Robyn Thomas

Experience

• 

  Collingwood Management

  Jan 2010 - Jan 2013

  Actor

  Film, TV, Commercial and Theatre http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4101003/

• 

  Freelance

  May 2012 - now

  Filmmaker

  Directed and co-produced a short documentary about an aspiring boxer recovering from psychosis, produced for Telus Optik TV. Selected videography/ film clients include APTN, Royal Roads University, Ecosummer Expeditions and BC Parks, and numerous independent film productions. IMDb credits can be viewed here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4101003/

• 

  Ecosummer Expeditions

  Jul 2012 - Sept 2015

  Videographer, Assistant Guide

  Assistant kayak guide on a pristine beach on the Johnstone Strait. Helped take care of the clients who come from all over the world to be immersed in nature and have close encounters with whales. Also filmed and edited promotional videos for the company.

• 

  Royal Roads and UBC

  Jan 2013 - Jan 2013

  Assistant Teacher

  Assisting students in several different courses including a First Nations film topics course at UBC and a continuing education film workshop at Royal Roads University with video production and post-production. This included answering questions, teaching students about equipment, leading a class film collaboration, and helping students with story editing dilemmas.

• 

  My Yoga Online

  Jan 2013 - Jan 2014

  Camera Operator and Video Editor

  Part of a team in charge of filming yoga and lifestyle shoots both in studio and on location. Also edited videos that featured the personal journeys of selected yogis, took photographs for the company website, interviewed instructors, and travelled to yoga festivals to film events.

• 

  Department of Fisheries and Oceans

  Dec 2015 - Jul 2016

  Contractor

  Creating videos and marketing materials specifically for the Beach Observer App which promotes citizen science

• 

  Realfoto

  Jan 2016 - Jan 2018

  Photographer

  Real estate photography and editing.

• 

  Stigma Free Society

  Nov 2017 - Jul 2019

  Community Development Manager

  Leading and managing the Society's programming here on Vancouver Island. Presenting to schools and community organizations/ businesses about mental health, mental illness and the importance of breaking down stigma. Working with community partners to build Stigma-Free Zones and co-create stigma reducing initiatives. Facilitating and growing the Society's Teens2Twenties support group for youth living with mental health challenges.

• 

  Victoria Women's Transition House

  Jul 2019 - Jul 2020

  Development Manager
• 

  The University of Edinburgh

  Sept 2022 - now

  PHD Researcher

  I'm funded by the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. My research brings together anthropology, mad studies, lived experience inclusion and leadership and ethnographic film to better understand how psychosis or altered states are understood and experienced. I'm interested in therapeutic communities, consensual and compassionate alternatives to the psychiatric model, cross-cultural frameworks for understanding distress and the importance of meaning-making. Most importantly, my work centres the voices and insights of those who have experienced what we call psychosis. So far I've published with the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, Psyche Magazine and Mad In America. Show less