New Hearing Voices Network Group in North West Portland!

February 24, 2020

The Hearing Voices Network is about affirming neurodiversity–voices, visions, and other “extreme” or “unusual” states–and empowering people who experience those states to define them and decide what is truly empowering. We welcome people who don’t want involvement with mainstream psychiatry, many of whom have been traumatized by pathologizing labels, psych meds, and/or institutionalization, and those who feel that psychiatry has been lifesaving in their experience.

Thank you, Brian and Phoenix!

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A New Pacific Northwest HVN Group!

January 16, 2020

Please welcome HVN at NAMI SW to the Pacific Northwest Hearing Voices Community! Below is a message from the facilitators.

For John and I, it was comfortable, exciting, and liberating to be surrounded by people who understand what it’s like to experience things not experienced by others. Having experienced altered and extreme states and seeing things on occasion, it felt new and fresh to be around people who are open, honest, and unashamed of their experiences. John Harold has a sweet and gentle way of presenting the information, of getting us excited about what it means to be part of the HVN philosophy and community and running a group. His energy and demeanor put me at ease right away.

John and I had a great time meeting people in the community like us; making deep connections that I feel are life-long and bringing this information and energy to our organization with the intention of leading a full group independent of the NAMI support model and instead honoring fully what the HVN philosophy is about.

So far, we’ve had fun building our group and connecting with its members. Our group tends to be small with just a handful of people attending. We would like to see it grow and to be able to put participants at ease, present a comfortable environment where you can share and connect and not be afraid to talk about what these experiences mean to you.

This level of validation, respect, and community are so important. HVN has shown John and I, and many others, that we belong in the world as is and deserve to without the assumption of illness or defect. We are great how we are and that includes all of our differences. We like to celebrate that in our group and are eager to get to know and build our own micro-community honoring the HVN model to the best of our ability.

HVN at NAMI SW WA meets at 2500 Main Street, Suite
120 from 2:30-4:00 pm every Wednesday excluding holidays. For more about
NAMI SW WA, visit namiswwa.org. You can contact Chiara or John at 360-695-2823 and via emails at chiara.c@namiswwa.org and john.m@namiswwa.org.

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Article in the Colombian

December 31, 2019

https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/dec/30/hearing-voices-network-changing-the-way-mental-health-is-viewed/

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What I Love About the Hearing Voices Movement

April 28, 2019

The first time I walked into a Hearing Voices group, I was terrified.

I still feel this terror, sometimes. It’s like an old character in my mind, that mostly takes the form of a deep, low, rumbling ache in my stomach. She’s like a woman, who has me by the throat, forbidding me to speak. It’s for my own safety, you see.

So I didn’t speak.

The wonderful thing about this group, Portland Hearing Voices, was all of the space.

I’m not sure why it seems that so many people have such strong feelings and opinions about other peoples experiences. It also seems that there are certain topics that folks feel very strongly about, and often these opinions are not coming from personal experience. They also frequently conflict with each other. Feels like a war.  All of these strong feelings and conflict that didn’t belong to me, but were about me, pushed their way into my mind, filling the space that was meant to be mine, to process, to make meaning and to become a thriving part of myself.

At the heart of the Hearing Voices Movement is the respect for the diversity of views regarding our experiences and the humble wish to support, and empower others in theirs. This simplicity has always felt very good to me, like the shedding of unnecessary things. Like the silencing of warring characters.

But the war wasn’t in this group. There was space and even a little silence in this group.

Without all of the noise of the outside world I could finally start to express and process what I had experienced. As I expressed myself over time, I began to remember things. Things from my childhood and adolescence. These were very important memories. They were memories that I needed.

I also began to realize things and to identify with positive feelings, with strengths, with notions and with characters that balanced out the terror in my mind. This group gave me the space to experience what really was mine. My spirituality. My inner parts. My voice.

Thank you to everyone who works so hard to keep it going!

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February 24th, Town Hall Meeting at Q-Center

February 19, 2019

One tidbit of information that we understand through both research, and direct and indirect observation, is that hearing voices is commonly brought on by stress. The stress of living as a member of a marginalized community or population member, often referred to as “minority stress” is so great that it is directly linked to a greater degree and frequency of mental and physical sickness. Needless to say this stress greatly increases when violence against marginalized groups increases, and this is presently happening within the LGBTQ* and other minority populations.

In response to the resent rise in violent attacks against LGBTQ* community members, the Q-Center is hosting a Town Hall meeting. Here are the details:

Sunday, February 24th at the Q-Center, 4115 N. Mississippi, Portland, Oregon, 97217, at 6pm

There are many members of the voice-hearing community that are also members of the LGBTQ* community. The population within this intersection needs and deserves our support. This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved!

Here is a link to the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/384459849048376/

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Art With Impact Art-A-Thon!

October 3, 2018

Portland Hearing Voices is happy to be partnering with Art With Impact in bringing Art-a-Thon to Portland this November 3rd, from 9am to 9pm.  This 12-hour festival will include a short film, theater, music, photography, the visual arts and dance!  All with the message of reducing stigma around mental health experiences and promoting positive social change across communities.  Professional artists are encouraged to serve as mentors to those wishing to collaborate to create an original art pieces.

Tickets are on sale now! Anyone who’d like to attend the evening performances/presentation of the artwork created that day can purchase their tickets here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3628249

Artistic participants can sign up at www.art-a-thon.org

Creative Mentors (age 26 and up) can apply at: https://goo.gl/forms/kMe20WXQIcBgFhLf1

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Events

Please join our mailing list for event updates https://www.portlandhearingvoices.net/email.html

The Hearing Voices Movements beloved Elenore Longden is conducting a research studing investigating the connection between adverse experience and voice-hearing and you are invited to be a part of it!

Below is a link to the survey.

https://www.voicemodeproject.com/english-1/

Lives Stream the Coersive Treatement Conference Right Now!

The Drug Policy Alliance is hosting an upcoming one-and-a-half day conference and workshop sessions on May 16-17 in San Francisco, California at UC Hastings College of Law titled “Coercive Treatment—Beyond “For Your Own Good.” This conference will bring together experts by practice, study, and lived experience to shine a light on the history of coercion, the various forms coercion can take and how it is manifesting in the current political moment, including who is subject to coercion, why coercion is harmful, and the importance of creating patient- and rights-centered alternatives. Attached is a preliminary conference agenda, but please note that the agenda is subject to change.

https://www.voicemodeproject.com/english-1/

Hearing Voices Facilitation Training

We’re happy to announce a Hearing Voices Facilitation training taking place July 29th-31st, Location to be announced, 9am-5pm.

This training (presented by Kate Hill, John Herold and Reggie Lee) will give you the skills and knowledge to start, facilitate and maintain Hearing Voices groups, which aim to be peer-led places to share and explore unusual experiences in a non-judgmental atmosphere.  Such states of mind are sometimes labeled psychosis, but HVN embraces a much wider view of human possibility.

Ongoing: Hearing Voices Solutions Group

Meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 5:30-7 at PeaceHealth Memorial Campus, 3400 Main Street, 3rd floor ADAPT unit, Vancouver WA, 98663

Questions?  Contact Teresa Kirchner / 360-696-5081 / TKirchner@peacehealth.org 

HVN Solutions Group follows the HVN charter. This group will focus on topic-based discussions. Topics will initiate exploration into understanding relationships impacted by voices & visions, the influence and interpretation of voices, visions, and other extraordinary experiences, and the most successful ways of coping with these experiences.  The topic gives the group a place to start and a place to focus our thoughts and conversation in our search for solutions.

Town Hall at the Q-Center

Sunday, February 24th.  The Q-Center is located at 4115 N. Mississippi Ave.  The event will take place at 6pm.

Andre Gladen Family Press Conference

Friday, February 22nd.  Please show your support!  Taking place at the Multnomah County Courthouse from 12-1pm.  1021 SW 4th.

Art with Impact Art-a-Thon

Portland Hearing Voices is happy to be partnering with Art With Impact in bringing Art-a-Thon to Portland this November 3rd, 2019, from 9am to 9pm.

