Hearing Voices Training Workshop #1: Accepting Voices Do you…? Are Ready to tilt your universe? § Work with people who hear voices and who If so, then this workshop might help you tilt your struggle with their experience of that? universe and emancipate yourself with very simple and very human ways to understand and begin to act to § Have someone in your life who hears voices support a person who struggles with difficult and struggles with difficult experiences that get experiences that get called names like “psychosis”. called “psychosis Our aim is that you can feel more confident in your § Feel limited in your ability to understand and ability to offer yourself as a one-person safe space to support them? people who hear voices and struggle. § Feel frustrated at how the story that voices must mean illness limits us - not only the lives of people who hear voices, but all of us? § Feel weary of the notion that we must fear ourselves and fear each other? Join us in enacting a world that understands voice hearing, supports the needs of people who hear § Feel ready to learn more, ask yourself “what voices and regards them as full citizens. else can I do?”. § Want to know more about how you can be part of the future, join us in enacting a world that understands ? Page 1 of 8 Hearing Voices Training Workshop #1: Accepting Voices Workshop Description This workshop will better This unique and innovative workshop offers you a non- diagnostic understanding of the kinds of experience like enable you to… hearing voices that are that are sometimes called § Understand hearing voices [and other experiences] “psychosis”. as a normal human experience, that can become We offer you simple, everyday language to show you problematic, when a person is left to struggle without how you can understand such experiences not as support. “disconnected from” but intimately connected with reality § Share simple data and stories about just how and in ways that can be overwhelming, painful, common it is to hear voices- how it is not in itself a frustrating, sometimes terrifying response to the reality problem and many people do – some cultures regard we share, it as bringing great benefit. It also offers a framework you can use to connect and § Peer through and beyond diagnostic frameworks – draw from your own experiences to help you truly resist the urge to catalogue and categorize empathize and understand how better to support people everything you witness as “symptom” and instead... who might be undergoing such difficult experiences. § Take an interest in the person struggling with their You’ll leave feeling more at ease with both yourself and experience of voices and other experiences called your ability to offer yourself as a one-person safe-space “psychosis” as a human being having a hard time. to people who struggle. § Begin to accept even the most difficult of human Join us in enacting a society that understands voice experiences as something that can be understood, hearing, supports individuals who hear voices and views explored and even valued. them as full citizens. § Look within your own experience and relate with We believe the hearing voices approach is different experiences like hearing voices, visions, emancipatory for all.. unshared beliefs. The workshop is designed specifically to focus on your § Explore how you can be at ease in your role and be role in steps 1,2,3 in this map. more real with people who have the kind of difficult experiences that get called “psychosis”. Map for Reclaiming Our Power with voices and other difficult experiences § Offer yourself as a one-person safe-space to people who struggle with experiences like hearing voices. Meeting someone who takes Changing the an interest in me as a relationship person Amongst people who offer with my voices hope, show a way out and normalize the experience 1 And, when you’re ready for your Meeting people who 8 2 accept voices as real next steps… If I’m 3 Feeling Safe This workshop is part of a systematic enough approach to learning and also the foundation Making choices Becoming for further work… b actively involved in c my personal Freeing myself Addressing the from the role of demons of my experience 7 victim past 4 #2. Working with Voices a #3. Starting and Sustaining a Hearing Voices Re-organizing Recognizing my way of Challenging the coping power of the d the voices I voices hear as Group in your community uniquely personal to ne # Carnival des Voix Taking back my power #4 Facilitating in Voice dialogue 6 #5 Working with Maastricht Interview to Changing e 5 the power relationship uncover story between me and my voices By Kevin Healey Fuller list is at the end of this document. Adapted from Accepting and Making Sense of Voices – A recovery focused therapy plan. By Dr Marius Romme. Ch 14, Psychosis a Personal Crisis Page 2 of 8 Hearing Voices Training Workshop #1: