Book of Abstracts

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES AND CREATIVE RESPONSES TO EXPERIENCES OF TRAUMA AND DISTRESS

14 AND 15 NOVEMBER 2012 4th Annual Conference Organised by The Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery The School of Applied Social Studies University College Cork, Ireland In association with The Critical Voices Network Ireland

INFORMATION ON VENUES: The conference is held in the Brookfield Health Science Complex (College Road) and the Western Gateway Building (Western Road). There is a pedestrian bridge linking the two sites. Rooms marked with BHSC are located in Brookfield Health Sciences Complex and rooms marked with WGB are located in the Western Gateway Building. Figures in brackets after the venue name e.g. (60) refer to the maximum number of people the workshop can accommodate. There is no pre-registration for the workshops, so if a workshop is full, please go to another one. LOCAL RESTAURANTS: Note: Lunch is not provided, but is available on and close to the conference venues. The following list of restaurants and cafs may be of assistance. Campus (Conference Venues) 1 Kylemore restaurant & caf- Brookfield 2 Kylemore restaurant & caf -Western Gateway Building 3 Kylemore restaurant Pharmacy Building College Road 4 Kylemore caf Biosciences Building Aras na Laoi Off Campus 1 Coffee Station, opposite College gates Western Road 2 Caf Kiwi, College Road 3 Brookfield caf, at the entrance of Brookfield Hotel, College Road 4 Various other small eateries (cafes, sandwich bars, pizzerias etc) along Victoria Cross, within 5 minutes walk west from the Western Gateway Building Book of Abstracts Lay Out The Book of Abstracts is organised in chronological order starting with the keynote presentations of each day, followed by the workshop sessions on that day. Details are provided on the venue, the presenter(s), the workshop title, workshop information and the presenter(s) background, as provided by them. We hope you will find it of benefit to you in attending the conference key note presentations and workshops and as a point of future reference. Key note presentations, with the respective presenters consent, will be available a few weeks after the conference at www.ucc.ie/en/nursingmidwifery/NewsEvents/ and www.ucc.ie/en/appsoc Acknowledgements We wish to thank the following people for their support in making this conference possible: Professor Eileen Savage, Acting Head of School of Nursing and Midwifery and Professor Fred Powell, Head of School of Social Sciences for their overall support; Renew Ireland for their donation; Orla Buttimer, Buildings and Estates, for facilitating conference venues bookings; Regina Murphy, Therese Ahern and Jane OLeary, School of Nursing and Midwifery for administrative support and assistance; Thomas Erlandsson and Tony Archer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, for Audio-Visual and Information Technology support, Teresa OCallaghan, General Services, for general services support, and last, but not least, student help for assisting in various ways. Enjoy the conference. Harry Gijbels and Lydia Sapouna, Conference Organisers

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Wednesday 14 November Keynote Presentations

10.00 am BHSC G01 Keynote Presentation 1 Jacqui Dillon; The Personal is Political
The concept of the personal is political developed out of the womens liberation movement in the 1960s, establishing a clear link between our lived experience and the broader political and social setting in which we exist. This concept is also highly relevant to contemporary attitudes and responses to mental health issues and notions of sanity and madness. The traditional bio-medical approach deems experiences like hearing voices as symptoms of an illness best suppressed with medication. However, there is a growing body of evidence which views hearing voices as a meaningful response to disturbing and overwhelming experiences that can be understood and integrated into a persons life. By sharing personal experiences of madness and recovery, these issues are explored so that madness is understood as a sane response to surviving in a crazy world. Consequently, advocating and campaigning for the rights of those labelled as mentally ill has now become the last great civil rights movement. Jacqui Dillon is a respected speaker, writer and activist, and has lectured and published worldwide on trauma and abuse, psychosis, dissociation and recovery. Jacqui is the national Chair of the Hearing Voices Network in England and a Board member of Intervoice the International Network for Training, Education and Research into Hearing Voices. Jacqui is Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. Along with Professor Marius Romme and Dr Sandra Escher she is the co-editor of Living with Voices, an anthology of 50 voice hearers stories of recovery. She is also co-editor of Demedicalising Misery: Psychiatry, Psychology and the Human Condition, has published numerous articles and papers and is on the editorial board of the journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. Jacqui is also a voice hearer. See www.jacquidillon.org

14.15 am BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 2 Mike Watts; Recovery from Mental Illness as a Re-enchantment with Life and

Personal Development through a Resolution of Trauma-related Distress

The aim of this paper is to explore the process and nature of recovery from mental illness as experienced by seasoned members of GROW, a mutual help community. The authoritative story of psychiatry dictates that serious mental illness is a permanent condition caused primarily by a chemical imbalance within the brain. Recovery therefore involves lifelong treatment with medication and ongoing dependence on highly trained specialists. The Irish Government recently decided to transform our mental health system from a medical to a recovery orientation. The difficulty and paradox in this lies in the dominance of the medical story and the lack of validated experiential evidence of a radically different understanding of recovery. This presentation will focus on research that used a narrative approach to gather and analyse the recovery stories of 26 long term members of GROW, a community mental health movement with a presence in Ireland since 1969. The research revealed recovery as a form of re-enchantment with life. Participants described a three part, non linear process where mutual help and reciprocal relationships such as friendship and leadership were key to recovery. This presentation will discuss the implications of these exciting findings for the role and training of mental health professionals and for the value of lived experience as a form of knowledge. It will suggest that the medical model needs to be integrated into a recovery model which acknowledges many levels of life-involvements which affect both mental health and mental illness. This study was funded by GROW in Ireland and completed as part of a PhD.

Mike Watts, BA, M.Psych Sc. (Psychotherapy) PhD Trinity College Dublin; Mike Watts and his wife Fran

have both recovered from serious mental illnesses. Mike joined GROW in 1976 and returned to full time study to complete a degree in psychology in 1983. Since then he has worked for GROW first as fieldworker

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and then as National Program Coordinator. In 1992 Mike completed a Masters degree in family therapy. He was a service user representative on Irelands newly formed Mental Health Commission and in that role chaired a committee which produced the commissions first published document, advocating a move from a medical to a recovery focused service. Mike established GROW in the central mental hospital and one Irish prison. He runs recovery workshops for mental health professionals in Trinity, UL and DCU. He has recently successfully completed his doctorate through the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Mike has published two volumes of recovery stories and was editor of GROWing for 15 years. He has presented at many conference both in Ireland and internationally.

15.00 pm BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 3 Phil Thomas; Uncaring Societies? Trauma, Childhood and the Politics of Poverty
It is no coincidence that since the banking crisis of 2008 there has been growing interest in the links between relative poverty and poor health, especially poor mental health. The Spirit Level (Wilkinson and Picket, 2009) is an important contribution to the debate about inequality and health. It integrates evidence from economics and epidemiology to show how a wide range of health and social problems are associated with relative poverty. Adverse childhood experiences play a central role mediating the links between poverty and health, as well as sensitizing children for the later development of psychosis. Indeed, the traumagenic model of psychosis (Read et al, 2001) proposes that madness can best be understood as a consequence of the experience of childhood adversity. Adverse childhood experiences predispose the individual to later psychosis through a complex interaction of two main sets of factors, psychological and biological. In this talk I argue that socio-economic factors constitute a vital third element in understanding the origins of psychosis in terms of childhood experience. In cultures where all that matters is the acquisition of wealth, we have created uncaring societies in which status and power dominate human relationships. This has created an uncaring society in which trauma and abuse have flourished, with devastating effects upon the most vulnerable young children. I will examine the implications of this for our understandings of madness, our responses to it, and more widely for the sort of society we should create if we are serious about wanting to improve mental health. References Read J, Perry BD, Moskowitz A. & Connolly J. (2001) The contribution of early traumatic events to schizophrenia in some patients: A traumagenic neurodevelopmental model. Psychiatry; 64:319-45. Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. (2009) The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London, Allen Lane (Penguin Books). Philip Thomas worked as a full-time consultant psychiatrist in the NHS for over twenty years. In 2004 he left clinical practice to focus on writing and academic work. He has published over 100 scholarly papers mostly in peer-reviewed journals, latterly in philosophy and its relevance to madness and society. He has worked in alliance with survivors of psychiatry, service users and community groups, nationally and internationally. Until recently he was chair of Sharing Voices Bradford, a community development project working with Black and Minority Ethnic communities. He is a founder member and until 2011 was co-chair of the Critical Psychiatry Network. His first book, Dialectics of Schizophrenia was published by Free Association books in 1997, and he has co-authored two other books, Voices of Reason Voices of Insanity with Ivan Leudar, and most recently Postpsychiatry, with Pat Bracken, published by Oxford University Press in 2005. Until recently he was professor of philosophy, diversity and mental health in the University of Central Lancashire, and is now an honorary visiting professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities in the University of Bradford. He is currently working on two books, one about critical psychiatry and another about madness, meaning and culture.