Facilitation Training September 10th-12th, 2018

Generously sponsored by Folktime and taught by Kate Hill of Portland Hearing Voices, John Herold, of Puget Sound Hearing Voices and Cindy Olejar, of Seattle Hearing Voices.  This is a dynamic 3-day training designed to bring experiencers and folk who have never had these experiences together to foster a greater understanding and most importantly to train facilitators for Hearing Voices groups.

Group Facilitation Training, September 6th-8th, 2016

Sponsored by Recovery Outreach Community Center and the National Empowerment Center.

Hearing Voices Group Facilitation Training
June 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2015
Please contact us to apply

Intervoice and Portland Hearing Voices is offering a three-day facilitation training. In this 3-day training, voice hearers and people who experience other extreme/altered states come together with people who have not experienced these states. The result is a powerful, diversified environment for learning, and a solid foundation for setting up and facilitating groups. Peers, professionals and allies are welcome: priority to those commited to creating a group.

This Hearing Voices Facilitators Training, presented by Oryx Cohen and Kate Hill, will give you the skills and knowledge to run Hearing Voices and Extreme States support groups!

Facilitator Training
Especially For Experiencers of Voices, Visions, and Extreme States
Please contact us to schedule

Download flier here

Now offering a facilitators training just for experiencers!

Do you or your organization wish to nurture your local hearing voices community? Have you thought to yourself, “Gosh, there seems to be such a need. I wish I could contribute in some way.” Here is your opportunity.

Portland Hearing Voices is offering a two day facilitators training at a low cost. After the training, attendees will have the opportunity to continue to grow as facilitators by utilizing the skills and techniques they learned in class. Attendees can apprentice in our Hearing Voices group as co-facilitators.

This is a wonderful opportunity to help our hearing voices community come together, learn from each other, and thrive culturally. Together they will learn:

What the role of a facilitator is; How to promote social equality in a group setting; How to deal with difficult situations; How to utilize personal strengths in leadership and facilitation

Please download our flyer here: http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/PortlandHearingVoices-GroupFacilitatorTrainingOffered.pdf

Madness Radio

Gary Greenberg, Author of “The Book Of Woe: Making of the DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry” in Dialogue With Madness Radio Host Will Hall

Sunday, May 19, 2013
7:30-9:30pm
Free
Powell’s Bookstore Burnside
1005 W Burnside Portland

Download flier here: http://bit.ly/104suVF

Join Portland Hearing Voices in a co-sponsored event at Powell’s books welcoming author Gary Greenberg in discussion with Will Hall, host of Madness Radio. Gary will be talking about and signing copies of his new book, “The Book Of Woe: Making of the DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry.”

An exposé of the psychiatric profession’s bible from a leading psychotherapist, The Book of Woe reveals the deeply flawed process by which mental disorders are invented and uninvented—and why increasing numbers of therapy patients are being declared mentally ill.

“In this gripping, devastating account of psychiatric hubris, Gary Greenberg shows that the process of revising the DSM remains as haphazard and chaotic as ever. His meticulous research into the many failures of DSM-5 will spark concern, even alarm, but in doing so will rule out complacency. The Book of Woe deserves a very wide readership.”
—Christopher Lane, author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness

Gary Greenberg is a practicing psychotherapist and author of Manufacturing Depression and The Noble Lie. He has written about the intersection of science, politics, and ethics for many publications, including Harper’s, The New Yorker, Wired, Discover, Rolling Stone, and Mother Jones, where he is a contributor. Dr. Greenberg lives with his family in Connecticut. http://www.garygreenbergonline.com

Will Hall, MA, DiplPW, is a therapist who has himself recovered from a diagnosis of schizophrenia and now teaches internationally. Director of Portland Hearing Voices and host of KBOO’s
Madness Radio, Will has written in the Journal of Best Practices in Mental Health and in the upcoming Oxford University Press Modern Community Mental Health Work. He is author of the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, used widely in the peer recovery movement. http://www.willhall.net.

Co-sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices and Powell’s Books.

More info: http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-2007-08-08-manufacturing-depression-gary-greenberg,

http://www.garygreenbergonline.com

Working And Living With Suicidal Feelings:
From Powerlessness To Engagement

With Will Hall, MA, Dipl. PW

Saturday, June 8, 2013, 10:00am-5:00pm, Portland Oregon

Process Work Institute, 2049 NW Hoyt St.

Cost: $120 (PWI members $108)
Early Registration: $108 (PWI members $96) Early Registration Deadline: 05/24/2013

CEU’s available for this class through the NASW

To register contact: pwi@processwork.org or call (503) 223-8188

Shrouded in taboo and judgment, suicidal feelings are much more common than we realize. Not a symptom of disease or sign of giving up on life, the urge to die is often a desperate need for change conflicting with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Many cultures around the world respect this encounter with the most sacred aspects of what it is to be human. How can we support others – and respond to these feelings in ourselves? What do we do when we are afraid someone might try to kill themselves? What is the role of professional intervention, and are there risks of making the situation worse?

Is it possible to use the power of suicidal feelings as a source of inspiration and  revitalization?

Discover latest research about responding to suicidal feelings, hear about innovative practices, and learn practical tools for engaging with these often frightening and overwhelming emotional states. Clinicians, students, people who have struggled with suicidal feelings, family, and others welcome. Co-sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices.

Will Hall MA, DiplPW, is an internationally recognized therapist and mental diversity trainer who has himself recovered from a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Host of Madness Radio and founder of Portland Hearing Voices, Will’s writing has appeared in the Journal of Best Practices in Mental Health and Modern Community Mental Health Work: An Interdisciplinary Approach(Oxford Press). www.willhall.net

Icarus Project co-founders Sascha Altman DuBrul and Jacks McNamara, Book readings and discussion on Creativity and Madness
April 1st, 7pm-9pm
Jack London Bar. 529 SW 4th Ave. Portland

Join Portland Hearing Voices in a co-sponsored event at Jack London Bar welcoming Sascha Altman DuBrul, author of Maps to the Other Side: The Adventures of a Bipolar Cartographer, and Jacks McNamara, author of Inbetweenland, for Creativity and Madness. In this evening of readings, discussion, and selections of art from The Icarus Project 10th anniversary art show, we’ll investigate creativity as a tool for survival and liberation. Facilitated by Sascha Altman Dubrul and Jacks McNamara.

More info? The Icarus Project

Sascha Altman DuBrul and Jacks McNamara, co-founders of The Icarus Project: Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness: radical mental health workshop.
April 2nd, Red and Black Café 7pm
400 SE 12th Ave. Portland

Join Portland Hearing Voices in a co-sponsored event with Sascha Altman DuBrul and Jacks McNamara, co-authors of Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness. In this workshop, we’ll talk about what it means to be “crazy” in a crazy world, and find language for our own experiences of mental health and emotional/spiritual distress. Through facilitated discussion, writing, partnered exercises, sharing stories, and working on our own wellness maps, we’ll develop our visions of self-care and community healing. Facilitated by Sascha Altman Dubrul and Jacks McNamara.

More info? The Icarus Project

Hearing Voices workshop:

Working With Voices For Key-Workers & Voice Hearers

With Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor

April 15-16, 2013 Portland, Oregon

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 & high in distress. Many professionals are left frustrated when medication does not deliver the desired results.

Join Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor of Working to Recovery Ltd. for a two-day workshop for voice hearers and those who work with them. This workshop will provide a space for the voice hearers to be teachers and the workers to be the learners! We hope to give workers the confidence to work individually with their clients on understanding the voices and the knowledge to promote Hearing Voices groups with in their services, as well as supporting the workers to help advocate with more understanding for medication reductions and different approaches to treatment, including trauma informed care. This will be a hands-on, experiential workshop.

Download flyer here: http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/HearingVoicesApril2013RonColemanTrainingflyer.pdf

SPACE IS LIMITED: 15 voice hearers, 30 workers/service providers*
*Ideally, the participants will consist of direct mental health service providers and voice hearers that have an ongoing working relationship to promote continuation of the practices learned in the workshop.

REGISTRATION COST: $10 for voice hearers, $60 for workers/service providers The registration includes the cost of the required workbook “Working With Voices”

Please contact Nicole for more information on how to register: nicolemhao@gmail.com or (503) 922-2377

Ron Coleman is a Mental Health Trainer and Consultant specializing 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 has published several books including ‘Politics of the Madhouse’, co-authored ‘Working with Voices’ & ‘Working to Recovery’ and also wrote ‘Recovery an Alien Concept?’ – Ron is now back in his homeland of Scotland after 20 years of self imposed exile!

