Thursday evening, the duo talked to a packed audience of clinicians, peer support workers, and mental health students at the Jefferson Market Library about working with people who hear voices.

Coleman and Taylor expressed concern that the current mental health system is not promoting recovery, but instead contributing to cycle of chronic illness. Taylor discussed the lack of training in treating psychosis professionals are given and feeling currently that the more training one does receive, the more alienated from their clients they become. Often losing sight of what is important; Taylor stated that it is crucial for mental health workers to remember what working with people with psychosis is really about:  “love, compassion, and being a friend”.

Coleman and Taylor frequently referred to psychosis as a “journey”, stressing that psychosis is not a chronic condition, but an experience of influx and movement. The goal of the clinician or peer support worker is to help an individual develop a relationship to their voices and act as a guiding force through the complicated process of recovery. Once a client feels they have completed their journey, there is no longer any need for the guide. Coleman said, “The idea is to make yourself redundant to a person’s life, redundancy is what we want.”

Coleman feels that one of the most important events in his own recovery happened the first time he went to a Hearing Voices  meeting– one of the other voice-hearers in the group told him “the voices are real, you know.” This comment shifted his perspective on the voices from one of intense negativity to one of positivity, “If the voices are real, they belong to me and not an illness.” Coleman, who feels that hearing voices stems from lived experience and not from faulty biology, questioned current mental health models by stating, “Why are we treating behaviors and not emotions?” He says that voices can be used as a tool to gain more information about what is happening within a client and that it is important to ask the voices questions, such as “Who are you?”  and “What is your message?”

Voices are able to engage in dialogue and serve a unique purpose for every individual voice hearer. Be respectful with the voices, and you can gain valuable insight. Through techniques such as Voice Dialoging, a clinician can help a client come to understand who the voices are and what their purpose is. Karen Taylor believes, “In every delusion is a kernel of truth.” Engaging with delusions, voices, hallucinations, and other extreme experiences can help peel back the layers and discover the truth within. This is in stark contrast with what Ron Coleman humorously calls the current mental health protocol of “radical non-intervention” or the tendency for mental health professionals to fear “colluding with delusions”.

The evening turned quickly from a lecture format to an excited dialogue between attendees and Taylor & Coleman. Various people asked questions about everything from medication and over-prescribing practices to working with dementia and forensic clients. The answers were overall ones of optimism, stressing that from any one client, the most important thing is always begin with a perspective of recovery. “Recovery is a fundamental human right” Coleman said. Karen Taylor responded, “Not only for our clients, but also for ourselves.”

Learn more about working with voices:

Hearing Voices Network USA

Intervoice: Hearing Voices International Community

Gail Hornstein: Author, Psychologist, & Activist

Madness Radio: Interview with Ron Coleman

Voice Collective: For Teens Who Hear Voices

Voices of the Heart, Inc.

Marie Hansen is a guest blogger, ISPS-US Member and Hearing Voices Network Group Co-Facilitator in NYC.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Deadline April 20, 2012

ISPS-US Thirteenth Annual Meeting

Making Contact with the Depths: Psychosis as it is Lived.
October 26-28, 2012

At the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL

Jointly sponsored by the Lifespan Learning Institute for continuing ed credit
Hosted by the ISPS-US Chicago Branch

Keynote Speaker: Danielle Bergeron, MD, FRCPC, FAPA
A founder of GIFRIC Center for Research and Training & Director of the 388

Honoree: James Gottstein, Esq.
President and CEO of The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights)

Conference Theme

Freud’s seminal works, many of which highlight “the psychopathology of everyday life,” draw attention to the ways in which the language of dreams, of the unconscious, of madness itself, undergirds our deepest experience of what it is to be human. Our efforts to understand madness cannot be isolated from our appreciation of the attempts of each of us to construct our own version of a life well lived. Assisting the person whose life has come to be dominated by madness, however, requires special reserves of insight, courage, empathy and stamina on the parts of those who dedicate themselves to this work, be they practitioners of all stripes, peers, family members, or organizations. It requires, in short, in Michael Eigen’s words, “contact with the depths,” as well as the ability to maintain a foothold in the landscape above ground. Against the urge to control psychosis on a societal level, an urge that arises from the fear of madness, the work of listening to psychosis as it is lived offers hope not only to the most afflicted among us, but also to all who are invested in living meaningful and creative lives.

Come join us in Chicago, where the autumn air is crisp and clear, the pizza and the conversation are deep and delicious, and somebody’s always playing the best blues you’ve ever heard! We welcome your proposals for papers and panel discussions on the topics that are of most interest to ISPS members, and seek contributions from psychotherapists, case managers, rehabilitation therapists, nurses, peer counselors, consumers, survivors, family members and researchers. We are interested in integrative approaches that may include traditional psychotherapy and psychosocial treatments, as well as innovative methods being used to help people recover from psychotic conditions. In short, we welcome all contributions to our warm, lively and thoughtful community discussion!