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Wednesday 14 November Workshops

11.15-12.00 Workshop Sessions A BHSC G06 (122) Ciara McEnteggart, Mairead Foody & Yvonne Barnes-Holmes;

Exploring the Best Ways to Approach Hearing Voices

Voice hearing is a common experience in response to previous traumatic events. The experience of hearing voices may be threatening, powerful and disturbing. There are a number of well-established and valuable techniques for assisting with these experiences. For example, Romme and Eschers Maastricht approach attempts to understand the nature of the voice hearing experience, coupled with clinical techniques that include both acceptance and Voice Dialogue. There is some evidence that this approach is beneficial to sufferers. Cognitive and behaviour therapies have also been associated with positive outcomes, and often employ a similar mix of techniques. From the perspective of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), defusion, acceptance and restoring a sense of self are critical strategies in assisting with hearing voices and positive benefits have been reported in several studies. Taken together, it is difficult to determine which psychological focus and set of strategies are the most effective in assisting with voice hearing. For example, acceptance is the opposite to distraction, hence it seems unlikely that both components are beneficial. The current workshop explores the experience of hearing voices and how this can be addressed in a meaningful, beneficial and systematic manner. Ciara McEnteggart is a Psychology Research Doctoral Student under the supervision of Dr. Yvonne Barnes-Holmes at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Her research interests surround behaviours associated with psychosis, particularly auditory hallucinations or voice hearing. Ciara is also currently undergoing training from Dr. Barnes-Holmes (ACBS accredited world-trainer in ACT) and is interested in researching further the ACT treatment protocol for psychosis and how it compares to more support-based models for coping with auditory hallucinations and psychosis such as the Maastricht Interview etc. Ciara has presented papers at a number of National and International Conferences such as The Association for Contextual Behavioural Sciences (ACBS) Annual World Conference X, Washington, D.C. (July 2012), Division of Behaviour Analysis (DBA) Annual Conference, Trinity College Dublin (April 2012) and The Psychological Society of Irelands (PSI) Annual Student Congress, Trinity College Dublin (April 2009). Mairead Foody is currently a psychology research PhD student at The National University of Maynooth. Her research is primarily concerned with a behavioural therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which is becoming an increasing popular treatment for numerous mental health issues. However she also has an interest in schizophrenia and psychosis and is in the process of setting up a Hearing Voices Support group for individuals who hear voices. Her hope is to build a research career investigating the phenomenon of hearing voices from a scientific and health-based framework. Dr. Yvonne Barnes-Holmes B.Sc, Ph.D, CPsychol, CSci, AFBPsS. Yvonne is a Psychology lecturer at NUI, Maynooth and is one of the World Trainers in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which she has been practicing ACT since 1998. Yvonne has supervised nine PhD students and five MSc students. Her research interests include the development of language and cognition, abnormal development and ABA, behavioural and cognitive psychotherapies with special interest in ACT, anti-psychiatry, the psychological and physiological impact of psychoactive medication and the relative efficacies of psychoactive medication vs. Therapy. Yvonne has also particular interest in exploring effective treatments for psychoses and hearing voices. Yvonne has 2 edited books, 69 published papers, 10 book chapters, and 1 edited volume and has presented over 350 papers and workshops at international conferences.

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BHSC 1.04 (30) Tommy Roddy; Life Sentence Revoked: A Journey of Recovery

I was diagnosed manic depressive at the age of 20 after 2 spells in psychiatric hospital. Before I had voluntarily admitted myself I had been suffering from depression on and off for around 2 years. I never accepted this diagnosis as I always felt there was a reason for my depression as opposed to what psychiatrists were telling me; i.e. I had a chemical imbalance in my mind and I needed medication to control my mood swings. I lived with this diagnosis for 8 years before I went against the advice of local psychiatrists and made contact with Ivor Browne who took me off the lithium and started me on holotropic breath work. Its taken me a long time to reach the stage of wellness that I currently have but I became aware of changes in me from the start of my therapy. I have undergone quite a lot of one to one therapy and came back to holotropic breath work nearly 5 years ago. I have found the breath work to be the most effective method enabling me to work through the trauma from my childhood. As well as one to one therapy I have found various support groups beneficial to me while working through the material my therapy/breath work brings up to me. I have been free of medication for 19 years. Depression for me was a symptom of emotional distress the origins of which went back to my early childhood. My journey of recovery has brought me back to my true self. Tommy Roddy; I originally trained in electronics after doing my Leaving Cert. but became disillusioned with this area of work. I was hospitalised at the age of 20 and diagnosed as suffering from manic depression. In my late 20s I spent 3 years in St. Patricks Teacher Training College in Dublin but left there without obtaining my qualification as I was struggling with severe depression at the time. By a stroke of luck I heard of Ivor Browne who agreed to work with me in overcoming my depression. (see separate recovery story). 1.5 years ago I obtained my Teaching Qualification having gone back to Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, something I was unable to do many years previously. I am currently working in this area.

BHSC 1.21 (70) Renew members; Discovering New Ways through Distress for

Ourselves

The workshop presented by Renew will be by several of our members. We describe ourselves as a community of people who have had a really hard time. Renew is "a caring community of equals". Members often (but not always) have had experience with the established healthcare system and found the biomedical explanations of their distress inadequate or even harmful. We understand that episodes of severe distress can be opportunities for transformation, if we can find a way through them that involves doing inner work and developing new ways of being in the world: mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Long term suppression of the symptoms of distress resolves nothing. Supporting each other through transformational crises often brings a new sense of purpose and aliveness. The members of Renew who will share at this workshop will talk about the different ways they have found to harness the compassionate energy of a healing community. For more about Renew see www.renew-ireland.com. Renew is a community of people who believe that distress is a normal reaction to difficult parts of our lives. Severe stresses and traumas can lead to extremely confusing and painful states of mind, heart and soul. We support each other to find ways through such distress. We understand severe distress to be a result of life experiences and the choices we make. Many of our members have had interaction with the established healthcare system and found it explained their distress as a biological condition and asked them to trust the healthcare professionals to alleviate their distress. Our members have found this approach to be at the very least, inadequate, and sometimes worsened their distress. Several members of Renew will talk about the ways in which we have been trying to develop a new outlook and supports for each other. These include peer support; genuine asylum and refuge; and education.

BHSC 2.25 (50) Mary Corry, Maria Shannon & Brian McDermott; Trauma, A Multi-

Disciplinary Team Approach

The team will present a workshop looking at the unique inter-disciplinary approach used in addressing the needs of those who present with the symptoms of complex posttraumatic stress due to the impact of

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traumatic events during an individuals life time. The workshop will highlight how the inter-disciplinary approach can and has led to recovery for some clients. It will clearly outline the role of each profession and their place within the model. The workshop will include details of research carried out by the team; statistics describing presenting problems and data on age and referral systems. This workshop will also outline the model of working that will describe the phase-oriented treatment model that holds the philosophy of three intervention stages when working with individuals who have complex trauma symptoms. Phase 1 being the initial stage of establishing safety, in which the primary therapeutic task is to stabilize the client and provide a more secure psychological, physical, behavioral, social and familial base for the client before more challenging trauma interventions are introduced. The exact combination of elements depends on the needs of the individual client; however, the most essential and universal task in this phase is to develop a safe therapeutic space for the client (Herman, 1992). After stabilization, the second phase comprises the tasks of remembrance and mourning, where the client recounts their trauma story with a detailed exploration into the meaning and loss associated with these experiences. Phase 3 represents reconnection, whereby the client, after coming to terms with the trauma, shapes their own future within their family, society, and culture. Therapy at this stage focuses on wider systemic interventions aimed at improving relationships with friends/family, as well as developing pathways to education, support networks, leisure facilities, voluntary work, and employment. Mary Corry-Med, HDip, AdvDip Supervision, AdvDip Counselling Accredited IACP&BACP. Mary worked for many years within a community setting where she managed a Family Centre in an area of high social & economic deprivation, developing programmes and services to meet the needs of the local community that had also suffered intensely for the years of conflict. She trained as a counsellor in 1997 and completed her Masters in Education in 2003. She joined the Health Service in 2005 as a Trauma Therapist in a multidisciplinary team and became Manager of the same team in 2006. The trauma team offers a service that responds to the needs of those most impacted on by the Troubles and has gone on to develop Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD). Mary currently has a proposal in to offer the service to all those presenting with the symptoms CPTSD regardless of the experience or event. Mary is also co-author of a number of published articles relating to research projects carried out at the Trauma Resource Centre. Maria Shannon Trauma Therapist, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust. Maria successfully completed three years study as a mature student and graduated with commendation in Person- Centred Counseling from Queens University Belfast in 2003. She followed on from this by completing a Diploma in Trauma Studies graduating in June 2007 with Commendation from Queens University Belfast. As well as developing a clinical role in the treatment of psychological trauma, she is also co-author of a number of published articles relating to research projects carried out at the Trauma Resource Centre. Prior to joining the Trauma Team in 2006 Maria worked therapeutically within the community sector. Maria also commits to independent therapeutic work within the field of counseling and trauma. Brian McDermott: Brian is an Occupational Therapist who has previously worked in psychiatric inpatients, mental health day hospital and self-harm team in the Belfast area. He has been working in the Trauma Resource Centre for the past three years now, focusing on the impact Trauma has on their clients functioning. Through the use of structured and graded activity Occupational Therapy enables people to participate in their everyday lives. This can include anxiety management, the development of routines and roles or exploring work and further education options.