Karen Taylor is an RMN with 16 years experience in the NHS in England with both older people and adults of working age. She has personal experience of designing, implementing and managing innovative community care services. After leaving the NHS she managed a company ‘Keepwell Ltd’ for 2 years. Whilst there she co-authored the workbook ‘Working to
Recovery’ and ran a psychosis resolution service based on Recovery. Karen has also been involved in introducing recovery training into Australia, New Zealand, Palestine, Denmark and Italy as well as throughout the UK. Based in Scotland Karen is also a Director with Ron Coleman in ‘Working to Recovery Limited’.

OPEN DIALOGUE FILM: An Alternative, Finnish Approach to Healing Psychosis

Video Showing And Discussion

Thursday, January 31, 2013
7:30-9:30pm
Free and open to the public
Process Work
Institute, 2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland

Download flyer here: www.portlandhearingvoices.net/ files/OpenDialogueFilmShowingJan2013Flyer.pdf

Finland once boasted some of Europe’s poorest outcomes for schizophrenia, but today has the best recovery results in the world. They turned their system around with an approach called Open Dialogue. Open Dialogue meets clients in crisis immediately and often daily until the crises are resolved. They avoid hospitalization and its consequential stigma, preferring to meet in the homes of those seeking their services. And, perhaps most controversially, they avoid the use of anti-psychotic medication wherever possible. They also work in groups, because they view psychosis as a problem involving relationships.

Open Dialogue is a new way of approaching psychosis that is rich with application in the US: low use of medications, team approach, working with families and relationships, dialogic listening, non-hierarcy and openness among professionals, non-diagnostic language, and expectation of recovery. Come learn about how Open Dialogue helps people and how we can use these approaches in the US.

Daniel Mackler’s 74 Minute film about Open Dialogue will be shown, followed by a discussion led by Will Hall, schizophrenia diagnosis survivor and director of Portland Hearing Voices, who is training with Open Dialogue creator Jaakko Seikkula. (Will is also offering a day long
Introduction to Open Dialogue workshop on February 10.)

Co-sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices, Empowerment Initiatives, Rethinking Psychiatry, and the Mental Health Association of Portland

More info: http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-mary-olson-open-dialog

http://beyondmeds.com/2011/03/21/finnishopendialogue/

www.willhall.net/opendialogue

Introduction to Open Dialogue Approach to
First Episode Psychosis

A Workshop With Will Hall, MA,
DiplPW

Sunday, February 10, 2013 10am-4:00pm
Process WorkInstitute
2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland OR

Workshop fee: $90; Pre-registration recommended: (503) 223-8188; pwi@processwork.org

info: portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com;

CEU’s are available for this event

Download flyer here: http://www. portlandhearingvoices.net/files/OpenDialogueIntroductionWorkshop2013.pdf
.

Co-Sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Health Association of
Portland, and Empowerment Initiatives.

Dr.Jaakko Seikkula and colleagues in Finland have developed “Open
Dialogue,” a family network approach to first episode psychosis. Open
Dialogue de-emphasizes pharmaceutical intervention and instead establishes a dialogue with the social network and organizes a
“treatment meeting” within twenty-four hours. This reduces hospitalization, lowers use of medication, and leads to less recurrance of crisis.

In a five-year follow-up, 83% of patients returned to their jobs or studies and were not receiving government disability, and 77% did not have psychotic symptoms. Open Dialogue is gaining support in the US after Robert Whitaker, in his book Anatomy of An Epidemic, featured it as an effective alternative to the poor treatment outcomes for psychosis in the US.

Open Dialogue is a new way of approaching psychosis that is rich with application in the US: low use of medications, team approach, working with families and relationships, dialogic listening, non-hierarcy and openness among professionals, non-diagnostic language, and expectation of recovery. Come learn about how Open Dialogue helps people and how we can use these approaches in the US. Similarities with Process Work and other approaches will be addressed, and you will learn new tools to put into practice right away.

Portland Hearing Voices Director, schizophrenia diagnosis survivor, and therapist Will Hall is currently training with Dr. Seikkula and his colleague Dr. Mary Olson in Open Dialogue at the Institute for Dialogic
Practice. This introductory workshop with Will provides a basic introduction to Open Dialogue and the concepts behind it. (Open Dialogue is a Finnish hospital clinical method based on 3 years+ training, and this Introduction does not represent the depth of that method, but instead serves to spark interest in learning more.) This is the third year this popular workshop has been offered in Portland.

A limited number of scholarships are available for this workshop, please contact us.

More info: http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-mary-olson-open-dialog,

http:// beyondmeds.com/2011/03/21/finnishopendialogue/,

www.willhall.net/ opendialogue

Understanding Psychiatric Medications: A
Harm Reduction Approach

with Will Hall MA, Dipl PW

Sunday, October 21

10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Process Work Institute
2049 NW Hoyt
St. Portland

$120 ($108 before Oct. 8th)
Space limited; pre-registration recommended
Registration: info@processwork.org
Scholarship info: portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com
5.75 CEU’s available for this workshop

Download flyer here: http://www. portlandhearingvoices.net/files/PsychMedicationsWorkshopOct21-
2012WillHall.pdf

How can anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, and other drugs be used wisely? What are the risks and benefits? How can we collaborate effectively with prescribers, and what about reducing and withdrawal from medications?
Come learn a pragmatic harm reduction approach that is neither pro- nor anti- medication, but instead based in mental diversity. Everyone is welcome: professionals, survivors, students, family, and anyone taking or not taking medications.

Will Hall, MA, DiplPW, is a therapist who has himself recovered from a diagnosis of schizophrenia and now teaches internationally. Director of Portland Hearing Voices and host of KBOO’s Madness Radio, Will has written in the Journal of Best Practices in Mental Health and in the upcoming Oxford University Press Modern Community Mental Health Work. He is author of the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, used widely in the peer recovery movement. http://www.willhall.net.

Co-Sponsored by: Process Work Institute, Portland Hearing Voices,
Mental Health Association of Portland, and Empowerment Initiatives

For more information: www.processwork.org

Facilitators Training
Led by Chaya Grossberg and Kate Hill

November 5 & 6, 2012, 10am to 4pm

Our United Villages,
3625 North Mississippi Avenue, Portland, OR 97227

Cost:
$140  |  Scholarships available; please inquire.

Space is limited to 40 participants.
Preregistration is required.

To reserve your space, or if you have any questions, contact:
Chaya at chayamhap@yahoo.com

• What are extreme states?
• Where do they come from and what do they mean?

• How can we support members of the community who experience voices and extreme states, both in coping with challenges and nurturing strengths?

• What are Hearing Voices groups, and why are they making a difference in peopleís lives?This two-day training for mental health consumers, providers, and anyone who is interested, will provide you with a deeper understanding of extreme states and voices, and prepare you to start your own Hearing
  Voices group.Led by facilitating trainers Chaya Grossberg and
  Kate Hill, the training will include a brief history of the Hearing
  Voices movement, an informed perspective on medications, the importance of spirituality and the repercussions of trauma. Participants will develop their skills with hands-on learning experiences, including practice groups and role-playing of challenging scenarios. People on or off medications are welcome.Chaya Grossberg has facilitated support groups with people experiencing extreme states of consciousness for 10 years. She has also spoken and written publicly about her own experiences and views of extreme states. She seeks to empower us as individuals with unique experiences of what we call reality.Kate Hill is currently a Portland Hearing Voices facilitator. She is also a former Mental Health Assistant and psychiatric survivor. She has been living in Portland for 20+ years, finds language in the fine and performing arts, and is pursuing an education at the Process Work
  Institute.
  

  Hearing Voices Group Facilitation Training
  July 16-18, 2012
  Portland Oregon (location TBA)
  Free training, space limited apply here: www.peerlinktac.org/hearing-voices
  Applications are due Friday
  June 15

The Hearing Voices Facilitators Training will give you the skills and knowledge to run Hearing Voices and Extreme States support groups!

