About FITAHI
Founded in 2004, FITAHI has spent two decades developing the frameworks and clinical practices that allow individuals and institutions to engage with human functioning at the level of rigor it deserves.
“We began with a simple dissatisfaction: the feeling that the most important questions about human beings were being answered with the least rigor.”
— Dr. Amara Wanjiru, 2004
Our Origin
FITAHI was established in 2004 following a decade of clinical work in acute psychiatry and two years of framework research. The founding insight was both clinical and institutional: the gap between what was known about human psychological functioning and what was applied in everyday care wasn't just large — it was structurally reproduced by the systems meant to close it.
What began as a small clinical practice quickly grew a parallel research arm focused on framework development, asking one direct question: what would it look like to describe human functioning with the same rigor medicine applies to physiological functioning?
The psychiatry practice remains at the center of everything — where frameworks are stress-tested against clinical reality, and where the founding commitment to the patient, in their full complexity, is renewed every day.
Clinical Philosophy
Symptoms are surface events. Our clinical method begins with a comprehensive understanding of the person — their history, relational patterns, and the contexts in which they live and work. Diagnosis follows understanding; it does not replace it.
Human suffering is irreducibly complex. Our clinicians are trained to hold that complexity — resisting the pressure to simplify, medicate, or discharge before the full picture has emerged.
No single theoretical tradition has a monopoly on clinical truth. We draw from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, systemic, and biological traditions with rigorous selectivity, guided by evidence and presentation.
Clinical intuition is necessary but not sufficient. We embed systematic outcome measurement into every engagement, using validated instruments alongside qualitative assessment to monitor progress with precision.
Frameworks for Human Functioning
FITAHI's frameworks are formal instruments — each with a defined construct, validated measurement approach, and clinical utility guidelines, used by our clinicians and, under license, by partner institutions.
A structural assessment of how an individual organizes cognitive processing under demand, novelty, and uncertainty — complementing, not replacing, IQ measurement.
Applications — Diagnostic assessment, high-demand occupational contexts, educational planning
Maps the architecture of emotional processing and regulation, distinguishing trait regulatory capacity from state regulatory failure.
Applications — Mood disorders, trauma sequelae, relational dysfunction, occupational mental health
Integrates attachment theory and social cognition research into a validated assessment of dyadic and group relational functioning.
Applications — Personality disorders, couples assessment, team effectiveness consulting
Leadership & Faculty
Selected not only for clinical excellence but for intellectual seriousness — the capacity to hold uncertainty and remain genuinely curious about the people in their care.
Founding Director & Consultant Psychiatrist
MBChB (UoN), MMed Psychiatry, Fellow — Kenya Psychiatric Association
Founded FITAHI in 2004 after a decade of clinical work and two years of framework research. Her work sits at the intersection of personality structure, occupational psychiatry, and the philosophical dimensions of psychological suffering.
Lead Psychiatrist & Psychotherapy Director
MBChB, MMed Psychiatry (Moi University), MSc Psychodynamic Theory
Leads FITAHI’s psychotherapy integration programme and developed the Affect Regulation Systems framework. Her clinical interests center on mood disorders, attachment disruption, and relational functioning.
Research Director & Clinical Psychologist
PhD Clinical Psychology, BSc Neuroscience, Kenya Board of Clinical Psychologists
Leads FITAHI’s research programme, overseeing development and validation of the institution’s frameworks, with a background spanning cognitive neuroscience and psychometrics.
Senior Clinical Psychologist
MA Clinical Psychology, MA Philosophy, Kenya Board of Clinical Psychologists
Integrates clinical psychology with philosophical inquiry, specializing in anxiety, identity disruption, and existential distress, and leads FITAHI’s work with young professionals.
"True resilience is not the absence of pressure, but the presence of structures that help people stay clear under it."