BHSC 3.04 (40) Angela Carrazza; Metaphor as Container for Difficult Feelings in Art

Therapy and Everyday Life

Presentation with experimental component; My presentation will focus on the healing and containing function of metaphor and poetic language in art therapy and everyday life. Psychopathology can be translated as logos of the pathos of the psyche, a telling of the suffering of the soul (S.K. Levine). I believe psychological suffering needs to be recognised as intrinsic to being human. Metaphors (in art, speech, poetry, song, movement etc.) can help us safely express ad explore this suffering, as they have the capacity to hold powerful feelings for us while we move closer to their chore. The person who engages with

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the meaning and symbolism of her suffering can become more alive and find more meaning to life. Art Therapy can help us feel less stuck and dead inside by helping us to reclaim our inborn ability to create, imagine, re-vision, and play. Metaphors have the potential to contain and transform difficult and traumatic experiences, which by their essence resist translation into literal language, as they lie beyond cognitive comprehension. Translating distress into rational language can increase a persons sense of powerlessness and loss of identity. The mental health discourse could benefit from an increased use of metaphorical language. It can be seen as the most appropriate way of communicating distress: instead of categorising and thus fixating distress, it can help us stay with and re-imagine the experience - and thus move beyond it. Angela Carrazza has been working as an Art Therapist in the South Lee Mental Health Services for 11 years. She works both with inpatients and outpatients, offering individual and group art therapy. She was amongst the first art therapists to graduate in Ireland in 2001, and the first art therapist to be offered fulltime employment within the HSE. Angela had studied Sozialpdagogik previously in Germany. She recently upgraded her qualification to a Master in Art Therapy, researching The Art of Record-Keeping in Art Therapy: Image Description and Poetic Language in Art Therapy Records. She has facilitated presentations and workshops as a guest lecturer on the Art Therapy Training Course/CIT and in UCC and has given training workshops for various services. She is a mother of two, and also works an artist. Her passions include cooking, and swimming, and especially sourdough bread-baking (with its slow-rise method).

WGB G04 (60) Debbie Beirne; Therapeutic Effects of Drumming

Drum Therapy is an ancient tribal approach that uses rhythm to promote healing and self-expression and is becoming a widely recognised approach to engaging with and responding to trauma and distress. Therapeutic rhythm techniques have been used for thousands of years to create and maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health. Research indicates that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system and produces feelings of well-being, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. The aim of this workshop is to create an interactive rhythmic space in which participants can explore and experience for themselves the power of the tribal pulse. The pulse of all life. No musical experience is required to take part and all instruments will be provided. Debbie Beirne has over 13 years of experience in the field of community music. She facilitates rhythm and singing workshops in both Ireland and the UK and runs regular weekend community music retreats all over Ireland. She was taught by Arthur Hull of Village Music, an internationally renowned percussionist and spent many years drumming with various drumming communities both in Ireland and the UK. Debbie also coordinated the Witness one Voice Intercultural youth music project funded by Leargas, and now specializes in bringing community music into mainstream healthcare settings. Over the last number of years Debbie has been working closely with her Scottish counterparts and travels to Scotland regularly to gain experience of how they integrate community music in mental health settings. She has a BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies and is at present studying for her MA. www.ruachrhythms.ie

WGB G18 (60) Dirk Corstens; A Dialogue about Voices

In this workshop the starting point will be dialoguing about and with voices. Together with the audience I will try to deepen our understanding. Active participation will increase our understanding. Dirk Corstens, works as psychiatrist and psychotherapist at RIAGG Maastricht, The Netherlands. Voice hearing and recovery are his special interests in his work, training and publications. He is chair of Intervoice and a regular trainer for Working to Recovery.

WGB 4.05 (80) Philip Moore & Catherine Murray; To a Life That Shines: The Story of a
The HSEs National Counselling Service (NCS) was established in 2000 to provide a dedicated service for adults across Ireland who experienced childhood abuse and trauma. This includes physical, emotional, sexual abuse and neglect. The abuse or neglect could have occurred in an institutional, community or

Long Term Psychotherapy Group with Adults who have Experienced Childhood Trauma

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family setting. Harbour Counselling Service is the National Counselling Service in Cork and Kerry. This workshop presentation will explore the birth and growth of a weekly slow open psychotherapy group in Harbour Counselling Service that is now over ten years old. Within the group space, the co-therapists intention is to hold safely each individual through an imaginative integration of different therapeutic experiences. The group could be described broadly as a psychodynamic, psychodrama group. Group members are provided with opportunities to engage creatively in action on alternate weeks. The cotherapists will co-present their reflections on the psychological and energetic processes as well as the dramatic actions that have moved members towards healing and transformation throughout the years. Examples of group experiences and `in their own words` feedback from group members will inform and inspire the presentation. Dr Philip Moore trained as a clinical psychologist in the UK and has over twenty years experience in the UK and Ireland. Currently he is Director of Counselling in the National Counselling Service (NCS), HSE South. He has a special interest in working with those who have experienced childhood abuse and trauma as well as with those who have perpetrated sexual abuse. Over the years he has worked with individuals and groups in both the private and public sectors. His current practice interest is in the integration of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with elements of Buddhist Psychology and Drama & Movement Therapy. Catherine Murray trained as a psychodrama psychotherapist in the UK, and counselling at UCC. She has developed the use of psychodrama within a residential therapeutic community in the UK. Currently her interest is in the integration of other modalities particularly Energetic Field modalities within her psychodrama psychotherapeutic practice.

12.15-13.00 Workshop Sessions B BHSC G06 (122) Wendy Taylor; Shaman in Disguise

Aims and Intentions: To offer proof that a mental breakdown can be the first step into a new awareness of the magical multidimensional world we inhabit and that it is also possible to move through such a period without any form of medication. To offer an example of the positive aspects that can emerge after passing through a period of emotional trauma, when a mental strength, increased self-confidence and new abilities can be found. To help remove the fear that has for so long accompanied the words mental breakdown and look for the indication that it may instead be a positive breakthrough into a different understanding of what this life is all about. To open discussion on the ancient mysteries that conventional science cannot unravel and open minds to unlimited possibilities by reclaiming ancient healing arts. Wendy Taylor; An Irish Catholic convent school background, then early marriage to a highly successful business man and living the ultimate lifestyle. Suddenly, without warning at the age of 50 and at precisely 10.00am one morning m/s Taylor found herself in possession of numerous nonphysical abilities. She had entered a mystical realm devoid of a rational concept of space and time, where her consciousness frequently divided from the physical body and on many occasions witnessed events occurring simultaneously many miles away including two separate murders. Metal inexplicably changed shape when held lightly in her fingers and a core of healing heat emitted from the palms of her hands, whilst an unseen voice that guided her proved unfailingly to have come from a Higher Source. After six weeks every aspect of this phenomenon ceased as suddenly as it had started. There was an innate acceptance that this episode must not be ignored and she set out on a journey of discovery. For the past twenty years she has travelled the world seeking an understanding of these mysterious events and an explanation of miraculous healings. From Siberia to Easter Island, up mountains in Africa and into jungles in South America, the search has continued everywhere and she has spent time with many powerful healers including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Credo Visamazulu Mutwa. On her journey she has straddled the boundary where fact and fable

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merge, received initiations and shared ceremonies with the few remaining holders of the ancient knowledge who instantly recognized her as a shape-shifter and healer.

BHSC G10 (150) Dariusz Galasiski; The Interview Misrepresented: Information

Manipulation in Medical Records

Doctors are required to document their examinations of the patient. This task is particularly important in psychiatry, where what the patient says is practically the only source of information available to the clinician. In my paper I shall focus on the process of information management in psychiatry and trace the information which was recorded in the patients notes back to its origin in the interview. The data consists of eight recordings of psychiatric interviews along with the patients notes.The main argument is that the notes are not merely written from the point of view of the psychiatrist, but might have little or nothing to do with the interview. I demonstrate, first, that accurate notes are a record of how the doctor conducted the interview. Second, the notes doctors made also misrepresent the interview with the patient: doctors record false information, distort it, take out of its context. Dariusz Galasinski (DSc, PhD, MA) is Professor of Discourse and Cultural Studies. His current research interests focus upon (men's) experiences of mental illness and psychiatric practices. His latest book 'Men's Discourses of Depression' was published by Palgrave (2008); it is followed by 'Fathers, fatherhood and mental illness. A Discourse Analysis of Rejection (Palgrave) which is forthcoming. His current book project concerns experiences of suicide attempts.

BHSC 1.04 (30) Stephen Gharbaoui; The Coffee Shop Conundrum

A participative workshop exploring links between mental distress and the modern-day phenomenon of coffee-house culture. A meeting place. A discussion space. A poseurs paradise. A luxury. A sanctuary. A loners repose. What really goes on in our affluent society? Who understands what coffee-shops provide? Why do we go to coffee-shops? Who chooses to use them? This workshop wishes to concoct a new blend out of commonly discussed themes for understanding ourselves and how we deal with distress beyond biopsychiatry. Stephen Gharbaoui; Belfast-based, 46 year old; my main skills are group facilitation and reflective practice. Over 14 year period I have worked as a voluntary sector advocate; as a statutory sector serviceuser coordinator; as a lecturer for 3 mental health professions and as a therapeutic community project worker. I have contributed to project committees in Ireland and the UK including mainstream psychiatry. My continuing experience of mental distress is very much my own and has been present my entire adult life. Favourite film Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch (2003). I have other interests too!