Hearing Voices Groups (also called Voices and Extreme States groups) are a peer-led place to share and explore voices and any other kind of unusual and extreme experience, in a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere. These states are sometimes labeled psychosis, but we need to embrace a much wider view of human possibility. Started more than 20 years ago in Europe, these groups are now spreading in the US! One of the original UK Hearing Voices founders, Ron Coleman, will lead the training, joined by Oryx Cohen (National Empowerment Center) and Will
Hall (Portland Hearing Voices).

In this 3-day training voice hearers and people with unusual experiences come together with people who have not experienced these states. The result is a powerful diversity for learning, and a solid foundation for setting up and facilitating groups.

Peers, professionals, and everyone are welcome: priority to those committed to creating a group.

Sponsored by Peerlink, SAMHSA, and Portland Hearing Voices

OPEN DIALOGUE FILM: An Alternative, Finnish Approach to
Healing Psychosis

Video Showing And Discussion

Friday, February 17, 2012
Part of Rethinking Psychiatry Film
Festival
6:30pm
Portland First Unitarian
Church

Finland once boasted some of Europe’s poorest outcomes for schizophrenia, but today has the best recovery results in the world.
They turned their system around with an approach called Open Dialogue.
Open Dialogue meets clients in crisis immediately and often daily until the crises are resolved. They avoid hospitalization and its consequential stigma, preferring to meet in the homes of those seeking their services. And, perhaps most controversially, they avoid the use of anti-psychotic medication wherever possible. They also work in groups, because they view psychosis as a problem involving relationships.

Daniel Mackler’s 74 Minute film about Open Dialogue will be shown, followed by a discussion led by Will Hall, schizophrenia diagnosis survivor and director of Portland Hearing Voices, who is training with
Open Dialogue creator Jaakko Seikkula. (Will is also offering a day long
Introduction to Open Dialogue workshop on February 25.)

More info: http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-mary-olson-open-dialog http:// beyondmeds.com/2011/03/21/finnishopendialogue/

Introduction to Open Dialogue Approach to First Episode
Psychosis
A Workshop With Will Hall, MA, DiplPW

Saturday, February 25, 2012 10am-2:00pm
Process Work
Institute
2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland OR

Workshop fee: $60 (contact us about scholarships).

info: portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com

3.5 CEU’s are available for this event

Download flyer here: http://www.portlandhearingvoices
.net/files/OpenDialogIntroductionWorkshop2012.pdf. Black and white version for printing here.

Co-Sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Health Association of
Portland, and National Association of Social Workers – Oregon Chapter
Mental Health Network.

Dr. Jaakko Seikkula and colleagues in Finland have developed “Open
Dialogue,” a family network approach to first episode psychosis. Open
Dialogue de-emphasizes pharmaceutical intervention and instead establishes a dialogue with the social network and organizes a
“treatment meeting” within twenty-four hours. This reduces hospitalization, lowers use of medication, and leads to less recurrance of crisis.

In a five-year follow-up, 83% of patients returned to their jobs or studies and were not receiving government disability, and 77% did not have psychotic symptoms. Open Dialogue is gaining support in the US after Robert Whitaker, in his book Anatomy of An Epidemic, featured it as an effective alternative to the poor treatment outcomes for psychosis in the US.

Portland Hearing Voices Director, schizophrenia diagnosis survivor, and local therapist Will Hall is currently training with Dr. Seikkula and his colleague Dr. Mary Olson in Open Dialogue at the Mill River
Institute in Haydenville MA. This introductory evening with Will provides a basic introduction to Open Dialogue and the concepts behind it. (Open Dialogue is a Finnish hospital clinical method based on 3 years+ training, and this Introduction does not represent the depth of that method, but instead serves to spark interest in learning more.)

For more information on Open Dialog, including a recent Madness Radio interview with Open Dialog practitioner Dr. Mary Olson and articles by
Olson and Seikkula, please go to http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/alternative-for
-psychosis/.

Mental Diversity Meetups
Informal public social gatherings open to all
Last Sunday of Every Month
4pm-6:30
Backspace Cafe 115 Northwest 5th Avenue at
Couch

Everyone is invited to join Portland Hearing Voices for an informal gathering with drink, eats, and socializing. Meet new people, learn from each other, and build community. An antidote to loneliness! Look for the sign and check the whole cafe. There’s no agenda, and it’s self-facilitated: we just find each other and hang out. Anyone interested, not just those with extreme/visionary states, is welcome.

Look for a sign, and check the whole cafe, there may be just a few people or it might be a crowd!

Upcoming meetups are:

Sunday January 29, 2012
Sunday February 26
Sunday March 25

Understanding Extreme States and Psychiatric Diagnosis: A
Process Work Approach

Saturday, February 4th, 2012 10am – 4:30 pm
Process Work Institute
2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland, Oregon

Taught by Will Hall MA, Dipl PW and Myriam Rahman MA, Dipl
PW

$60; ($50 before Jan 20th) (please contact myriamrahman@gmail.com regarding scholarships) Space limited. Pre-registration recommended.
Please contact portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com to register.

5.5 CEU’s available for this workshop, please contact us

Download flyer here: http:/www. portlandhearingvoices.net/files/ExtremeStatesProcessWorkWkshp02-04-
2012MyriamRWillH.pdf. Black and white version for printing here.

Sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices, www.portlandhearingvoices.net,
Mental Health Association of Portland, and National Association of
Social Workers – Oregon Chapter Mental Health Network.

Is there meaning in madness? Is there potential growth in the distressing experiences labeled psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia?

This workshop will bring light to how the human mind is far more mysterious than a label or a diagnosis could ever encompass. We will discover the gifts of sensitivity, creativity, and spirituality that are intertwined with what gets called a disorder, and explore together the many ways for individuals who experience extreme states to live beyond the confines of a medical diagnosis.

Process Work skills allow us to approach extreme states as meaningful communication that reveals unique pathways for individual growth and social change. How can we engage with extreme states when they pose difficult and sometimes life-threatening challenges, including hospitalization; diagnosis; medication; and an identity of being ill?
Using discussion, demonstrations, and experiential exercises, this workshop will provide an introduction to a Process Oriented way to live and work with the meaning behind bipolar, schizophrenia, psychosis, and other extreme states of consciousness.

Everyone is invited to this in introductory and inclusive workshop: professionals, those interested in Process Work, people with diagnosis and/or extreme states, anyone taking or not taking medications, family members, and the community are all welcome.

About the co-teachers: Will Hall and Myriam Rahman offer a unique personal perspective on Process Work and psychiatric diagnosis from their own experience with hospitalization, diagnosis, and medication.

Will Hall, MA, DiplPW, is a Portland based therapist and facilitator who has recovered from a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Director of
Portland Hearing Voices, Will also hosts Madness Radio on KBOO and teaches internationally on new approaches to madness and extreme states. www.willhall.net.

Myriam Rahman, MA, DiplPW works with individuals, couples and families in her Portland, Oregon private therapy practice. She teaches internationally and is a trainer and consultant for Portland Hearing
Voices. Myriam is a survivor of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder w/ psychosis and uses her experience of recovery in her work as a therapist and facilitator.

About Portland Hearing Voices: Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will
Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia. (Fiscally sponsored by Mental
Health Association of Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net

Mental Health Advocates Meet!

December 13, 2011
6:30 – 8 PM
Kempton Hall, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
147 NW
19th Avenue, Portland (arking Available)
FREE and open to the public

An opportunity for a community discussion about mental and addiction health issues with:

Amanda Fritz, Portland City Commissioner
Jeff Cogen, Multnomah
County Commission Chair

Sponsored by:Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare Central City Concern,
Disability Rights Oregon, Empowerment Initiatives, Eyes & Ears, Home
Forward, Lifeworks NW, Luke-Dorf, The Lund Report, Mental Health
Association of Portland, Portland Hearing Voices, Multnomah County
Crisis Line, Telecare, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, The Skanner News,
Street Roots, and others.

