PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY TO RECEIVE ALL THE INFORMATION. Please note: this is a READING GROUP (not a talk, lecture or support group)

Critical Perspectives on Madness Reading Group invites you to:

INTO THE LIGHT: CREATING A SPACE TO EXPLORE, VALUE AND LEARN FROM OVERWHELMING EXPERIENCES – with UK-based guest author RACHEL (RAI) WADDINGHAM

Rai says:

“I have many sanitised narratives… Each time I tell a part of my story, describe the things I hear or talk about the beliefs that have guided me, I am aware of the people listening and mindful of not being ‘too much’. Even when I share my experiences of taboo and violent voices in workshops, I use carefully crafted excepts that dance on the edge of what I think people can hear. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to explore the impact of the different narratives that I’ve lived by – the medical one as the ‘schizophrenic’, the survivor, the voice-hearer – and be curious about the bits of my experience that resist definition. The bits that feel too powerful, painful or messy to word. The bits that don’t fit neat medical categories, or even step out of sync with the survivor narratives I often hear.

In this discussion, I’m interested in exploring how these experiences can get left behind, and what we might do to create spaces where they can be acknowledged and – perhaps – learnt from. How do we free ourselves from the language of distress that we’ve been indoctrinated into?”

RAI WADDINGHAM combines personal experience of trauma, psychosis and hospitalisation with experience gained through training and practice,including working in the first UK Open Dialogue team. A voice-hearer, Rai’s work is based in the principles of the Hearing Voices Movement. She has created and managed innovative projects supporting children, young people, families, adults and people in prison who hear voices or have unusual beliefs. Rai is an international trainer and spokesperson, promoting ethical and creative responses to people in severe distress. She is a trustee of the English Hearing Voices Network and Vice Chair of ISPS UK. www.behindthelabel.co.uk

Please come prepared by reading the following texts:

1) http://www.behindthelabel.co.uk/does-language-matter/ – Symptom or Experience: Does language matter?

2) Bad Me? Learning from, and living with, toxicity (accessible when booking with trybooking)

3) On The Edge? Working With Taboo & Violent Voices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUFin5AZzX0

Please RSVP by clicking the trybooking link above. RSVP VIA TRYBOOKING is compulsory to secure your spot and receive the texts for this month.

Tickets: $ 5-15 sliding scale. If you’re experiencing financial hardship, please email us on [email protected] , we will find a solution!

If you’re dealing or living with restrictions (e.g. physical, intellectual, sensory or psycho-social differences) or neurodivergencies, have concerns about aspects of the workshop and would like to come, please contact us to discuss ways in which we might assist.

+++This is a READING GROUP, not a talk or lecture. We read and discuss texts together. So please come prepared by reading the papers which will be sent to you upon booking.

+++It is also NOT a support group. While sharing of personal experiences is not discouraged, the focus remains on the text and on intellectual engagement.

++Please read the texts before the meeting if you can and bring copies with you for close reading. If you’d like us to provide extra printed copies for you, let us know via email in advance.

*If you’d like to volunteer to bring snacks, tea and soft drinks, let us know – it’ll make us very happy.

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Critical Perspectives Reading Group is offered monthly and facilitated by Natalia and Sarah from Off The Wall Inc. It is for anyone interested in the topic of politics and philosophy of mental distress and difference and the debates around madness. Service users, consumers, survivors of psy-care, people who assist others in professional or non-professional capacities, researchers and other enthusiasts are all welcome to attend.

Find out more about who we are on: www.offthewall.net.au