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Working with Self Harm: A Fresh Approach (December – Kent)

About the workshop

Self Harm Training FlyerThursday 21 December, 9.30 – 4.30pm
@ Augustine House, CCCU Library, Rhodaus Town, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2YA.

Whilst there is a growing awareness of the prevalence of self-harm, it remains a challenging area for many who are trying to support those who use it as a survival strategy and/or means of expressing difficult feelings.

This workshop will provide a space for anyone who is involved in supporting people who self-harm to develop a greater understanding of the experience, their own reactions and ways of talking with someone about their self-harm without fearing making matters worse. Continue reading “Working with Self Harm: A Fresh Approach (December – Kent)”

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BBC Horizon: Why Did I Go Mad?

BBC and Various News Sources

This week I was one of three contributors with personal experience of things that often get called ‘psychosis’ (hearing voices, seeing visions and paranoia) on the BBC Documentary ‘Why Did I Go Mad?’. The title, suggested by one of Jacqui Dillon’s voices, was deliberately provocative in order to challenge what we mean by madness and – ultimately – show that there is a great deal of sense and context in those experiences often dismissed as ‘mad’. The challenge is that we don’t always get to hear those stories.

Rai and The Not YetsWhilst the documentary provided a whistlestop tour around a range of ideas and approaches, it was great to show that it can be OK to talk to voices (via the inherently relational ‘Talking with Voices’ approach or the hi-tec Avatar Therapy). More than this, it showed that a range of life experiences can be bound up with our experience of voices, visions, distressing beliefs or psychosis. This may not sound groundbreaking to many who read my blog, yet for a mainstream BBC programme – it was.

In the coming weeks I’ll write more about the process of filming it and my reflections on the varying reactions I have witnessed. For now, I’ll simply share the documentary itself (which can be viewed on iPlayer this month) and a range of reviews so you can judge for yourself.

PhoenixAlso – i’m running a 1 day event with the amazing Jacqui Dillon in July entitled: Making Sense of Madness – An emancipatory approach. If you want to find out more, see: www.madness-london.eventbrite.co.uk.

Why Did I Go Mad? BBC Horizon

You can watch this programme on iPlayer during May 2017: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pltgy

Media Appearances

The following are some of the TV, radio and magazine appearances Jacqui and I engaged in around the documentary.

BBC Breakfast

Jacqui and I headed up to Media City to appear on BBC Breakfast. An interesting experience, it was good to think about people hearing a fresh approach to hearing voices whilst eating their cornflakes. The main message – voices can have meaning, and people can find many ways of living with them.

Radio 5Live

Jacqui and I woke up early on Tuesday 2 May and spoke with 5Live hosts Rachel Burden and Nicky Campbell about hearing voices.

Radio BBC London

Luke Mendham (episode producer) and I spoke about the documentary, psychosis and hearing voices on BBC London’s Drivetime.

Radio BBC Solent

Surrounding Press – Reactions & Reviews

BBC Radio 4 Thought for The Day: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051xd21

New Statesman: www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2017/05/what-causes-psychosis-horizon-why-did-i-go-mad-tries-help-us-understand

The Times: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/horizon-why-did-i-go-mad-peter-kays-car-share-2372wzc0d

Radio Times: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-05-02/whats-it-like-to-battle-with-a-dozen-people-talking-inside-your-head

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Making Sense of Madness: An emancipatory approach

7 July 2017, 10 am – 4.30pm, registration from 9.30am

Hackney House, 25-27 Curtain Road, Hackney, London, EC2A 3LT

https://madness-london.eventbrite.co.uk

This unique, one day event, featuring Jacqui Dillon and Rai Waddingham (recently featured on BBC Horizon: Why Did I Go Mad?), explores experiences often dismissed as symptoms of serious mental illness: voices, visions, paranoia, unusual beliefs and altered states, and reframes them as understandable human responses to adversity.

Drawing from personal and professional experiences of madness, healing and recovery, combined with emerging innovative research findings, Jacqui and Rai present an emancipatory approach to understanding and working with distressing experiences that prioritises respect, personal meaning, self-determination and liberation.

Download: Making Sense of Madness Flyer

It includes:

  • Understanding ‘mad’ experiences
  • Exploring factors that can contribute to and shape distress
  • Alternatives to diagnosis – moving beyond the illness model
  • Respectful ways of helping people in distress
  • Strategies to survive and thrive

This day is suitable for:

  • Anyone interested in understanding more about madness, creativity and the complex spectrum of human experience
  • Those involved in supporting another human beinga – whether this is as a friend, ally, family member, colleague, mental health professional, teacher, therapist, social worker, voluntary sector worker, manager or spiritual advisor
  • All those with lived experience of madness and distress

Fees:

  • Unwaged: £10
  • Low Waged Self-Funding: £50
  • Voluntary Sector & Self Funding: £90
  • Statutory & Commercial: £125

Please get in touch if you’re in a difficult financial position – we may be able to help.

Register:

https://madness-london.eventbrite.co.uk

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Radio Times: The Voices in My Head

25 April 2017, in Radio Times

What’s it like to battle with a dozen people talking inside your head? Rachel Waddingham tells her remarkable story.

By Moya Sarner, published in Radio Times

Radio Times ArticleRachel Waddingham sits cross-legged on the sofa and, with the enthusiasm of a children’s TV presenter, talks about travelling the world, the Masters degree she’s doing in psychology and her part-time job in the NHS working with people in crisis.

She doesn’t strike you as someone who has been labelled schizophrenic.

