CALENDAR OF EVENTS

A curated listing of international critical psychology conferences and events. Email us at [email protected] if you’d like to suggest an event.

Events in September 2022

  • Truthtelling & Consequences : Alice in Dunderland Part II

    Truthtelling & Consequences : Alice in Dunderland Part II


    September 1, 2022

    A New Paradigm : Integrative Health Creativity, Mental Health & Adverse Impacts of Diagnoses & Psychiatric Medications

    9:00am - 2:00pm AEST

    The Truthtelling & Consequences Seminar:

    • Opens the dialogue to explore the risks vs benefits of psychiatric drugs.
    • Explores the holistic approach of integrative Mental Health practices, recovery options and showcases stories of recovery to help foster awareness of full recovery from mental health crises.
    • Looks at the need for systemic change in the Mental Health system from power imbalances to informed consent, patient rights.

    Truthtelling & Consequences : Alice in Dunderland Part II

    Inner Compass Initiative - Moving Beyond Myth: A Postmortem Analysis of Chemical Imbalances and Antidepressant Efficacy

    Inner Compass Initiative - Moving Beyond Myth: A Postmortem Analysis of Chemical Imbalances and Antidepressant Efficacy


    September 1, 2022

    1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EST

    For decades, we’ve been told by health, media, and governmental authorities that depression is caused by a lack of serotonin in the brain and can be effectively treated with antidepressant drugs. Today, millions of people around the world believe in the veracity of this clear, compelling story: surveys conducted in the West have found that 85-90% of people believe in the chemical imbalance theory of depression. In America, alone, one in seven people is on an antidepressant. Most antidepressant users have been on them for more than two years.

    If this story was true, rates of depression diagnoses would have presumably dropped over the years. But they haven’t, and recent research findings shed light on why this is the case: the notion that depression is a matter of imbalanced chemicals with an effective pharmaceutical intervention is mythology. What does this mean for us, individually and collectively, in our arduous human quest to resolve emotional pain? And what does it mean for the psychiatric profession, and for the research industry, as well, that this mythology was propagated for decades without scientific evidence, underlying countless millions of individual decisions to prescribe or take these drugs?

    Join Laura Delano as she facilitates an ICI Roundtable Discussion with a few of the authors behind this recent research: Professor Joanna Moncrieff and Dr. Mark Horowitz, who will discuss their co-authored systematic umbrella review on the serotonin theory of depression; and Professor Irving Kirsch, who will discuss his co-authored comprehensive data analysis of antidepressant efficacy trials. They’ll outline what they found in their respective analyses, discuss possible limitations to the data they analyzed, chat about the criticism and resistance they’ve encountered, and talk candidly about what their findings suggest regarding where we all might go from here.

    Inner Compass Initiative - Moving Beyond Myth: A Postmortem Analysis of Chemical Imbalances and Antidepressant Efficacy

  • Making Sense of Dissociative Experiences (without the 'Disorder' part! ): An Introductory Interactive Online Workshop

    Making Sense of Dissociative Experiences (without the 'Disorder' part! ): An Introductory Interactive Online Workshop


    September 2, 2022

    11:00AM-2:00PM BST

    This workshop with Dr Jacqui Dillon and Jo Watson introduces a non medicalised approach to working with people who experience dissociation.

    About this event

    Are you working with/supporting people who experience dissociation?

    Do you want trauma informed, socially responsible and non-pathologisng training on this topic that has a zero-tolerance approach to colluding with medicalised terminology?

    Are you frustrated that the vast majority of training that is offered on this subject subscribes to the narrative of ‘disorder!’

    This is an introductory workshop that precedes more in-depth training that will be offered later this year.

     

    ‘Making Sense of Dissociative experience without the ‘disorder’ part!’ - an introduction will help you to:

    -Understand dissociative experience as a creative human response not a ‘disorder’.

    -Begin to explore how you can respond to dissociation in a non-pathologising, compassionate and safe way.

    -Increase your understanding of the range and complexity of dissociative experiences.

    -Have more confidence in your ability to safely support someone.