BHSC 1.21 (70) Rosie Burrows; Tools for Transformation

This workshop will offer an introduction to Somatic Experiencing practices and a theoretical framework for reducing suffering and contributing to the immediate support of any person or family experiencing overwhelm and distress. This will include bottom up practices (i.e. working with the body/the physiology of trauma), an area that many mental health interventions ignore. This internationally renowned practice has been endorsed by the leading trauma specialist Professor Bessel van der Kolk, and has been used to support: i. people in crisis; ii. families/caregivers impacted by traumatic grief and suicide; iii. those experiencing deregulation of the nervous system and the impacts on relationships, including shut down (i.e. freeze and dissociation, roller coaster bi polar reactions, swinging from exhaustion/depression to hyperarousal and rage, including those who have self-medicated through alcohol, legal or illegal drug use); iv. people with behavioural manifestations that schools and families find difficult (i.e. diagnosed with ADHD or on the Autism Spectrum); v. complex, early trauma and the impacts on character that can emerge from this; and vi. shock trauma as a result of one off events (i.e. car accidents, post operation). A live demonstration as well as a range of reading material will be offered to participants. The workshop is grounded in what we are discovering in neuroscience alongside the framework developed by Dr Peter Levine (www.traumahealing.com), whose full three year training will be available in Ireland for the first time between Spring 2013 and 2015.

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Dr. Rosie Burrows is a Psychotherapist and Supervisor who specialises in unresolved trauma. She has a background in adult education and community development, and teaches Gestalt psychotherapy at Masters level. Her PhD was on Holistic Approaches to Health and Well Being. Her practice focuses on trauma recovery/integration and she has co published with Brd Keenan practice based resources for working with children and parents in the aftermath of political conflict, with young people and community level in relation to transgenerational trauma, including contributing to an international publication Mending the World (2010). She has been in a supervision and peer support group since 1995 and has taken advanced trainings, including a 3 year training in Holland in Somatic Experiencing. At a personal and professional level, Somatic Experiencing has transformed her life. She works internationally including South Africa and the Netherlands assisting on bring SE to frontline practitioners.

WGB G04 (60) Angie Lindenau; Laughter Yoga - Laughing for no Reason

Hearty Laughter over an extended period dehydrates, so please drink plenty of water. Experiential Workshop to demonstrate some of the many health benefits; like with yoga, after a once-off you know what it is; repeated sessions reveal true benefits. Group body exercise; combining eye contact and childlike playfulness with Yogic breathing - turning fake laughter into real, contagious laughter. Benefits: alternative aerobic exercise (research by Dr. William Fry of Stanford University); natural pain relief through increasing level of endorphins in the body; aid in the prevention of depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders; increased confidence and positive outlook; bypasses need to reframe through language or analysis; stimulates Parasympathetic Nervous System, preventing the body to react to stressful thoughts; identical physiological and psychological benefits even from fake laughter. Laughter Yoga applications in Mental Health contexts aim at alleviating Stress, States of Anxiety and Depression; promote Emotional Balance, Recovery & Maintenance of Well-being. In mild states of depression, people usually benefit from Laughter Yoga as it increases self-confidence and provides a positive experience with other people in the group, reversing temporarily the tendency to isolation. Diaphragmatic Breathing can control emotions to stop anxiety; deep laughter triggers the same response. The Break [mindfulness] stops continuously milling thoughts opening space for new, healthier thoughts; so does laughter. Repeated laughter sessions helped me raise my mood incrementally to overcome Dysthemia. Severely depressed people dont care to laugh; acute states of mania and psychosis exclude people from participating. Time: 40 minutes including relaxation. Angie Lindenau has been walking the recovery route mostly self-directed. Re-discovering laughter helped her regain a positive distance from distressing life events - to approach healing from a different perspective. Angie took up the practice, and then trained to the level of Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher; besides holding diplomas in Social Care and Counseling & Psychotherapy. Angie's engagement around selfempowerment of service users now includes peer-led Laughter Yoga sessions within the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Service.

WGB 1.07 (60) Anne OConnor & Catherine Sheehan; Telling Tales: Creative Research

using Stories and Conversations to Question the Interpretation of a Woman's Distress

For this workshop, I propose to read some passages from my doctoral dissertation which is entitled Grappling with Grey: Stories and Conversations questioning the interpretation of a womans distress. This writing focuses on the experiences of a fictitious woman called Eimear Brennan. Growing up in suburban Dublin during the 1950s, she realises early on in life that there is not much space for her curiosity and exuberance and she is compelled to develop her own strategies in order to make her world safe. In her 30s she is initially relieved to have her mental distress diagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder, but she discovers that there are disadvantages to an acceptance of structural interpretations and labels. Through our imagined conversations together, Eimear and I begin to explore other possible understandings. Drawing on psychological, feminist and post-structural theories, we co-research alternative explanations. Avoiding

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the danger of being immobilised by social analysis, some options for relieving distress are suggested. Different representations are placed alongside each other. Stories of Eimears life, the conversations we engage in and academic texts are disrupted and connected by interludes which include poems, photographs, drawings and reflections. They are all presented as a fictitious yet truthful account of one imagined persons experiences of mental distress. I am interested in small parcels of knowledge that are unique to individuals as opposed to grand theories, which make far-reaching claims for many. I would hope that the readings might stimulate discussion and debate for listeners on a wide range of topics. My colleague, Catherine, is interested in creative approaches to therapy and research and has kindly volunteered to collaborate with me on this presentation. Anne OConnor and Catherine Sheehan have been working alongside each other in the National Counselling Service since it was founded in 2000. Over that time, they have collaborated on many projects and ideas including the co-facilitation of creative group therapy for men and women who have experienced abuse in childhood. Anne is interested in narrative research which privileges small scale studies based on subjective experience. Catherine is particularly interested in creative ways of working with people.

WGB 4.05 (80) Alastair Yarrow; A Role for Homoeopathy in Response to Trauma and

Distress

There is a place for the use of specific Homoeopathic remedies in an accident or traumatic situation. These first aid remedies can easily be remembered and used in specific situations thereby reducing the impact of the trauma. Suppressed or unprocessed trauma makes for vulnerability which in time, creates irrational anxieties, fears and behaviors and can lead to changes in bodily functions and eventually structures. It is generally the physiological changes that become the focus of medical attention with scant regard to the state of mind or recent or past life experience. It is not always possible, or necessary, to know the original trauma but the symptom picture prior to medication would be useful. Initially it may be sufficient to prescribe upon the presenting emotional state, supported with, physiological disturbances, to bring relief and reduce distress. The origin of much depression and psychosis would appear to be in childhood and adolescence so I will highlight the importance of recognizing, acknowledging and making sense of the symptom picture with reference to certain remedies. Whatever the original trauma, mental, emotional or physical injury, the result may become fixed in the psychosocial arena. The key to resolution is to understand the energetic interactions which determine the point upon which to focus. There will be the opportunity to consider some cases that illustrate some behaviours, or distress, as an individuals response to trauma, supported with a selection of homoeopathic remedies, with guiding symptoms, generally available in health food stores and pharmacies. Alastair Yarrow has been in Homoeopathic practice since 1998. This came about after early retirement after working with children and young people who did not fit in with home, school and society. During the early part of the 20 years he developed an educational assessment programme that was not dependent upon academic skills and could be used to promote a productive Educational programme building essential academic skills that could make learning fun and empowering. Much of this work was supported by the academic centre of St Marys College, Newcastle University/UK. Once retired and revitalised, he began to discover who he was. Then he set out to continue and promote this line of work to support those who were sidelined because they had apparently failed in early life. He has published several articles on his approach to learning in several professional journals, created a Newsletter that is now in its 13th year and presented his sometime controversial views on local radio.

16.15-17.00 Workshop Sessions C BHSC G02 (250) Pat Bracken; Trauma: Culture, Meaning and Philosophy Pat will read from his 2002 book Trauma: Culture, Meaning and Philosophy. In this he used his experience
of working with victims of torture in Africa as well as his training in philosophy to develop a contextualist approach to understanding the loss of meaning that often happens in the wake of traumatic experience.

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Dr Pat Bracken is currently Clinical Director of the Mental Health Service in West Cork, Ireland. He trained in medicine, psychiatry and philosophy in Ireland and in the UK. He was Professor of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at the University of Central Lancashire in the years 2006-2008. He was co-editor of the book Rethinking the Trauma of War with Dr Celia Petty, published in 1998. His own book Trauma: Culture, Meaning and Philosophy was published in 2002. With Prof Phil Thomas, he published the book Postpsychiatry: A New Direction for Mental Health in 2005.