Jefferson Market Library
485 Ave of the Americas @ 10th St, NY, NY 10011
3rd Floor Conference room
Alternate Thursdays from 2:00 to 3:30 PM
(Upcoming Dates:  4/26, 5/10, 5/24, 6/7/ 6/21)
For more info leave a message at  (917) 512-6636
Co-Facilitators: April Natal and Jessica Arenella

Community Access/ East Village Access
242 E. 2nd St.(betw Ave B and C near Houston)
New York, NY 10009
2nd Thursday of the Month 3:30-5:00 PM
(Upcoming Dates: May 10, June 7, July 12)
For more info contact:
Co-Facilitator: Annette Campbell
Email: accnycpeer@yahoo.com or acampbell@communityaccess.org
Steve Boccia
Email: stevenboccia@yahoo.com; sboccia@cairn.org

Bronx Independent Living Services
4419 Third Ave. (between 181st & 182nd Streets)
Suite # 2B, Bronx, NY 10457
Directions: Bronx #15 & 55 Buses
For more info contact:
Facilitator: Marlene Williams (718) 562-6712
Mondays 1:00 -2:30 PM, April 23rd & 30th, May 7th , 14th & 21st June 4th , 11th , 18th & 25th

Working with People Who Hear Voices:  A Workshop with Ron Coleman

7 PM Thursday April 19, 2012 

Jefferson Market Library 425 Avenue of the Americas @ 10th St. NY, NY 10011

This FREE two-hour workshop is open to anyone but is particularly focused on what individual practitioners/peer support workers can do to help voice hearers be in charge of their voice hearing experience. RSVP is appreciated but not required. jessarenella@gmail.com

Hearing voices is one of the most common experiences that people diagnosed with a psychotic illness have. Research has shown that many people continue to hear voices even after prolonged use of medication and this has meant that many voice hearers do not get relief from their experiences. The consequence of this is that many people live lives that are low in quality and high in distress. Many professionals are left frustrated when medication does not deliver the desired results.

About the Trainer: Ron Coleman

Ron is a Mental Health Trainer and Consultant specialising in psychosis prevention and resolution. He has designed training packages to enable voice hearers to gain ascendancy over the negative aspects of the voice hearing experience. His own route to recovery, after spending 13 years in and out of the psychiatric system, has given him many insights into the many difficult issues facing today’s mental health services. Ron is also a tireless advocate of recovery through self-help, former national coordinator of Hearing Voices Network (Great Britain), & co-director of Working to Recovery, a mental health resource & training organization based in Scotland. Additionally, Ron has published several books including ‘Politics of the Madhouse’, co-authored ‘Working with Voices’ & ‘Working to Recovery’ and also wrote ‘Recovery an Alien Concept?’ that will be available for purchase. For more info visit: http://www.roncolemanvoices.co.uk/

About the Sponsor: ISPS-US

ISPS-US is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the appropriate use of psychotherapy and psychological treatments for those suffering from psychotic disorders; to promote research into individual, family, group psychological therapies, preventive measures and other psychosocial programs for those with psychotic disorders; and to advance education, training and knowledge of mental health professionals in the psychological therapies and psychosocial interventions in the treatment and prevention of psychotic mental disorders for the public benefit regardless of race, religion, gender or socio-economic status. For more info visit: http://www.isps-us.org

In it, he profiles Mr. Milton Greek and his journey from sensitive, passionate and eccentric to delusional and psychotic… and how he returned to being his sensitive, passionate and slightly eccentric self again.

Here are some excerpts:

“When I began to see the delusions in the context of things that were happening in my real life, they finally made some sense,” Mr. Greek said. “And understanding the story of my psychosis helped me see what I needed to stay well.”

I really like how Mr. Greek is able to use a variety of methods to treat the psychotic symptoms while retaining an appreciation of the feelings, beliefs and dreams that became distorted in the symptoms.

Mr. Greek’s regimen combines meditation, work and drug treatment with occasional visits to a therapist and a steady diet of charitable acts. Some of these are meant to improve the community; others are for co-workers and friends, especially those dealing with a psychiatric diagnosis.

And, of course, he talks about the impact of childhood trauma as contributing to his psychosis.

To help others experiencing psychotic delusions, he relies on his own theory of what delusions may mean. In an analysis of 20 delusional experiences, all described by sufferers in the first person, Mr. Greek identifies four story lines.

Among them are the rescuer (on a mission to save a particular group); the self-loathing person (lost in a sense of extreme worthlessness); the visionary (on a journey to spiritual realms to bring back truth); and the messianic (out to transform the world through miracles, or contact with deities) — the last of which is his own psychosis story.

Each, in Mr. Greek’s reading, grows out of a specific fear or trauma, whether isolation, abuse or family dysfunction, in the same way his own delusional story symbolized a fear of being a social reject.

He interviews ISPS-US Member Paris Williams as well:

“By exploring a person’s anomalous beliefs and experiences, we are better able to understand the underlying feeling and needs that give fuel to these experiences,” said Paris Williams, a psychologist who has struggled with psychosis and recently published a doctoral dissertation analyzing the content of six people’s delusions, which has informed Mr. Greek’s work.

For instance, said Dr. Williams, who is working on a book called “Rethinking Madness,” “we can find ways to make them feel safe when they believe they are being persecuted by malevolent forces, or find ways to help them feel empowered when they experience demanding voices.”

By the way, there is a word for this phenomenon of listening to people and putting their current distress in the context of their past experiences while helping them to feel safe in the present moment: It’s called    PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY!!!

Jessica Arenella

I was also thrilled to learn that Elyn Saks, whose groundbreaking memoir about living with schizophrenia while pursuing a career in law, The Center Cannot Hold, has been inspiring others and has even led to a study of people with schizophrenia who are functioning at a high level. (I’ve got some issues with the idea of “high functioning” and “low functioning” and what defines “success,” but that’s for another day.) I feel so excited by the following sheepish admission (excerpt from NY Times)

The study has already forced its authors to discard some of their assumptions about living with schizophrenia. “It’s just embarrassing,” said Dr. Stephen R. Marder, director of the psychosis section at U.C.L.A.’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, a psychiatrist with the V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and one of the authors of the study. “For years, we as psychiatrists have been telling people with a diagnosis what to expect; we’ve been telling them who they are, how to change their lives — and it was bad information” for many people.”

Amen!

Jessica Arenella

Jessica Arenella