More information? Mental Health Association of Portland ? www.mentalhealthportland.org

Madness and Mental Diversity:
Psychosis, Bipolar, and
Schizophrenia As Field Evolution with Will Hall

Wednesday, December 7, 2011
4134 N Borthwick Ave, Portland, OR
7pm — Free

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An Evolver special presentation

Co-sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices, Portland Evolver, and the
Mental Health Association of Portland

What if experiences labeled bipolar or schizophrenia are instead invitations to collaborate on mutual growth and evolution? What if
“madness” is a purposeful and self-organizing potential for broader change?

Conventional frameworks view a “psychotic” disconnect from reality as a regression to an earlier developmental stage, a deficit/imbalance in normal functioning, or an excess of perception. Using Process Oriented
Psychology, this Evolver special presentation will explore the meaning of “severe mental illness” and challenge us to rethink our relationship to extreme states within and around us. It will also offer a historical consideration of the psychedelic experience to help understand how it relates to psychosis.

About the presenter: Will Hall recovered from a diagnosis of schizophrenia and is a Portland based therapist in private practice who teaches internationally on Mental Diversity . He holds a Masters Degree and Diploma in Process Oriented Psychology, an awareness paradigm pioneered by physicist and Jungian analyst Arnold Mindell. Will hosts
Madness Radio monthly on KBOO FM and is the Director of Portland Hearing
Voices, a local support, education, and training community. www.willhall.net www.madnessradio.com

About Portland Hearing Voices:
Founded by schizophrenia diagnosis survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia.
(Project of the Mental Health Association of Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net

About Evolver:
“Evolver is a new social network for conscious collaboration. It provides a platform for individuals, communities, and organizations to discover and share the new tools, initiatives, and ideas that will improve our lives and change the world. Are you an evolver? Evolvers are hope fiends and utopian pragmatists. We see the creative chaos of this time as a great gift and opportunity to rethink, reconnect, and reinvent. Evolvers appreciate pristine mountains, open source economics, and the precocious laughter of small children.
Evolvers belong to the regenerative culture of the future, being born here and now.” www.evolver.net

Rethinking Psychiatry Two-Day Symposium

Friday,
May 13, 2011 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Creating a New Paradigm of Mental
Health Care: What Needs to be Done? and Why?

Saturday, May 14, 2011 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Building Strong
Communities: New Tools for Mental, Emotional and Spiritual
Health

The First Unitarian Church of Portland
1011 SW 12th

Featuring Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic:Magic
Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

Friday, May 13, 2011 7:00 to 9:00 PM Creating a New Paradigm of
Mental Health Care: What needs to be done? And why?

Join Robert Whitaker as he facilitates a conversation with the audience and a panel of mental health care providers and peers on the current national movement to create a mental health care system that is more holistic, effective and humane.

Saturday, May 14, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Building Strong Communities: New
Tools for Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Health

Join us for workshops, open microphone, round table discussions and a community resource fair as we highlight the array of ideas, actions and activities that are helping to create the new paradigm of mental health care for all.

Portland Hearing Voices Workshop:
Coming Off Psychiatric
Medications: A Harm Reduction Approach Taught by Will
Hall

Time: 10:30-11:45 a.m. Room Number: B202-B203

Do you want to get involved? There are many ways to participate including:

Conversation Cafe: Host a topic of conversation and round table discussion on Saturday in a larger area with tables, large paper and markers.

Community Resource Fair: Table highlighting your organization.

Workshop: Present a workshop, facilitate a discussion or provide a creative or healing experience.

For more information: Call Marcia Meyers at 503-665-3957 Email: healthymindshealthyhearts@gmail.com. See http://www.facebook.comevent.php?eid=138437579559635

Ethan Watters author of Crazy Like Us:
Globalization of the American Psyche
Thursday, May 19, 2011
7:30pm

Powell’s City of Books 1005 W Burnside Portland, OR
97209

The most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture across the globe has not been our golden arches or our bomb craters, says Ethan Watters in Crazy Like Us (Free Press), but our bulldozing of the human psyche itself. American-style depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anorexia have begun to spread around the world like contagions, and the virus is us. Traveling from Hong Kong to Sri Lanka to Zanzibar to Japan, journalist Ethan Watters witnesses firsthand how
Western healers often steamroll indigenous expressions of mental health and madness and replace them with our own. In teaching the rest of the world to think like us, we have been homogenizing the way the world goes mad. Cosponsored by Portland Hearing Voices; introduced by Will Hall,
Portland Hearing Voices Director. http://www.crazylikeus.com/ www.portlandhearingvoices. net

Download flyer: http
://www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/Crazy_Like_US.jpg

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Participant reading- Write Around Portland Workshops
Free community reading & anthology release party
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
6:30-8:00pm*
First United Methodist
Church in Collins Hall at the back of the church

1838 SW Jefferson St, Portland at the Goose Hollow TriMet MAX stop
Free (but limited) parking available.

Join us for a great evening of words and community-building as writers from our spring workshops for seniors with Alzheimer’s, youth in a GED program, domestic violence survivors, adults living with mental illness and many others read their work from our new book, Still the
Days Grow Longer.

The event is organized by Write Around Portland, free, and everyone is welcome. ADA-accessible. Free childcare provided. Anthologies and
Write Around Portland t-shirts will be available for purchase. Financial donations welcome, appreciated and tax deductible. Call 503.796.9224 for more information.

Music and Madness!
Celebrate the 2 Year
Anniversary of Portland Hearing Voices
Sunday June 5, 2011
7-10pm
$8-15 cover sliding scale donation (no one turned away)

Featuring Music by:

Lillian Soderman www.reverbnation.com/lilliansoderman
Karyn Patridge www.reverbnation.com/karynpatridge
Bird Flying South www.birdflyingsouth.bandcamp.com

Someday Lounge

125 Northwest 5th Avenue

We’re two years old! Celebrate Portland Hearing Voices work for community support and public education at a special benefit party at
Someday Lounge, with three local musical performers and speakers from
Portland Hearing Voices.

Free Yoga For
Trauma and Extreme States

Saturdays, 1-2pm beginning
October 23 2010

Lotus Seed Studio 6 NE Tillamook Portland (#4 and #44 bus lines)

Led by Casadi Marino, LCSW, CADC III

Download Flyer here: http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net
/files/PHVFreeYogaFlyer.pdf

Yoga is an ancient art that helps individuals cultivate ways of maintaining balance and well-being. Yoga encourages focus, mindfulness, and clarity. This class is of the Vinyasa school of yoga that links movement with breath and links postures to form a flow. The class is designed for individuals who have experienced trauma and extreme states. Instructor Casadi Marino identifies as a trauma survivor and as an individual diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Information: yogaformadfolk@gmail.com.

You are encouraged to bring your own yoga mat or you can borrow one from the studio. Casadi is currently completing the yoga teacher training program through the Lotus
Seed Studio to become a registered yoga teacher.

Co-Sponsored by
Portland Hearing Voices & Empowerment Initiatives www.portlandhearingvoices.net www.chooseempowerment.com

Free Commmunity Writing Workshop for people living with and/or affected by experiences that are often diagnosed and labeled as psychiatric conditions

With Write
Around Portland, in partnership with Portland Hearing Voices, and First
Unitarian Church Mental Health Action Group

Wednesdays,
6-8pm
February 9th-April 13th, 2011

Download the flier here: http://www. portlandhearingvoices.net/files/
PortlandHearingVoicesWriteAroundPDXWorkshop2011.pdf

Writing journals, pens and light snacks provided. Priority registration given to individuals who have not previously participated in a Write Around Portland workshop. Ask about bus tickets when you register.

Writers will be invited to the big public reading of all the season’s writing workshops for Write Around Portland and asked to submit to the
Write Around Portland literary magazine.

Wednesdays, 6-8pm
10 Weeks: February 9th-April 13th, 2011

Location: First Unitarian Church of Portland Address: Eliot Center at
12th & Salmon, Portland

Pre-registration is required, space is limited.