BHSC 1.01 (70) Michael Twomey; Documentary Premiere: Another Way Home- a

Mothers Struggle to Change a System

Another Way Home recounts the extraordinary story of how the mother of a schizophrenic girl creates an alternative environment to the psychiatric system. The family embarks on an emotional journey overcoming prejudice and bigotry to help change many lives damaged by the revolving door of mental health care. The film challenges current methods of psychiatry and attitudes to mental illness. It looks to the future with inspiring testimonies from those who have been to the edge of human experience and back carrying with them the triumph of will, a lust for life and a right to live it with dignity. Featuring Irish Broadcaster and Journalist, Vincent Browne, Professor of Psychiatry, Ivor Browne and Dr. Harry Gijbels. Narrated by Academy Award Winning Actor Jeremy Irons. The film has been selected for the Cork Film Festival 2012. Festival Director, Mick Hannigan said of the film This touched me deeply. I would urge anyone with an interest in mental health to see it. Its a great, moving story, and one set in Co. Cork. With Jeremy Irons narrating. Highly recommended. A really must see film Cork Film Festival 2012 Michael Twomey is an English and History graduate of UCC, 2006 with the HDip completed in 2007. He studied film throughout his degree years before returning to UCC in 2009 to take a Masters degree in Film Theory and Analysis. Following his MA he set up Complete Control Films with Kieran McCarthy and made a 30-minute sociological documentary on the social changes to Youghal town during the boom years. The film is currently being used by the sociology department at the University of Limerick and was the subject of an Irish Times article in 2011. The Irish Times said of the film raw, powerfula superb piece of work. Filming began on Another Way Home in 2011 and was completed a year later. Michael currently teaches Local History and Heritage in Adult Education and has also worked as a free lance journalist for the Evening Echo and the Irish Examiner.

BHSC 1.21 (70) Liam MacGabhan; Releasing the Potential of Professional Caregivers:

Exploring the Threat of Creative Engagement

Many people overcome/manage distress and reconcile the effects of trauma in their lives through engagement in creative therapeutic processes. For most, their quest will take them away from statutory mental health care provision and they find useful alternative approaches elsewhere. For people engaged in these creative approaches the beneficial experiences are clear. However, for those who might be looking in from the outside, e.g. mental health care providers, these approaches may seem strange, frightening, risky or potentially harmful and not least, without a scientific evidence base. This workshop will first explore, through respectful light hearted simulation of some creative therapeutic approaches why what is enlightening and life giving to some may be tantamount to heresy for professional caregivers. Often professional care givers are criticised for their unilateral approach to distress and trauma. The second part of this presentation will reflect on the cultural and professional defense mechanisms that may be employed by them to manage their own anxiety and distress associated with meaningful engagement with people who have been traumatised by life experiences. Finally some tentative discussion around how those that have already experienced the benefits of such creative approaches can begin to help professional care givers to embrace them, to touch the void and release their own potential for helping themselves and others. Liam Mac Gabhann works in the School of Nursing and Human Sciences at Dublin City University. He is a lecturer, mental health practitioner and community activist. He is co-lead of the schools research cluster `Understanding and Transforming Practice`. Along with a wide group of colleagues his main programme of

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research focuses on `Transforming Dialogues in Mental Health Communities`. Much of this work centres around people reconciling their own experiences, perceptions and practices with other people/groups associated with mental health and using different approaches to improve these at individual, group, organisational and community level. Approaches include cooperative learning, participative action and open dialogue. More recently along with Paddy McGowan, an extended team and local community groups the Mental Health Trialogue Network Ireland (www.trialogue.co) was established. This involves local community groups comprising mental health service users, carers, service providers and interested community members holding monthly open dialogue meetings (Trialogue) to enhance peoples understanding and responses to people with mental health difficulties in their communities.

BHSC 2.25 (50) Larry O Reilly; Making Connections through Communication

Motivational Interviewing and its Usefulness in Supporting Recovery from Trauma

This workshop provides an opportunity to review how Motivational Interviewing (MI) has impacted in the area of Trauma Therapy and will include an experience review of the processes and micro skills of MI that allow the therapist/helper to create a client driven process towards their stages of positive change to wellness.

Larry O Reilly is an Addiction Counsellor within Arbour House Treatment Centre Cork, has been practicing

Motivational Interviewing for the past twelve years and is registered as a Motivational Interviewing Network trainer through MINT a worldwide collaborative of trainers developing the usefulness of MI within the helping field. Larry has an interest in the integration of MI in the specialist work of Somatic Trauma Therapy

BHSC 3.01 (40) Benny McCabe; Navigating the Unspeakable

The proposed paper would outline the psychic landscape of survivors of torture, what is termed the unspeakable: the challenges and resources involved in navigating this landscape, so what is involved in the journey, which Michael Lapsley terms from victim to survivor to victor can be better understood. Different ways of understanding what is involved in this journey would refer to: The role of Myth The understanding which can emerge when what is pathologised in Western medicine can be understood as a Spiritual Emergency Creative approaches to the challenges involved in such a journey would refer to Analogy of charts for navigating. Group work and cultural competence, in particular the concept of Ubuntu which refers to the understanding that it is in relationships that one exits rather than the Cartesian notion of it being in thinking. The relationship between Mind/Body/Feelings The role of community The concept of Holding, Containing, Bearing Witness as outlined by Dick Blackwell The wisdom in dark emotions as explored by Miriam Greenspan

References:

Joseph Campbell (1973): The Hero with 1000 Faces. Malidoma Patrice Some (1999): The Healing Wisdom of Africa Derek Summerfield (2004).Cross cultural perspectives on the medicalisation of human suffering. Emma Bragdon (1980): The call of Spiritual Emergency, From Personal Crisis to Spiritual Transformation. Dick Blackwell (1997): Holding, Containing, Bearing Witness Miriam Greenspan (2003) Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair Benny McCabe is a Counselling Psychologist working with survivors of torture in SPIRASI, Dublin.

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BHSC 3.02 (30) Stephen Flynn; The Application of Jungs Transcendent Function as an

Effective Method of Working with Suicidal Patients

This paper explores the insight gained from practice and from extensive study touching on some of the dramatic techniques Stephen used to address suicide. He emphasizes the importance of understanding a critical path of decision making and the consequence of a negative fracture of this critical path which invariably results in serious self-abuse. Stephen has discovered this unique critical path which weaves through C. G. Jungs Psychological Types:- i.e. from the Intuitive Function through to the Thinking Function then on the Feeling Function and finally ending with the Sensation Function. This critical path of decision making is to be found in all people and demonstrates the differing intelligence each Psychological Type contributes. Understanding the nature of these complementary qualities brings clarity to how any break down between them leads to abusive behavior both socially and psychologically. Stephen states that Jungs Transcendent Function forms the theoretical framework within which diverse approaches can be employed to address the differing intelligence within each psychological type in order to repair the critical path bringing about an essential temporary readjustment. Stephen Flynn was previously a qualified Principal Social Worker both in England and Ireland before training in Psychodrama psychotherapy under Dr. Dorothy Langley and received analytical psychotherapy training under Dr. John McMahon- (Jungian Institute, Zurich). Upon return to Ireland he was the first fulltime psychotherapist to be employed by the State. The urgency to focus on suicidal ideation soon became apparent. It remains his main concern; He retired (officially) in 2008. He has now almost tweny years clinical experience as he continues working as an analytical Psychodrama Psychotherapist with psychiatric out-patients who are clinically suicidal (via St Stephens Hospital) referred via Consultant Psychiatrists and GPs. He is the founder member of Diadhuit Suicide Prevention Ltd.

8.00 pm Triskel Arts Centre

All delegates are welcome to the Triskel Arts Centre, where Dylan Tighe will play songs from his recent album RECORD. This is a free event for conference delegates only. With thanks to Dylan Tighe for organising this. www.triskelartscentre.ie Please note: Tickets for the above will be available at the registration desk during lunch time on Wednesday. Tickets are limited to 100, the maximum capacity of the Triskel Arts Centre

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Thursday 15 November Keynote Presentations

9.15 BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 4 Eleanor Longden; Making Sense of Voices: Recovery, Discovery and Transformation
Research has increasingly shown a powerful link between painful life events and the experience of hearing voices. However, the prevailing view of voices as an aberrant symptom of schizophrenia means services may often respond to voice hearers in ways that maintain distress and disability rather than using people's life stories to promote healing and psychological growth. This lecture draws on the presenter's own experience of voice hearing, as well current clinical research, to show how voices can be understood in the context of life events, and suggests strategies for establishing safety, healing and ultimately moving towards recovery - and beyond. Eleanor Longden is an award winning psychologist who has lectured and published internationally on aspects of voice hearing, trauma, dissociation, and recovery. She is current coordinator of the Intervoice Scientific Committee, a trustee of the UK Soteria Network, and a faculty member of the International Centre for Recovery Action in Practice, Education and Research (ICRA).

10.00 BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 5 Richard Patterson; TIME FOR CHANGE: Bury Forced Psychiatry Not People
Forced psychiatry began a process of attempting to bury me before I had ever truly unearthed myself as a human being. While I do not believe that we can ever completely reveal for ourselves the full extremities of who we are because we are all constantly growing and evolving, I do believe that for me the experiences that I have had in my life of overwhelming and disabling emotional distress were firmly rooted in the fact that I had not gained a full enough sense of self to feel confident in making decisions lending to my survival in this world as a unique individual human being experiencing meaning and purpose. Had I personally remained unquestioning and compliant with forced psychiatry I firmly believe that I would by now be buried in a very deep and dark place indeed rather than having dug my way through to the self discovery of the human being that I am today. Post my personal experience with forced psychiatry, I believe that I was not only lied to by that system, but also lied about and that I am still living with the aftermath of all of those lies. The field of forced psychiatry is to me like the plot of a bad old b movie and if I have arisen before being too deeply buried alive to survive, some of the dirt that had covered me, I still find clinging. TIME

FOR CHANGE: Bury Forced Psychiatry Not People.

