Susan Pick

Susan Pick is a Mexican social psychologist and the founder and board president of the Mexican Institute for Family and Population Research (IMIFAP) (commonly known as "Yo quiero Yo puedo"), a Mexican organization that has promoted and facilitated wellbeing for over 21 million people in Mexico and 17 other countries through over 60 education, health and poverty reduction programs. She has her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of London.

For her dissertation, she studied rural Mexico and the way in which social and cultural norms effected decision making and subsequent actions of women there. This research inspired the mission of Yo quiero Yo puedo and led to further investigations into the social barriers that prevent human change and development. Her work is based on three of her teachers and mentors: Robert S. Hartman (theory of value), Martin Fishbein (behavior change) and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen (human capabilities) with whom she studied.

Among the largest funders of the research and programs developed, implemented and evaluated by Pick's group are: Buffet Foundation, European Union, Inter-American Development Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, MacArthur Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Packard Foundation, Population Council, Summit Foundation, Tinker Foundation, United Nations, Bernard van Leer Foundation, World Bank and World Health Organization.

Examples of the impact of Yo quiero Yo puedo programs include:

* Statistically significant reductions in: elementary to secondary school drop-out, number of mistakes in the manufacturing of textiles, acceptance of child marriage, SIDS, unprotected sex among adolescents, acceptance of violence as normative, anxiety levels among recent medical school graduates. * Statistically significant increases in (all in highly marginalized communities): reported frequency and quality of parent/child communications on difficult subjects, use of Pap smears among adult women, personal hygiene, introduction of healthy nutrition practices, use of critical analysis, use of early stimulation with children, exclusive breastfeeding, work satisfaction, use of latrines, boiling of water, washing of vegetables, uptake of vaccines, identification of violent behaviors, and savings practices.

Pick is co-author (with Jenna Sirkin) of ''Breaking the Poverty Cycle: The Human Basis for Sustainable Development'' (Oxford University Press), which details her studies and her subsequent theory for social change, FrEE (Framework for Enabling Empowerment).

The Framework for Enabling Intrinsic Empowerment

FrEE stands for Framework for Enabling Intrinic Empowerment. FrEE makes Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen´s Human Capabilities Approach operative from a psychosocial perspective. The capabilities that lead to changes in behaviors (“Doings” in Sen´s terms) are:

# knowledge (e.g. beliefs and facts regarding nutrition, hygiene, prevention and early detection of health issues, civic education, prevention of school desertion), # cognitive, emotional, and social life skills (e.g. decision making, assertive communication, conflict resolution, empathy, self knowledge, management of emotions, critical thought), and # reduction of psychosocial barriers (e.g. shame, fear, guilt, prejudice, resentment).

Behaviors change in stages (taken from Prochaska and DiClemente´s Theory of Behavior Change), going from precontemplating change to contemplating it, preparing for action, the action itself, and finally the maintenance of change. As behaviors start to take place, the sense of personal agency becomes increasingly enhanced. As this process evolves, so does a change at a more stable level, namely in the person her or himself (Sen´s “Being functionings”). As the person evolves from being a mere subject of change to being more and more an agent of change, the empowerment felt is one that comes from within the person (Intrinsic Empowerment). It is through these stable changes in the person that the context within which the individual lives, gets impacted. And therefore the prevalent social norms undergo a change leading to expanded individual and collective freedoms and capabilities.

Professor Pick has over 400 publications, the most recent one being “Pinta fuera de la raya: La importancia de saber desobedecer” (“Color outside the lines: The importance of knowing how to disobey”).

In 2016, Susan moved into a role as President of the advisory board of Yo quiero Yo puedo. Yo quiero Yo puedo has been responsible for the development of six national programs in Mexico, namely: a) sexuality education and prevention of unwanted pregnancies, b) school based HIV prevention, c) training and ethics for first through third grade of secondary school, d) breast feeding and early stimulation, d) nutrition of the 300,000 poorest homes, e) prevention of school based violence, and f) quality of care provided by recent graduates from the public medical schools.

Most recently, Professor Pick has been involved in the study of psychedelic psychotherapies and the difference they make to many mental health issues. Her focus is coaching for the establishment of an intention before a psychedelic trip and follow up integration thereafter. Provided by Wikipedia