To register, contact Write Around Portland at 503-796-9224. For more info about Write Around: www.writearound.org. In partnership with Portland Hearing Voices and the First Unitarian Church
Mental Health Action Group. For more info about Portland Hearing Voices: www.portlandhearingvoices.net

Moving Mental Health Recovery Forward / Rethinking
Psychiatry Community Forum with Robert Whitaker and Panel
Thursday, February 10, 2011

The First Unitarian
Church of Portland
1011 SW 12th, Portland OR

Reception
5:00pm-6:45pm
Keynote speaker Robert Whitaker and panel
7:00pm-9:00pm

Keynote Speaker

ROBERT WHITAKER is the author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America and three previous books: Mad in America),
The Mapmaker’s Wife and On the Laps of Gods He worked as a newspaper reporter for eight years and was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at
MIT. As a journalist writing about mental health, Robert Whitaker won a
George Polk award for medical writing and a National Association of
Science Writer’s award for best magazine article. A series he co-wrote for the Boston Globe was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in public service. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Panel
Beckie Child, Director of the Mental Health America of
Oregon
Cindi Fisher, Movement of Mothers Standing – Up -Together:
Taking Back Our Children ( The M.O.M.S. Movement )
Chris Gordon,
Assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Medical
Director of Mental Health Advocacy
Will Hall, Portland therapist,
Director of Portland Hearing Voices, and national leader in “peer recovery”
Gina Nikkel, Director of the Oregon Association of
Community Mental Health Programs.

ANATOMY OF AN EPIDEMIC website: www.madinamerica.com

Sponsored by: The Economic Justice Action Group of the First
Unitarian Church of Portland, Empowerment Initiatives, Inc., Mental
Health America of Oregon, The Real Wealth of Portland, Mental Health
Association of Oregon, Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Health Rights,
Yes, and MindFreedom International

Working with Voices

A Training Workshop with
UK Hearing Voices Network Leaders
Ron Coleman and Paul Baker

Tuesday November 16, 2010, 8:30am-4:30pm

Good Samaritan Hospital, Building 2 Auditorium

1015 NW 22nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97210

Download flyer here: http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net
/files/WorkingwithVoicesNov16Portland.pdf

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Sponsored by the NASW of Oregon Mental Health Network www.nasworegon.org and Portland Hearing Voices www.portlandhearingvoices.net

6.5 CEUs available

Download the presentation slides for this event: http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/
PaulBakerRonColemanHearingVoicesSlides11-2010PortlandOR.pdf

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.
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 & high in distress. This one-day workshop has been designed to help practitioners understand the experience of hearing voices and interventions that can be used to enable the voice hearer take control of their experience. As a result of this training, individuals will know how to develop an in depth understanding of people?s voice hearing experience & will be able to use proven tools to help individuals develop successful coping strategies.

Please join us for this unique opportunity to learn innovative techniques for working with voices from leaders of the UK hearing voices movement.

Presenters Touring from the UK from the Hearing Voices
Network

Ron Coleman is a mental health trainer and consultant specializing 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 & out of the psychiatric system has given him many insights into the many difficult issues facing today?s mental health services.
Ron has published several books including ?Politics of the Madhouse? and
?Recovery: an Alien Concept?? He also co ?authored ?Working with Voices?
& ?Working to Recovery.?

Paul Baker is a community development and group worker. He has a
Post-graduate Diploma in Community Education, specializing in working with young people and people with mental health problems. Paul has worked in the health care and education sectors for the last 30 years.
He had the responsibility to develop innovative mental health care services in the community including services run by the people who use them, self-advocacy services, supported housing services, social firms and enterprises as well as the development of forums for people to enable them to have a direct input in the development and running of services. Paul was one of the founding members of the Hearing Voices
Network in England and is currently the coordinator of INTERVOICE, the influential coordinating body for the international hearing voices movement.

For more information about the Hearing Voices Movement and Ron
Coleman and Paul Baker, please check out http:www.intervoiceonline.org and http://www.workingtorecovery. co.uk. For local contacts in the Hearing Voices Movement please go to www.portlandhearingvoices. net

Reserve your space by sending an email to naswmentalhealth@yahoo.com

Cost: $90 (checks and cash taken at the door the day of the training)

Reflections on a Workshop with Jaakko Seikkula and Mary
Olson:
Open Dialog Approach to First Episode Psychosis
An
Introduction With Will Hall
Monday, November 22, 2010
6:30-8:30pm

Process Work Institute
2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland
OR

$20 donation requested; no one turned away for lack of funds.

info: portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com

CEU’s are available for this event

Download flyer here: www.portlandhearingvoices.net/ files/OpenDialogIntroductionNov22Flyer.pdf

Co-Sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Health Association of
Portland, and Empowerment Initiatives.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Jaakko Seikkula’s hospital team in
Finland has advanced and refined ?Open Dialogue,? a family and social network approach to first episode psychosis care, and this way of working has garnered widespread attention for dramatically improving outcomes. Open Dialog de-emphasizes US-style pharmaceutical intervention and instead establishes a dialogue with the patient, provides immediate help, and organizes ?a treatment meeting? within twenty-four hours of the initial contact. The results consistently show that this way of working reduces hospitalization, lowers use of medication, and leads to less recurrance of crisis when compared with psychosis treatment as usual. For example, in a five-year follow-up (Seikkula et al. 2006), 83% of patients have returned to their jobs or studies or were job seeking, thus not receiving government disability. In the same study, 77% did not have residual psychotic symptoms. Open Dialog is gaining growing support in the US after Robert Whitaker, in his book Anatomy of An Epidemic, featured Open Dialog as an effective alternative to the poor treatment outcomes associated with overuse of medications.

Portland Hearing Voices Director and local therapist Will Hall recently completed the first US workshop with Dr. Seikkula and his colleague Mary Olson in Open Dialog, four days at the Vallecitos Retreat in New Mexico. This introductory evening with Will will present his reflections on that workshop. (Open Dialog is a Finnish hospital clinical method based on 3 years+ training, and this Introduction does not represent the depth of that method, but instead reports on the workshop and serves to spark interest in learning more.)

For more information on Open Dialog, including a recent Madness Radio interview with Open Dialog practitioner Mary Olson and articles by Olson and Seikkula, please go to http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/alternative-for
-psychosis/.

The Mental Health Association of Portland presents
The Future of Oregon State Hospital
Greg Roberts, MSW superintendent, Oregon State Hospital
Mark Diamond, DO chief medical officer, Oregon State Hospital
Reception 6 PM Speakers 7
PM
October 28, 2010

Oregon Health Sciences University McKenzie Hall

Sponsored in part by Portland Hearing Voices, NAMI of Multnomah
County, Disability Rights Oregon, OHSU Department of Psychiatry,
Empowerment Initiatives, Mental Health Association of Oregon, Cascadia
Behavioral Healthcare, and others.

For more information about the
Mental Health Association of Portland, visit www.mentalhealthportland.org

Building Momentum:
A Gathering of Organizers for a
Forum on
Economic Human Rights in Portland

Saturday, September 18th, 2010 from 10am to 2pm at
Portland State
University

Portland Hearing Voices Workshop at
10:30-11:30am

Join Social Welfare Action Alliance on Saturday, September 18th from
10am to 2pm at Portland State University for a series of workshops and presentations on local economic human rights organizing efforts. The purpose of this event is to support and build local efforts promoting economic human rights. Economic human rights, as named in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as Articles 23, 25, and 26, state all people?s right to such provisions as housing, health care, a living wage job, and education.

Portland Hearing Voices is participating by conducting a workshop on
September 18th at 10:30-11:30am. Please come support Portland Hearing
Voices and learn more about other participating organizations including
SEIU, Iron Tribe, Urban League of Portland, CAUSA, Street Yoga, and
Community Alliance of Tenants.

This forum is presented in support of Sisters Of The Road?s Peace
Roots event beginning at 6:30pm that evening at the First Unitarian
Church of Portland.

For more information and to let us know you are coming, please email
SWAA at swaapdx@hotmail.com. Also, visit SWAA?s website at www.swaaportland.org for more details and the daily schedule.

Robert
Whitaker

Pulitzer Finalist Author of Anatomy of An
Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of
Mental Illness in America,

At Powell’s Books
A
Special Benefit Lecture Sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices

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Thursday, August 19, 2010
7:30 pm
Powells City of Books
Downtown
1005 W Burnside
Portland, OR

Download the flyer for the event here: www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/
RobertWhitakerPowellsAug19.pdf

Video and Audio of Robert Whitaker in Portland here: http://www.madnessradio.net/robert- whitaker-anatomy-epidemic-powells-aug-2010-video-audio

Join Portland Hearing Voices at this special benefit lecture at
Powell’s featuring Robert Whitaker, Pullitzer finalist journalist and author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.

