The Kultivate Story
When facilitating training I often say the medical model has failed disabled people. I know this not from textbooks, but from my own skin. The scars on my leg and psyche tell this story.
For most of my life, like so many other disabled people, I have been fighting to get appropriate healthcare. I went through a full 18 operations before my 17th birthday, to which I consented to none. I’m here to change the way we think about healthcare for disabled people.
I founded Kultivate to provide wellbeing support and education that is based on disability justice, and uses an anti-oppression approach. This means we prioritise our clients experiences, needs and goals. It also means working to unlearn our biases and relearn in order to work in a way that tackles discrimination and biases in our systems.
I can’t promise to always get it right, but I guarantee I will continue to learn and improve every day.
Working alongside fellow disabled adults on their mental health and overall wellbeing is a privilege and my passion. It is my small way of helping disabled people live their best life.
When I was a kid I had often thought that I was the only one who felt like I did - different, excluded, sad about not fitting in. Now I get to be there for other disabled people, be a part of a disabled community and practise my allyship as a psychologist. Every. Single. Day.
That’s why I have launched Kultivate. Kultivate’s purpose is to provide wellbeing, equity and inclusion support and education that is lived-experience based and rooted in disability justice and an anti-oppression approach.
This means in Kultivate, we centre the voices and experiences of disabled and multiple marginalised people. All my clients are the experts in their life and body, and I’m here to help.
My hope is that Kultivate will become the place any person who wants to Kultivate wellbeing, inclusion, and equity can go to. Kultivate will be the place where disabled people are safe because their voices, goals, and needs are our top priority. We honour that because disabled safety and wellbeing, and equitable healthcare is something everybody deserves.
If you are a disabled person seeking support for your social and emotional wellbeing, mental health support, or peer and creative support, please reach out to us. We currently offer psychological therapy and peer support and education groups. If there is something you’re after and we don’t yet offer it, please also let us know. We aim to grow to meet your needs.
If you are a professional working with disabled people, check out our online educational content, and our training and workshops we can tailor to your organisation’s needs.
With gratitude to the disability community, my friends and family, who have helped me get here.
Liel Bridgford
Psychologist, Writer, Educator
Kultivate Founder & Director