Richard Patterson is both a former tool design engineer and outdoor education instructor who has survived fifteen years of having direct personal contact with what he terms as what are still widely labelled as psychiatric or mental health services in Ireland. He is since an award winning advocacy studies graduate who works fulltime as an advocate and who in his spare time tries to be individually outspoken as an activist in attempting to raise public consciousness of the shortcomings of forced psychiatry and the urgent need to involve the whole population in discussion and debate as to how best develop and promote alternative approaches to helping people to become empowered to overcome emotional trauma and distress.

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14.15 pm, WGB G05 Keynote Presentation 6 Dirk Corstens; The Maastricht Approach towards Hearing Voices
The development of the Maastricht approach towards hearing voices is mirrored in the three books of Romme and Escher: Accepting Voices - Making Sense of Voices - Living with Voices. The approach is derived from information from voice-hearers and follows a natural process of understanding and coping. After a short introduction of the model the audience will have the opportunity to discuss aspects of the impact of this approach on our thinking. The central question will be: 'How do we implement experience from voice hearers into society'. Dirk Corstens, works as psychiatrist and psychotherapist at RIAGG Maastricht, The Netherlands. Voice hearing and recovery are his special interests in his work, training and publications. He is chair of Intervoice and a regular trainer for Working to Recovery.

Thursday 15 November Workshops

11.15-12.00 Workshop Sessions D BHSC G02 (250) Christopher Findlay; Getting into the Rhythm and Groove of

Therapeutic Experience: Incorporating Awareness of Bodily Movements and Sensations in the Therapeutic Encounter
Aims and intentions: 1. To create a safe place in the workshop for the exploration of bodily sensations and movements as part of the data of experience in addition to clinical history taking and examination. 2. To teach recognition and support for the healing/reprocessing zone. 3. To allow discussion in a way that can facilitate new insights. The recovery movement provides us with a fresh opportunity to speak about recovery principles. As a Consultant Psychiatrist I have a fresh mandate to develop a Recovery Team. I regularly incorporate the awareness of spontaneous bodily movements into my consultations and now regularly observe therapeutic change in association with this. My style and practice is to encourage emancipation of patients/ service users/ team members and shared responsibility rather than adherence to strict protocols or guidelines. Sessions include psycho-education and the search for a common language to describe what is going on. I now regularly observe therapeutic shifts in association with the awareness of the rhythm of movements. I have observed spontaneous rapid eye movements in association with shifting attitudes towards past traumatic experience. As a neurologist I was introduced to the importance of observation, but failed to recognise the importance of spontaneous voluntary movements. (They were too normal to notice, I suppose.) Training in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) has enhanced my clinical practice. This lead me to recognise the reprocessing or healing zone that we slip in and out of in normal life. We can help each other pass through the turbulence of change in ways that we can tolerate. Sensorimotor psychotherapy training affirmed me in my ability to do this and taught me new skills. Reflecting on our experience together could help us articulate recovery principles that are common in everyday life. Another person is sometimes necessary to support inner sensory change and resolution. Dr Christopher Findlay has a broad experience of training as a physician, general practitioner and psychiatrist. He has learned to integrate this with a range of psychotherapies including EMDR and sensorimotor psychotherapy. He recognises the importance of storytelling and spiritual practice in supporting the social space for personal growth and development. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Birmingham in 1978. He trained in Psychiatry in Edinburgh and Leeds. He became a Consultant

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Psychiatrist in Crewe, Cheshire in 1997. He moved to Runcorn in 2003 to be with 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust and was a Director of Medical Education/Associate Medical Director from 2004 to 2009 based in Warrington. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists since 2000 and continues to do so. He has organised conferences with Keele University on Narrative, Science and Spirituality and Creating Healing Cultures.

BHSC G04 (120) Dylan Tighe; Uncomfortably Numb: Theatre and Transformation

In this presentation I will explore the motivations, process and outcomes of RECORD- a multi-platform theatre project combining an album of original songs, a performance, and a series of discussions, events and media interventions. The project uses my personal psychiatric history as a starting point to look at the ways in which theatre can aid a cultural shift in how human distress is represented both on and off-stage. RECORD is the result of an extensive period of research, development and creation, funded by CREATE (national development agency for collaborative arts) and The Arts Council with support from various other partners including Arts and Disability Ireland, HSE and Dublin City Council. The project received its world premiere at the Cork Midsummer Festival in June and went on to play at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October and was described by the Irish Independent as creating "a new theatrical form for a new way of thinking". This presentation aims to look at the following areas: how and by what means can theatre help transform, and regain control of, individual experience, status and identity? What ethical factors are to be considered in undertaking this kind of process? How might this project and artistic processes in general, serve as a model and catalyst for a collective re-examination of values which form the basis of cultural ideas around human distress? Dylan Tighe is a Theatre-Maker, Actor, Writer and Musician. He holds a BA in Spanish and Italian from Trinity College Dublin and a MA in Performance from Goldsmiths College London. Apart from his current project RECORD, recent work as director and co-writer includes The Trailer of Bridget Dinnigan a new version of Lorcas 'The House of Bernarda Alba' featuring 11 Irish Traveller women, which received a 'OnceOff' Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. He also directed 'No Worst There is None' at the Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 which was awarded the New Work Award (Arts Council) and both the Incubation Award and Tyrone Guthrie residency Award from Dublin City Council. The show went on to win Best Production at the 2009 Irish Times Theatre Awards, was nominated for Best Director and was reworked for RTE radio. In 2010 Dylan received the New Directions Award from the Gate Theatre London and in 2011 was an artist in residence at the Irish Cultural Centre Paris. Forthcoming work includes roles in 'The Ice-Cream Girls (ITV) and King Lear at the Abbey Theatre.

BHSC G06 (170) Norah Twomey; Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Definition of Mindfulness: Bringing ones complete attention to the present experience on a moment-tomoment basis.

It has been especially interesting to run MBSR courses within the mental health setting, within a system that is very much hierarchal in nature and biased in regards to the use of labeling through diagnosis and treatment by medication- a system that I am grounded in. Offering the 8-week course differs considerably from traditional psychiatric treatment modalities. The role of the MBSR teacher is not to fix or offer solutions. This approach has the virtue of focusing on what is right with each participant as opposed to what is wrong with them. The teacher introduces a sense of spirituality, a sense of connectedness into psychiatry. The teacher is only the facilitator in the group and each participant is the transformer of their own health and well being, they access their own inner resources for learning, growing and healing- quite a different approach from the one embedded in mental health care. The MBSR course, which is relatively brief in duration though intense, is the route to foster self-regulation of emotion, self-discipline and self-reliance. The transformation in the attendees who practice mindfulness has consolidated my belief n the effectiveness of the practice and thereby encourages me to continue teaching the course and to fully integrate it into my role as a community mental health nurse. Norah Twomey; I am a registered mental health nurse currently working in community mental health as a CMHN. I trained as an MBSR and MBCT teacher through the European Institute of Mindfulness in 2010 and

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I am currently teaching MBSR in St. Finbarrs Hospital, Cork. I qualified as a yoga instructor in 2009 and this is where I developed a keen interest in Mindfulness Meditation. I completed a BA in Health Science (Nursing) in Australia where I worked in acute and liaison psychiatry and received recognition for New initiatives (GP Liaison) within psychiatry in Australia and New Zealand. I have also worked in the UK, Switzerland and the United States as a nurse.

BHSC 1.01 (70) Jacqui Dillon; Setting up Hearing Voices Support Groups

Join fellow facilitators of Hearing Voices Network groups (or those working on becoming facilitators and starting groups up!) in a safe, facilitated space to share ideas, provide support and network. For those who have completed the Hearing Voices Groups Facilitator Training in Cork, Dublin, or will be attending the upcoming training in Galway. Also, open to those who are interested in setting up/facilitating a group. Jacqui Dillon is a respected speaker, writer and activist, and has lectured and published worldwide on trauma and abuse, psychosis, dissociation and recovery. Jacqui is the national Chair of the Hearing Voices Network in England and a Board member of Intervoice the International Network for Training, Education and Research into Hearing Voices. Jacqui is Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. Along with Professor Marius Romme and Dr Sandra Escher she is the co-editor of Living with Voices, an anthology of 50 voice hearers stories of recovery. She is also co-editor of Demedicalising Misery: Psychiatry, Psychology and the Human Condition, has published numerous articles and papers and is on the editorial board of the journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. Jacqui is also a voice hearer. See www.jacquidillon.org

