Société (ÉTHOS) no. 52/B 2022, p. 97-110. ISSN: 0850-1254.
• Diop, I. S, (2023). « Pour une pratique décoloniale de la psychothérapie: une approche de la psychologie indigène (For a decolonial practice of psychotherapy: approaching Indigenous psychology) », Annales de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Études sur l’Homme et la Société (ÉTHOS), no53/B 2023, p.247-261. ISSN:0850-1254
•  Diop, I. S, (2018). « La parole dans le processus thérapeutique. (The role of speaking in the psychotherapeutic process) » in: Babacar Mbaye Diop éd. L’esthétique de la parole, Cahiers du Séminaire d’Esthétique (pp. 67-76). Presses Universitaires de Dakar.
• Diop, I S., (2019), « African Mythology, Femininity, and Maternity. » Palgrave Macmillan, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-24662-4
• Diop, I S., (2023), « Adornment, masquerade and African femininity. » Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN: 978-3-031-28747-3

Project Description

During this fellowship, Dr. Ismshan Diop intends to work on two articles for publication, the first one focused on the history of the integration of Indigenous psychology in university educational training from different perspectives and the second on how professionals respond to this tool, how it impacts their transferential reactions and experience as psychologists. I believe that health workers working in European multicultural community settings come across situations where they struggle to understand, and build psychotherapeutic alliance with their clients, because of their lack of training on cultural specificities. Sharing my experience with Tampsy has resulted in requests for training from psychologists working in Germany (Munich), with African women. These psychologists face clients at the intersection of several discriminations, with a unique experience that cannot be understood from the single perspectives of cultural, feminist, or social lenses.

My project for this fellowship promotes diversity in the sense that a decolonial feminist approach gives voice to usually silenced subjects, in the elitist world of science. Searching historical phases of the integration of Indigenous psychology and discussing methodological implications of a psychotherapeutic tool based on African oral tradition, will certainly promote diversity in the scientific knowledge and community.

Including this perspective in psychological research enriches clinical training and practice, because it contributes to reflect people’s realities. In this setting, participants to clinical research are aware of their contribution, and support the development of science for the benefit of all, thus ensuring the integration of gender and cultural diversity in health techniques.