Team

Christian Schulz-Quach is a psychiatrist and existential psychoanalyst whose work concerns the parts of clinical life that do not resolve. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a scholar at the Wilson Centre and The Institute for Education Research (TIER), and Medical Director of Workplace Violence Prevention at University Health Network (UHN). Across these roles the question is consistent: what allows clinicians and patients to go on making sense of illness, harm, and mortality when the situation itself cannot be corrected.

He trained in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, holds specialist qualifications in psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, and consultation-liaison psychiatry, and is certified in medical psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and gender, sex, and relationship diversity (GSRD) therapy. He maintains a Toronto and Berlin practice in existential-phenomenological psychotherapy, supervises residents and early-career therapists, and serves as psychotherapy site coordinator for postgraduate medical education at UHN. He is completing a doctorate in psychoanalysis at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis through a single-case heuristic inquiry.

His systems work has been built in settings where existential pressure is ordinary rather than exceptional. He is Medical Director of the Sexual and Gender Diversity in Cancer Care Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, serves Ontario Health as Quality Lead for Mental Health Services in Psychosocial Oncology, and co-leads the #MutualRespect workplace violence prevention program at UHN. He has received several awards and recognitions for his work, in palliative medicine, psychosocial oncology, health professions education, and quality and safety.

He also works outside the journal article. Documentary and narrative projects on queer aging, endings, and caregiving are a continuous part of his scholarship. He writes in German and English. existentials:LAB grew out of conversations he kept having with colleagues in several countries, and he understands his role as building a platform for the positive belonging of an existential collective: a place where scholars, clinicians, artists, and people with lived experience can think together about finitude and meaning without having to arrive at agreement.

Sara Rashighi is a health and systems designer and researcher whose practice explores complex human experiences through participatory research, design, and public engagement. Her work spans mental and emotional well-being, workplace violence prevention, end of life, loss, and life transitions, with a particular interest in existential questions of life, death, and meaning.

She holds a Master of Design in Design for Health from OCAD University and a certificate in Analytical Psychology from the C.G. Jung Institute, and is currently training in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Her work has been recognised with the Medal of Design and Research and the President's Award from OCAD University. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded RavanNiush, a digital mental health platform serving Farsi-speaking communities worldwide. She currently serves as Quality Lead for Workplace Violence Prevention at the University Health Network (UHN), leading initiatives that bring together research, design, and organizational change.

She has been a member of the Dying. collective since 2023, co-curated four consecutive editions of the Dying.series as part of the DesignTO Festival, and served as Project Manager for the 2026 edition — leading the delivery of an exhibition featuring international artists and designers and a two-day hybrid global symposium.

Her practice translates inquiry into published findings, tangible artifacts, and public experiences, creating pathways for research to move beyond academia and into practice.