BHSC 1.21 (70) Vered and Boaz Zur; How the Arts and Nature can Help Heal Trauma

Recovery from trauma requires therapeutic interventions, which engage the client in healing experiences that provide relief from distress as well as insight into the trauma-triggering event. This workshop will provide participants with an introduction to how Expressive Arts Therapy (EXA) works, using play, movement, body expression, sound, music and video to gain experience of transformation. It will explore the awakening of creative responses to experiences of trauma and distress through the use of the arts. The theme that we propose to use is that of woodland on fire, which will provide both a focus for participation and a metaphor for intervention and regeneration. The use of inter-modal expressive arts to treat trauma and anxiety disorders is known to be a helpful therapeutic intervention for many individuals and groups, children as well as adults - EXA is accessible to everybody. It helps to reduce symptoms, either completely or to a manageable level to enable individuals to regain a sense of control of their lives. Healing can come through the processes of art-making. A safe space can be created in order to explore the art in a nonjudgmental environment. Human beings are creative beings; human beings can shape and make their own reality. EXA helps individuals to access verbal and non-verbal material by tapping into an implicit experience as coded in sensation and imagery. Individuals are able to put their experiences outside of themselves, which are then reflected back to them through the imagery, movement sound and play. The session will include music, movement, voice, video, play and drama. For more information on Expressive Arts Therapy, please visit the website www.expressiveartsireland.com Vered Zur, M.A. C.A.G.S. Qualified in Expressive Arts Coaching, Consulting and Education. She is a Therapist and Supervisor. She delivers, teaches and facilitates both professional and personal development workshops for groups and individuals. Vered has a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies, from the European Graduate School, and a Masters Degree in Expressive Arts Therapies from the European Graduate School and Lesley University. She holds a B.Ed. in Education and Literature. Vered has studied in Israel, Ireland and Switzerland. She worked in Israel in a conflict area to develop a Peace Building program for schools. She is an Intermodal Artist working with arts, nature and community. Currently, Vered is completing her Ph.D., working with Eco Psychology/Eco Therapy using Expressive Arts and EcoTherapy to deepen community engagement with the natural world. She is a member of I.E.A.T.A. and I.A.C.A.T. Boaz Zur holds a Masters Degree in Expressive Arts Therapy from the European Graduate School and Lesley University. He facilitates group work and individual sessions for professional in the fields of health

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and education. Boaz uses an intermodal approach in his work in order to enhance the participants personal development. He also works as a therapist and provides supervision. He received a B.Ed in Special Education from Israel. He has 25 years teaching experience. Boaz is a writer and storyteller, organizing and participating in storytelling events in Ireland and internationally. He integrates the art of storytelling in his work as an Expressive Arts Therapist. He is currently completing his Ph.D.

BHSC 3.01 (40) Pauline Dolan; In Our Own Words...

...is a creative interactive workshop to highlight the ideas of Thomas Szasz who died on September 12 this year. His friend, owner and producer of the Szasz site, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D., said It would be a big mistake for us to think that with Tom's death comes the death of his work, his important ideas, the example he set. He was not perfect, none of us are. The workshop wont be perfect, it doesnt need to be but at the end hopefully we present; will discover lots about the man who deemed mental illness a fiction, a myth he claimed medical men and their supporters have been involved, in a 'manufacture of madness.' We will need scribes, storytellers, and a willingness to enter the creative process to tell the main points of his Summary Statement and Manifesto and core beliefs on: The Myth of mental illness; Separation of Psychiatry and the State; Presumption of competence; Abolition of involuntary mental hospitalization; Abolition of the insanity defence and his vision to replace involuntary psychiatry (psychiatric slavery) with contractual relations between care givers and clients Pauline Dolan originally from Galway is a psychotherapist working in private practice at Ryecourt Clinic Cloughduv and Ballincollig Healing Centre. She has said 'When we frequently put ourselves down, tell ourselves we are dumb, worthless or not good enough, we live one story. When we commit to telling ourselves we are just fine, worthy of respect and kindness and make the choice to be the first to show those qualities of respect and kindness to ourselves we automatically shift our realities from the first story to a better story'.

BHSC 3.02 (40) Greg White; Our Abandoned Instinct-The Primacy of Nose Breathing

for Integrative Consciousness

Psychotherapist and activist Greg White intertwining his subject matter with the powerful and evocative healing imagery of the film, The Horse Whisperer, talks about the long abandoned instinct of concentrated nose breathing. He emphasises this discovery from learned experience, the connection of this to our ubiquitous unconscious fight and flight breathing patterns and consequent exhausting, often troubling racing thoughts. He proposes that although in places like Tibet, where presumably it still survives, its loss here, at the very least demands our individual attention. The film itself powerfully dramatises how and where our everyday no time thinking violates a natural being there emotional equanimity; the sensitive cowhand horse whisperer alone standing over both horses and childs alienated respective instinctual and ordinary mindsets, holding a time honoured, compassionate, symbiotic healing space and time , or whispering. For assuredly to be ones own mind whisperer calls at least for the regular practice of simply re-acquainting ourselves with whats missing but right under our noses, our nose breathing; its gentle subtle invitation to the time it takes by each day consciously allocating a short time and place for this. Since this is addressing a cultural as well as personal deficit, he urges patience, doing this gradually, starting with as little as five minutes. Again as reflected on film, because reliably the shadow of the modern ego of the ordinary mind will initially resist this healing symbiosis- unwittingly press for a breaking in relationship- as with the horse whisperer, sometimes, for the novice whisperer, the symbiosis initially at least, may be troubled; requiring persistence, perhaps more intense breathing techniques, namely conscious holotropic breathing and/or tummy breathing, in tandem with nose breathing. The ultimate reward, at a gentle smiling breathless wordless remove, at the letting go end of ones outbreath, where ultimately symbiosis gives way to the time it takes, is the subtle personal restorative parasympathetic yogic

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potentiality of horse and rider, instinct and volition, the elusive hieros gamos, the higher marriage of the philosophers. Greg White from Bandon is an Irish septuagenarian, father, grandfather, semi-retired psychotherapist, mental health activist, married to artist Jennie, now bringing a wealth of expertise and lived experience to public lectures and workshops. Details on www.endlesspossibilities.ie

BHSC 3.04 (40) Orla Broderick; Homeopathic Treatment of Trauma and Distress

As a homeopath and psychiatric nurse I firmly believe that there are alternatives to the bio-medical approach to health. During my time as a psychiatric nurse I can to see that the revolving door system with its emphasis on chemical solutions did not address the deeper issues within the individual. The Homeopathic treatment of Trauma and Distress is a holistic approach, looking at the individual and developing an understanding of the state of the person. Those attending will develop the knowledge to deal with trauma patterns with a homeopathic understanding. This workshop will cover principles and philosophy of Homeopathy, use of common homeopathic remedies for shock and trauma, fear and fright, acute grief, acute anxiety with case histories. Research will be included. Orla Broderick is a registered member of the Irish Society of Homeopaths. She qualified from the Burren School of Homeopathy in 1998 and runs a busy practice in Cork City. She is also a registered psychiatric nurse, trained at the Maudsley Hospital, London qualified 1986. She has also a diploma in high expressed emotion work and schizophrenia Institute of Psychiatry 1987.

12.15-13.00 Workshop Sessions E BHSC G02 (250) Iseult Twamley & Caoilfhionn Timmons; Open Dialogue in West Cork

This workshop will aim to introduce the Open Dialogue approach to mental health care and describe the ongoing pilot of this approach within West Cork Community Mental Health Service. Open dialogue was developed by Jaakko Seikkula and colleagues in the western Lapland region of Finland. In this approach the entire psychiatric system is organized around engaging with families and support networks from the first point of contact. The focus of staff in open dialogue is away from a traditional biomedical model of diagnosis and removal of symptoms, towards facilitated open dialogues. The aim of these open conversations/dialogues is to reach shared understanding and collaborative solutions. This approach values the voice of everyone in the process, especially the service user, and emphasizes the importance of supporting relationships within the family and with the mental health team. In April 2012, twenty two members of our staff participated in a 5 day training with Finnish colleagues. We will share the story of how we came to consider implementing Open Dialogue and the plan we developed (with Genio funding) for our pilot & research. We will discuss critical elements of the Open Dialogue approach and how they fit (or challenge) ways of working within the Irish mental health system. We will talk about our experience of this training, and the pilot implementation, and present some initial data from our research. We will end the workshop with our hopes for the future, the challenges ahead, and an opportunity for audience discussion. Dr Iseult Twamley is Senior Clinical Psychologist with West Cork Mental Health Service, HSE South. She has a particular interest in Recovery perspectives in Mental Health & the contribution of Psychology and Psychotherapy to Recovery. She completed the DCU co-operative leadership programme in 2007, as part of which she set up the West Cork Trialogue network with Joe Keane & Cathy Buttimer. Iseult is currently taking the lead in the Genio funded pilot of Open Dialogue approaches within WCMHS, fueled by a personal and professional conviction of the importance of the inclusion of the service user & their support network in mental health service delivery. Caoilfhionn Timmons is working alongside Dr. Twamley as Assistant Psychologist with West Cork Mental Health Services. Her interest in Recovery approaches & Positive Psychology led her to her current role on the Genio Open Dialogue Project. She is also undertaking a part-time MSc in Health Psychology.