Accepting Voices You will not become an expert in one day but you’ll have Who this workshop is a good basis for starting and feeling more comfortable – designed for… and more human – as you do. If, in your work, you work with you come into contact with people who hear voices and who struggle with that; Poster and you have experienced how that can leave you feeling uncomfortable or worse, then we think you’ll find this one-day workshop useful. Workshop #1 Hearing voices does not So, if you’re a doctor, nurse, social worker, community necessarily mean a person is ill. But it can lead to becoming - Voices isolated and misunderstood Accepting worker, housing worker, peer support worker, and for any of us that can certainly result in becoming th very ill indeed.. .Saturday 11 Aug 2018 psychologist, therapist, police officer, etc. then it may be Many voices can be In Toronto unthreatening and even positive. 9am to 430pm It’s wrong to turn this into a shameful problem that people for you. either feel they have to deny or to take medication to suppress. NOTE: This edition will include key focus on understanding experiences and -Prof Marius Romme supporting those who struggle with experiences like difficult-to-hear voices that get The workshop is also highly suitable for you if you love, called ‘psychosis’ and who also experience homelessness. live with, care for people in your life who hear voices This workshop will enable you better to… Brought to you in Community partnership with: Offer yourself as a one person safe space to those who struggle with painful experiences - like difficult-to-hear voices - that get called ”psychosis” and struggle with that – and you have come to realize O Understand hearing voices as a normal human experience, maybe not shared by Inner City everyone, but part of what it means to be human. the limitations of an approach that limits understanding FAMILY HEALTH TEAM O Look within your own experience and relate with different experiences of hearing voices. O Explore how you can be more at ease and be more real with people who hear voices. to illness-brain chemicals and you are curious about Workshop# 1: Who this workshop is for… how else you may understand, and what else you can If, in your work, you come into contact with people who hear voices and who struggle; and Accepting you have experienced how that can leave you feeling uncomfortable or worse, then we do. think you’ll find this one day workshop useful. In Toronto The workshop is also highly suitable for those who support a loved one who struggles and Voices feel disabled by the way they are regarded by services. th So, if you’re a doctor, nurse, social worker, community worker, housing worker, peer It is less suitable, perhaps, for those who are simply Sat, 11 August 2018 support worker, psychologist, therapist, police officer, parent sibling, human being, then it Inner City Family Health Team may be for you. curious, though you are welcome. 60 Queen St East, Toronto Workshop design… Fee $ 150 Workers This is an intensive workshop covering a lot of ground , together we will : • Gain insights from people who hear voices, and from others who work with them. $ 125 Community • Connect with resources and the global hearing voices community. Together we will… • Learn how we can think differently about voices . • Explore how as workers we can accept ourselves and each other, relax and enjoy our Limited Spaces !! work: the better to offer support for people who hear voices. This is an intensive workshop covering a lot of ground, A very interactive workshop with deep personal reflection, shared sense making and dialogue. We will also experience some approaches that many voice hearers find helpful and ways you can adapt your practice. together we will: Registration This workshop is designed to leave you feeling more competent and confident when working one-to-one with people who hear voices. Organised by § Gain insights from people who hear voices, and recoverynetwork:Toronto What other participants have said… This changes Registration online at Eventbrite , -I-N-G-! E-V-E-R-Y-T-H via: So many people Gave me a way to How I learned to from others who work with people who hear voices. This approach is think they don’t look within myself- Who needs this? have options and stop g and love and challenge old Everyone working in so valuable and the voices needs to be this is so school, conventional mental heath- no, shared!! freeing! ways of thinking everyone ! § Learn how we can think differently about voices and – it’s so refreshing!!! other experiences that are sometimes labelled “psychosis” § Explore how, as workers, we can accept ourselves Please feel free to help us let people know about this by and each other, relax and enjoy our work: the better print, post, distribute, …or why not hand to your worker to offer support for people who hear voices.