How beneficial are psychiatric medications for depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, and psychosis in the long term? What does the record of research actually show about drug effectiveness? Do medications reduce the rate of mental illness — or fuel its dramatic rise? Are the adverse effects of medications often worse than the benefits? What can be done to change the current pharmaceutical driven regime of mental health care?

Pulitzer finalist and George Polk
Award winning journalist Robert Whitaker’s new book Anatomy of an
Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of
Mental Illness in America recognizes the usefulness of medications for some people but reveals a consistent and disturbing pattern from half a century of medication effectiveness research: over the long term psychiatric drugs create far more serious problems than they first address.

Join Portland Hearing Voices in this benefit lecture at
Powells as we take an honest look at what works and what does not work in medication policy and shine light on the disturbing human cost of a failed mental health system. Whitaker will be available to sign books at the event.

More info about Anatomy of An Epidemic at Robert
Whitaker’s website: www.madinamerica.com/.

About Portland Hearing Voices: Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia.
(Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net</ p>

“Medications & the Recovery Movement”

A Dialog for Consumers / Survivors / People with Mental Health
Diagnosis and
Pulitzer Finalist Author
Robert Whitaker

Thursday August 19, 2010
9:30-11:30 am
Empowerment Initiatives
3941 SE Hawthorne St.
Portland

Download the flyer for the event here: http://www. portlandhearingvoices.net/files/WhitakerConsumerSurvivorForumAug19-2010. pdf

Pulitzer finalist and George Polk Award winning journalist Robert Whitaker’s new book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic
Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America recognizes the usefulness of medications for some people but reveals a consistent and disturbing pattern from half a century of medication effectiveness research: over the long term psychiatric drugs create far more serious problems than they first address.

As people who take medications, have been hospitalized, have diagnoses of severe mental illnesses, and have experienced emotional crisis that gets called psychosis, how can consumers/survivors best support each other and build a strong and effective recovery movement while staying honest and truthful about the nature of psychiatric medications? What does
Robert Whitaker’s research have to teach us as a recovery movement? Join us for an open discussion with Robert Whitaker on this subject.
(Consumer/survivors/people with mental health diagnoses are invited to this forum, and those without this experience are asked to take a role of listening and learning during this event.)

Sponsored by
Portland Hearing Voices www.portlandhearingvoices.net, Empowerment
Initiatives www.chooseempowerment.com, & Mental Health Association of
Portland www.mentalhealthportland.org

About Portland Hearing Voices: Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia.
(Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net</ p>

“Ethical Psychiatric Medication Policy In Clinical
Settings”

Forum for Professionals and Providers

with Pulitzer
Finalist Author
Robert Whitaker

**2 CEU’s Available for this event** (please arrive early)

Thursday August 19, 2010
2-4 pm
First Congregational
Church
1126 Southwest Park Ave.
Portland www.uccportland.org

Download the flyer for the event here: http://www. portlandhearingvoices.net/files/
WhitakerEthicalMedicationPolicyClinicalForumAug19-2010.pdf< /p>

Pulitzer finalist and George Polk Award winning journalist Robert
Whitaker’s new book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric
Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America recognizes the usefulness of medications for some people but reveals a consistent and disturbing pattern from half a century of medication effectiveness research: over the long term psychiatric drugs create far more serious problems than they first address.

In an era of widespread overmedication, pharmaceutical company corruption, research bias, and coverups of drug risks, how should therapists, social workers, case managers, health practitioners, social agency staff and other professionals approach psychiatric medications? Can medication issues safely and ethically be left to doctors, or is there an urgent need for wider understanding about medications and efforts to change the way their are used? What is an ethical response to the confusing and complex situation with psychiatric medications today?

In this forum professionals involved in the policies and practices of clinical and social service settings are invited to learn from Whitaker’s insightful research and develop sound approaches to medication, while articulating larger goals for institutional and policy level change.

Sponsored by
Portland Hearing Voices www.portlandhearingvoices.net, Mental Health
Association of Portland www.mentalhealthportland.org, and Oregon
National Assocation of Social Workers (NASW) Mental Health Network http://nasworegon.org

About Portland Hearing Voices:
Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia. (Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of
Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net</ p>

Poetry And Madness:
A Reading To Benefit
Portland Hearing Voices

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 7pm

Featuring Emily Kendal Frey, Zachary Schomburg, James Gendron, and
Sara Guest reading

Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th Avenue (at Davis)
Portland

Download the flyer / poster for the event here: www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/Madness-
PoetryJuly13SomedayLoungePHVoicesBenefit.pdf

$10 donation – no one turned away for lack of funds

Info – www.portlandhearingvoices.net, portlandhearingvoices(at)gmail.com

Listen to complete audio of the event courtesy of Kent Bye here: http://www. madnessradio.net/audio-extra/PoetryAndMadnessSomedayLoungeJuly13-
2010PDXVoices.mp3

Join Portland Hearing Voices for an evening of poetry featuring prominent poets, in a benefit reading for support groups, education, and community building for mental diversity in
Portland.

Emily Kendal Frey, http://www.inknode.com/people/emilykendalfrey, lives in Portland,
Oregon and teaches at Portland Community College. She is the author of
Airport (Blue Hour 2009), Frances (Poor Claudia 2010), and The New
Planet (Mindmade Books 2010).

Zachary
Schomburg, http://lovelyarc.blogspot.com, is the author of The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007), Scary, No Scary (Black
Ocean 2009), and a dvd collection of poem-films, Little Blind Thing
(Poor Claudia 2010). Three collaborative chapbooks co-written with Emily
Kendal Frey have recently been published by Futuretense, Small Fires
Press, and Cinematheque Press. With Mathias Svalina, he co-edits a small press, Octopus Books, and an online poetry magazine, Octopus Magazine.
He teaches at Portland State University and Portland Community
College.

Sara Guest is a poet, novelist and
William Stafford Writing Fellow. She works as a program coordinator for
Write Around Portland and is a Delve guide for Literary Arts. Recent work is available online at www.inknode.com and Sir! www.sir-magazine.org.

James Gendron, http://www. lafovea.org/La_Fovea/james_gendron.html, was born and raised in
Portland, Maine. He was the Lou Reed/Delmore Schwartz Scholar at
Syracuse University, and his poems have appeared in The Indiana Review and The Brooklyn Review.

About Portland Hearing Voices: Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, holistic alternatives, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia. (Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of
Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net.

Trauma Healing And Process Work
Research Discussion on a Workshop-In-Progress

Monday April 19 2010

6:30 – 8:30
Process Work
Institute
2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland OR.

Free and Open to the Public

Co-Sponsored by Portland Hearing Voices and the Mental Health
Association of Portland

Presented by Will Hall, Process Work diploma student & Director of
Portland Hearing Voices

I recently returned from leading a 3-day training for 35 peer mental health workers in Alaska on healing emotional trauma. The training drew on my studies in somatic psychotherapy, process oriented psychology, meditation, and dance, as well as my own healing experience.

My workshop was experimental and wove together basic ideas from trauma theory and process work into simple and useful tools. Please join me for a presentation about the training, and be part of a collaborative dialog on how to use Process Work concepts for teaching a broad audience about trauma.

This is a work in progress and your ideas will help us all learn how to teach about trauma healing.

Some of the elements of the Alaska workshop I’ll present:

working with the felt sense in the body as a counterbalance to dissociation a somatic model of trauma based in the work of Peter
Levine and Pat Ogden how this model converges with and differs from process work multiple levels of the brain as a way to understand traumatic experience intrusive memories as organismic attempts to complete and resolve trapped traumatic energy exploring how trauma survivors lose the capacity to say “no” supporting a congruent
“yes” in the person we are supporting how to strengthen our sense of grounding and resourcing in our bodies before we explore trauma adding felt sense and grounding awareness to active listening skills in helping others contacting proprioceptive trauma memories creatively to “melt” dissociation using the ‘magical helper’ exercise without retraumatizing or overwhelming the force behind trauma pushing transformation and new identity

Handouts, slides, and resources for the training are found on my website, http://www.willhall.net, especially books by Peter Levine, Judith Herman, and Pat Ogden, as well as Arnold Mindell.