Aged 39 and married to Joel, Rachel says: “My life feels mostly awesome. I get stunned by it sometimes, all the little mosaic pieces. I still struggle a lot, and I’ve got a lot to understand about the things I go through. It’s not like I’m super-wise – but maybe, one day, I will be.” Continue reading “Radio Times: The Voices in My Head”

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Research: Young People who Hear Voices & Open Dialogue

In recent years I have taken a step into research – consulting on other people’s studies (e.g. Hearing the Voice at Durham University), taking part in research committees (e.g. Open Dialogue, Intervoice) and undertaking my own research.

You can find my Researchgate profile here: www.researchgate.net/profile/Rachel_Waddingham

I am currently recruiting participants for two studies:

  • Exploring and engaging with the perspectives of people who have substantial criticisms of Open Dialogue
  • Exploring experiences of disclosure and non-disclosure amongst young adolescents who hear voices

If you know of anyone who may be interested in taking part, please share the following information with them. Continue reading “Research: Young People who Hear Voices & Open Dialogue”

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They Heard Voices: Screening and discussion

An independent documentary by Jonathan Balazs looking at the Hearing Voices movement & the schizophrenia label

Film imageOn Thursday 27th April from 6.30pm at Kennedy Lecture Theatre (UCL Institute of Child Health), I’ll be joining a panel to discuss a screening of  ‘They Heard Voices’ … a documentary I contributed to.

This screening is hosted by Mind in Camden, and the following information is taken from their site. If you want to find out more, check out their eventbrite page.

An “illness” with no “cure”, the label schizophrenia has persisted for over a century. This film offers multiple perspectives. Is schizophrenia hard science? Or an arbitrary, catch-all term with no real meaning? The film presents a series of wide-ranging interviews with voice hearers, medical historians, anthropologists and psychiatrists from Britain and America, presenting different people’s views side-by-side. The result is a tapestry of contrasting colours.

Continue reading “They Heard Voices: Screening and discussion”

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‘Open Dialogue in the NHS’ Seminars in March

Over the past three years there has been significant development of the Open Dialogue approach from Western Lapland in the NHS and in public mental health services internationally. Open Dialogue UK has been working for the past four years to further this development, and 10 NHS trusts are now represented on one of their two training programmes (largely teams from Early Intervention in Psychosis and Crisis/Home Treatment services).

Over the course of 6 days in March 2017, I’ll be travelling alongside a variety of NHS professionals and Nick Putman (founder of Open Dialogue UK) across the UK to introduce the work we’re doing to develop the Open Dialogue approach. All of these practitioners are participating in one of the Open Dialogue UK training programmes. The following professions will be represented at this event, either in person, or via video footage: psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, nursing, social work and peer support. Continue reading “‘Open Dialogue in the NHS’ Seminars in March”

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My Baby, Psychosis & Me: A lesson in how not to make a documentary about mental health

HeartEarlier this year, after my own miscarriage, I settled down on the sofa to watch ‘My Baby, Psychosis & Me’ – a BBC documentary on the journey of two women through a Specialist Mother & Baby Unit. Watching it so recently after my own loss was always going to be painful – yet the issue of how women in crisis are supported after the birth is personally relevant. One day I hope to have a child. As someone whose distress is sometimes takes the form of psychosis, I was eager to connect with the stories of women who had trodden this path before me.

Despite my loss, as the program unfolded I was warmed by the obvious love that the two new mothers felt for their children. I saw beautiful possibilities. I saw how women could, in the midst of such distress, fight to connect with their babies. The bucket loads of courage Hannah and Jenny demonstrated as they navigated their way as mothers impressed me. I shed welcome tears, imagining what might be in store for my husband and me if we were lucky enough to have a child of our own. I felt, and continue to feel, so much gratitude for the families who shared such personal and vulnerable parts of their lives with us.

This warmth, and an acute awareness of how much it may have took for these families to put their stories in the public eye, makes my critique of the documentary itself that much more tricky. Since its airing, I’ve struggled to find a way of saying what it is I find so deeply disturbing about this show without invalidating or co-opting the stories of the women featured. It’s a tightrope. Yet, to stay silent now the documentary has received a Mind Media Award feels like a disservice to the very real issues it brings up for me as a woman, a survivor and someone who is trying for a baby. Continue reading “My Baby, Psychosis & Me: A lesson in how not to make a documentary about mental health”

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Online training – new 8 week courses (October)

Taboo VoicesWhenever I advertise training courses, I often hear from people in other parts of the country / world expressing their frustration that this approach to hearing voices isn’t available in their local area. Online training has always struck me as a really neat solution to this issue … but until recently I’ve always been stumped on how to create a learning environment that encourages the kinds of discussions and thought that I feel are the hallmarks of a successful course. Rather than a dialogue, online training can sometimes feel like I’m asking people to sit quietly and listen whilst I talk ‘at’ them rather than ‘with’ them.

Living with VoicesAfter piloting them earlier in the year with an amazing group of trainees, I’m excited to be offering 2 x 8 week online training courses that I feel are real learning experiences:

What happens in the online training?

Both of these courses consist of 4 x 2 week modules. In the pilot, I ran the course with a new module each week but this was just too quick for many participants. Continue reading “Online training – new 8 week courses (October)”

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Listen Up: Summer arts roadshow for young people who hear voices in the North East

Idea ImageInspired by our creative arts project with the Wellcome Collection, Hearing the Voice – a project at Durham University – is working with myself and Mary Robson to host a series of ‘Summer Arts Roadshows’ with young people who hear voices or see visions.

This initiative is influenced by the wonderful work of Voice Collective, a London-based project that I set up and am now back with as a freelance Interim Project Lead.

If you know someone who is based in the North East (near Bradford, Leeds or Durham) please tell them about it. You can download the flyer, share it or get in touch with the project directly ([email protected]). Continue reading “Listen Up: Summer arts roadshow for young people who hear voices in the North East”

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