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BHSC G04 (120) Nicky Forsyth; Talk for Health - a Peer to Peer Therapy Initiative

This workshop is about a peer to peer therapy project run by Psychotherapist Nicky Forsythe. Talk for Health is psycho-educational training which enables people including with diagnoses of severe mental illness - to give and get the benefits of therapeutic talk without the long-term involvement of professionals. The intention behind Talk for Health to make therapeutic talk much more empowering and widely available. Therapeutic talk has been shown to have a healing effect, but it doesnt have to happen in a therapy room with a professional. In fact, a traditional us and them approach between professionals and so-called patients reinforces illusory the boundaries between sanity and insanity, and can be counter-productive for those who have been traumatised by authority figures. In this workshop, Nicky would: Outline her qualitative research and he academic evidence base underpinning Talk for Health Describe the practice of Talk for Health and the outcomes so far Facilitate an interactive session about the boundaries between therapy, therapeutic talk and everyday chat Nicky Forsythe is a Psychotherapist, qualitative researcher, writer and activist in the field of mental health. Her work is rooted in her own experiences of and research on mental distress and therapy. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Time to Change campaign, and is a member of the National Development Group of the Spiritual Crisis Network.

BHSC 1.21 (70) Eileen Murray; Dancing for Mental Wellness

Dance therapy has proved to be a very beneficial addition to a range of therapies used in mental health services, particularly with people who have difficulty to engage in psychological therapies. Dance movement therapy is based on the assumption that body and mind are inter-related. In practice, dance is used psychotherapeutically to bring about changes in feelings, behavior, cognition and physical functioning. In the aftermath of World War II, the need to deal with large groups of traumatized veterans led to the development of a number of creative therapies suited to group work. In Washington DC, Marian Chace used dance in her work with psychiatric patients, finding it particularly helpful for encouraging withdrawn patients back into the present. Chaces view was that dance is a form of communication that fulfils a basic human need. The aim of this workshop presentation is to introduce the participants to the experience of dance movement and to show them the following: that they can express how they are feeling through dance movement that they are never dancing the wrong dance that they are supported by the music that their bodies will, in a completely natural and organic way start to embody, express, release and follow through its own energy and momentum, giving way to a new sense of well being.. My intention is that the participants will experience Dance Movement as a moving meditation, which can be done in their own living room to help to shift inertia, transform stuck emotions, and help gain perspective. Eileen Murray is a trained psychiatric nurse currently working in the North Cork Mental Health Services. Having subsequently worked as a health care professional in Australia, Sweden and the UK, she became keenly interested in the Mind/Body link to holistic health and well-being, and the causes of disease. Eileen is also trained in Biodynamic psychotherapy and bodywork and is a certified qigong teacher. Eileen believes and teaches through her workshops, that becoming emotionally healthy and resilient is not simply a matter of attending to our minds and hearts; it is also a matter of how we perceive and care for the physical body we are housed in.

BHSC 3.01 (40) Tenants and Staff Sli Eile Housing Association; Sl Eile Another Way

to Recovery from Trauma & Distress

The concept of community living has long been used to support people with long-term mental health and social problems. In Sl Eile, the community members interact in both a structured and unstructured ways to help themselves develop more positive attitudes, perceptions and behaviours. In this workshop, tenants and staff will discuss their journey with Sl Eile.

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Workshop presenters: Catherine; experienced over seventy admissions to hospital before becoming a tenant with Sl Eile over two years ago. Joan; her vision for Sl Eile grew out of her long experience as a mother witnessing her daughter suffer steady deterioration in the traditional psychiatric services. Mary Ellen; before coming to Sl Eile twelve months ago Mary Ellen experienced many admissions to hospital over a period of 22 years due to a disturbed childhood background. Paul; brings his qualifications and experience in business management and counselling to his role as manager with Sl Eile, supporting people that choose a different way. Teresa; works full time with Sl Eile and starts her day in supporting tenants in Cuisine Sl Eile with the home- baking venture

BHSC 3.02 (40) Fiona Morrissey; New Approaches to Decision-Making in Mental Health

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) requires us to engage in new approaches to mental health decision-making and to develop a range of support strategies. The emphasis on dignity and autonomy including freedom to make choices is infused throughout the CRPD. Advance directives allow individuals to state their treatment preferences and other life choices in a legal document which can be used during future periods of distress. Directives are considered to be appropriate vehicles for supporting legal capacity by recognising the will and preferences of the person. The CRPD necessitates the implementation of directives which are designed to communicate wishes during crises while recognising the capacity of the individual. The expanded vision of advance directives views them as tools for self-directed care and forums for reflecting on previous mental health experiences. They can also act as a vehicle for learning ensuring the dignity of the individual in future decisions. A major theme in developing advance directives is whether they are made independently or with support. A number of approaches from other countries will be considered including an innovative integrated advance directive which enables individuals to plan for future mental health and other decisions using peer support and WRAP. The directive includes a presumption of capacity and can be changed at any time unless the individual specifies otherwise. The workshop will garner views on the introduction of appropriate forms of advance directives in Ireland and pose a range of scenarios in which they may be utilised in the mental health context. Fiona Morrissey is based at the School of Law at NUI Galway and is currently undertaking a Ph.D. on the introduction of a legal framework for advance directives in Irish mental health care. She is specifically interested in legal tools which serve to promote empowerment and human rights in mental health. Fiona previously worked as an information officer with Barnardos Ireland where she developed an interest in rights based issues for vulnerable groups. She has worked in the third level sector in a number of different capacities over the past 8 years and has been lecturing law (including human rights law) on a part-time basis since 2008. Fiona has published in the Medico Legal Journal of Ireland and the European Journal of Health Law. She was awarded an NUI travelling studentship in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2012 which allowed her to undertake comparative research at a number of leading international centres for advance directives and mental health law reform.

BHSC 3.04 (40) Sheelagh Broderick; Piecing Together (This workshop is limited to 12-15

people. Please bring jigsaw pieces/puzzle to the workshop) This art workshop will use jigsaws as a material for exploration. Jigsaws are typically presented to us as a patterned puzzle that can be solved in one way only as a flat representational surface. In this workshop participants will be invited to reconfigure puzzles in any number of ways - use of negative space, jigsaw pieces as mosaics, templates, and sculptural objects. Jigsaws were originally called dissections when they first emerged in the mid-18th century, gaining in popularity and even giving rise to jigsaw puzzle parties in which teams competed to complete copies of the same puzzle. This workshop is not competitive nor is it intended as a therapy. Rather it focuses on collaboration to explore what a body can do, in just 45 minutes - just enough to time to begin a process whereby a reconfigured territory can begin to emerge from the pieces. Participants may bring their own jigsaws if they wish but may not be able to retrieve the pieces

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afterwards, so perhaps just best to bring incomplete puzzles that are not needed afterwards (max 12 participants). Sheelagh Broderick; I am a PhD artist researcher at the Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media. My inquiry, interpreting Arts and Health, concerns arts practices in healthcare settings. COLLABORATION/INSTALLATION Dec 2011 CT Scan 6 Dec 2011 Dialogues Arts + Health National Exchange Day, Rua Red Arts Centre, Tallaght Nov 2011 mac medicine as culture, Jennings Gallery, Faculty of Medicine, University College Cork 2009 A Cosmopolitan Cosmology, Sherkin Island 2009 Cape and I, West Cork Arts Centre 2008 The Epiphany of Mulroy Bay II, temporary installation Baltimore, Co Cork TEXTS December 2011 Witness Writer for Dialogues Arts + Health September 2011 To evidence or not to evidence? Opinion Piece for www.artsandhealth.ie July 2011 Hale & Arty, Visual Artists News Sheet June 2011 Arts Practices in Unreasonable Doubt? Reflections on Understandings of Arts Practices in Healthcare Settings, Arts & Health: International Journal of Policy, Research and Practice

Please see www.sheelaghnagig.net and www.medicineasculture.com to see examples of work

BHSC 1.22 (70) Maria Gillen; Medicinal Stories

Using the medium of drama with an emphasis on role-play, this workshop will give you the chance to see old attitudes and stances through a new lens. It affords the chance to create a safe environment in which to explore stories in a playful manner and to create a space where everyday worries and rules are suspended for a period of time. Exploring the use of Catharsis as a healing agent the group will look at relieving dis-ease by bringing the body into new uses of pace and space this is the oldest and most enjoyable medicine in the world. I look forward to seeing you there Maria Gillen has an MA in Dramatherapy from the National University of Maynooth and a Diploma in Biodynamic and Integrative Psychotherapy from the Centre of Biodynamic and Integrative Psychotherapy, Galway. She works mainly through the medium of Drama and Story Telling and has run workshops with groups on Mental Health issues, Team Building, Childcare, Elder Care, Sexuality, Self Esteem, Grief and Anger. She has also run workshops for children in story making, drug awareness for primary school children and workshops for Primary School teachers in the Cork area on the use of Dramatherapy with Primary School children. As well as practising as a Bioydynamic Pyschotherapist and Dramatherapist, Maria delivers Person Centred Child and Eldercare to Fetac Level 5 standard with an emphasis on the importance of multidisciplinary team interaction. She is an active member of the Speakout Playback theatre group who use theatre in Community settings.

15.00-16.30 Plenary Session WGB G05 (300) Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI)
The final session of the conference is dedicated to the on-going work of the Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI), which was launched at this conference in November 2010. The plenary session provides opportunities to integrate the insights and initiatives of the first 1.5 days of the conference, to discuss the on-going work of the CVNI. This will hopefully help strengthen a sense of shared outlook and purpose, and enhance the networking initiatives which have started in different parts of the country.

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