Location: Process Work Institute,
2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland

The 23rd and Marshall Portland Streetcar stops at 21st St.; there are bus stops on the 15-Belmont and 17-Holgate lines.

Meditation Practice Day – Zen
Peacemaker Circle
Especially for People With Extreme States /
Experience of Psychosis (bipolar, schizophrenia, etc – everyone is welcome) with Ed Daigu Knight & Will Hall

Saturday, April 10, 2010 10am-3pm
$50 donation – deli lunch included
(no one turned away for lack of funds)

The Grotto Conference Center
8840 NE Skidmore
Portland,OR
97294
Directions: http://www. thegrotto.org/index.php/about-us/location/

Dowload event flyer: www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/
April10MeditationDayEdKnight.pdf

Pre-registration is optional, but we recommend it to hold your place. Email portlandhearingvoices(at)gmail.com or 413.210.2803

contact:
Portland Hearing Voices portlandhearingvoices(at)gmail.com
413-210-2803 www.portlandhearingvoices.net

Join Ed Daigu Knight and Will Hall for a day of sitting and walking meditation and contemplation practice — especially for people who have had extreme states of consciousness diagnosed as psychosis, bipolar, schizophrenia, and other labels (everyone is welcome).

How are “crazy” minds also part of the spiritual path? Is there wisdom in our madness? Meditation can show us the true nature of our minds. Join us as we embrace the depths of who we are and honor what we have been through as survivors of extreme states of consciousness.

The day will consist of sitting meditation (chairs available), walking meditation, dharma talks led by Ed Daigu Knight, and group reflection. Our location is the beautiful Grotto Retreat in Portland, a wonderful place to begin the spring.

Be part of this historic event. No meditation practice day has ever been offered especially for people who have experienced psychosis. (Many retreats do not welcome such people.)
So join us for this innovative opportunity to affirm our paths as meditators.

Ed Daigu Knight is dually labeled with
“schizophrenia” and alcoholism, the Steward of The Healing Circle, a Zen
Peacemaker Circle, and a Senior in the Buddhist Zen Peacemaker Sangha. A widely recognized researcher and teacher in “mental illness” recovery and mutual support, Ed is Vice President of Recovery, Rehabilitation and
Mutual Support at Valueoptions, as well as a mentor in the Prison Dharma
Network. www.professored.com

Will Hall is labeled with “schizophrenia” and his advocacy work includes Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Disability Rights
International, The Icarus Project, and hosting Madness Radio, heard on
KBOO FM. A longtime meditator and yoga practitioner, Will is currently studying Process Oriented Psychology. Will was featured in the Newsweek magazine article “Listening to Madness.” www.willhall.net

About Portland Hearing Voices: Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, holistic alternatives, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, extreme states, visions, and different realities often labeled as psychosis, bipolar, and schizophrenia. (Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of
Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net.

Directions: http://www. thegrotto.org/index.php/about-us/location/

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Falling In Love With Portland…
Is Our Hometown As
Diverse As We Want It To Be?

A Community Open Forum on
Diversity in Portland

Sunday, February 14th, 2010
7-9pm

This event is free and open to All.

Is Green Portland a final destination or a train stop to a truly diverse Portland? Who cares for a diverse Portland? Please join us for a two hour Open Forum. Listen and speak on how you as an individual or your community want and need more inclusion in our hometown.

Read the full description and get more information here: http://bit.ly/91Yau5.

Mental Illness Or Spiritual Awakening?
New
Visions of Mind and Crisis with
Ed Knight and
Will
Hall

Wednesday, November 18th 2009, 6pm-8:30pm

Bamboo Grove
Salon (www.bamboogrovesalon.com)
134 SE Taylor (on 2nd street between SE taylor and SE Salmon), Portland OR – Map-http://snipurl.com/ bamboogrovemap
$8-$15 donation (no one turned away) benefits
Portland Hearing Voices
Physical mobility accessible; call with other access needs.

Download the flyer for printing and distributing here

Info: Portland Hearing Voices 413 210 2803, portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com, www.portlandhearingvoices. net

Two spiritual practitioners diagnosed with schizophrenia ask, Is
“mental illness” spiritual? How does trauma relate to enlightenment?
What do Eastern religious traditions tell us about madness? Are there holistic treatment alternatives? Can we acknowledge spirit without romanticizing crisis?

Join us for a presentation and discussion to discover new perspectives in mental health.

With:

Ed Knight is dually diagnosed with schizophrenia and alcoholism, the Steward of The Healing Circle, a Zen Peacemaker Circle, and a Senior in the Buddhist Zen Peacemaker Sangha. A widely recognized researcher and teacher in mental illness recovery and mutual support, Ed is Vice President of Recovery, Rehabilitation and Mutual Support at
Valueoptions, as well as a mentor in the Prison Dharma Network. www.professored.com

Will Hall is diagnosed with schizophrenia and his advocacy work includes Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Disability Rights
International, The Icarus Project, and hosting Madness Radio, heard on
KBOO FM. A longtime meditator and yoga practitioner, Will is currently studying Process Oriented Psychology. Will was featured in the Newsweek magazine article “Listening to Madness.” www.willhall.net

Tendremos una mini-presentacion en espanol para participantes hispanohablantes.

Radio interviews with Ed Knight and Will Hall here:

http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-buddhist-meditation-and- schizophrenia-ed-knight http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-2004-04-14-ed-knight-recovery- and-transformation

About Portland Hearing Voices:
Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, holistic alternatives, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, visions, and different realities often labeled as mental disorders. (Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of Portland.) www.portlandhearingvoices.net.

Co-sponsored by: Portland Hearing Voices
(www.portlandhearingvoices.net) and
Mental Health Association of Portland (www.mentalhealthportland.org)
Mental Health
Association of Oregon (www.mhaoforegon.com)
ValueOptions
(www.valueoptions.com)
Great Vow Zen Monastery
(www.greatvow.org)
Portland Evolver
(http://evolver.net/group/evolver_portland)
Portland Padmasambhava
Buddhist Center (anitad335@aol.com)
Process Work Institute
(www.processwork.org)

Music Benefit for Mental Diversity at Backspace June 11th
2009 Thursday 8pm!

On Thursday, June 11, 8pm join Portland Hearing Voices at a Launch
Celebration Music Show at Backspace (115 NW 5th Ave/Couch in
Portland)!

At the benefit show you’ll have a chance to listen to some great local music, learn more about Portland Hearing Voices, discover a little about voice-hearing and non-ordinary sensory experiences, raise some seed money to get us off the ground — and have some fun!

Come hear performers The Reed Sea, Reclinerland, and Gavin Castleton
— sweet and soulful musicians. Listen at their websites, and thanks to their generosity in performing for mental diversity in Portland:

The Reed Sea http://www.thereedsea.com/

Reclinerland: http://www.myspace.com/ reclinerland

Gavin Castleton http://www.myspace.com/ gavincastleton

Please spread the word and join us June 11th at 8pm at Backspace (115
NW 5th Ave)! We’re asking $5-15 at the door (our policy is that no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds). We also need a couple of volunteers to help with event logistics, and we really want you to invite your friends, colleagues, and community to come as well – word of mouth is key.

A wonderful opportunity to hear some great music, hang out, and connect.

Portland Hearing Voices is a new education and support effort to promote mental diversity. We create public education, discussion groups, and other community support related to hearing voices, seeing visions, and having unusual beliefs and sensory experiences. Portland Hearing
Voices aims to reduce fear and misunderstanding, question stereotypes, overcome isolation, and create a more inclusive and supportive community. Check out http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net for more information, to join our Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Hearing Voices Video and Discussion:

Public Screening of “Hearing Voices” Documentary and Discussion of
New Educational Project

Tuesday, March 31 2009 6-7:45pm

Downtown Multnomah
County Public library meeting room
801 S.W. 10th Avenue @
Yamhill
Portland, Oregon

contact:
Portland Hearing Voices portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com
413-210-2803 www.portlandhearingvoices.net

On Tuesday, March 31 2009 at 6pm the hour-long BBC documentary video
“Hearing Voices” will be screened at the downtown Multnomah County library in Portland, at 801 S.W. 10th Avenue. The 1995 documentary interv