     

    This interactive workshop is suitable for all who wish to understand more about this subject including counsellors, psychotherapists and others working in a therapeutic/ support setting .

     

    This workshop is offered in response to numerous requests over the last few years for input on dissociation specifically from a position that is non medical/diagnostic and has a commitment to challenge medicalised language.

    Trainers:

    Jacqui Dillon is an activist, author, and speaker, and has lectured and published worldwide on trauma, abuse, hearing voices, psychosis, dissociation, and healing. She is a key figure in the international Hearing Voices Movement, has co-edited three books, published numerous articles and papers and is on the editorial board of the journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. Jacqui’s survival of childhood abuse and subsequent experiences of using psychiatric services inform her work, and she is an outspoken advocate and campaigner for trauma informed approaches to madness and distress. Jacqui is part of a collective voice demanding a radical shift in the way we understand and respond to experiences currently defined as psychiatric illnesses. In 2017, Jacqui was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Psychology by the University of East London.

    See www.jacquidillon.org

     

    Jo Watson is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, a supervisor, trainer and activist. She has worked therapeutically for the last 25 years with people who have experienced trauma and adversity and has trained counsellors /psychotherapists and other mental health professionals in issues related to trauma.

    Jo is the founder of the Facebook group ‘ Drop The Disorder!’ and runs the adisorder4everyone.com (AD4E) events that challenge the medicalisation of emotional distress and explore trauma informed and socially responsible alternatives.

     

    Both trainers have both personal and professional experience of dissociative experience.

    Making Sense of Dissociative Experiences (without the 'Disorder' part! ): An Introductory Interactive Online Workshop

  • Art Making, Nature, and Spirituality with Karin Jervert

    Art Making, Nature, and Spirituality with Karin Jervert


    September 6, 2022

    Art Making, Nature, and Spirituality with Karin Jervert

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada


    September 6, 2022

     

    Time: Weekly, Tuesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, U.S. Mountain time (5:00 pm Pacific, 7:00 pm Central, 8:00 pm Eastern). Next meeting: June 21, 2022

    A space where families can exchange information and share experiences to foster a dialogue that goes beyond the predominant mainstream medical treatment model. Welcome! This Mad in America (MIA) forum hosts online parent support groups. We have started these groups in response to the many inquiries we get from parents who are skeptical of conventional drug-based treatments for children struggling with mental health issues and are now looking for alternatives. We currently offer two groups—one in Europe and one in the United States/Canada; all are conducted in English. This initiative, begun in the fall of 2018, has generated strong interest, and we hope to accommodate as many people as possible. Therefore, the U.S./Canada group now operates on a weekly, drop-in basis, as your schedules and needs allow.

    The support groups, which last 90 minutes, are moderated and provide a confidential space where people can share information and experiences that foster a dialogue about psychiatric diagnosis, the use of psychiatric medications, and non-drug alternatives. We hope these groups will help parents and other family members to feel less alone as they struggle to best help the children in their lives. Everyone in the group has the opportunity to speak, and everyone is expected to be respectful of others. The moderators occasionally invite guest speakers to the meetings. Although MIA is hosting these forums, the moderators do not represent MIA. Their opinions and suggestions are their own.

    Please write to me with any questions you may have about the support groups. You may also want to visit our Family Resources section, which provides information about drugs, blogs written by both professionals and parents, Q&As, research news, and other informational links. To sign up for a support group, please click “sign up here” at the bottom of the page and then complete the form. –Miranda Spencer, Parent Resources Editor

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

  • MIA Online Parent Support Group: Europe

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: Europe


    September 8, 2022

    Time: Monthly. Every second Thursday of the month. For parents of children of all ages. 18:00 to 19:30, Berlin Time (UTC+1), 12:00 to 13:30, Eastern Time (EDT) Next meeting July 14, 2022

    A space where families can exchange information and share experiences to foster a dialogue that goes beyond the predominant mainstream medical treatment model. Welcome! This Mad in America (MIA) forum hosts online parent support groups. We have started these groups in response to the many inquiries we get from parents who are skeptical of conventional drug-based treatments for children struggling with mental health issues and are now looking for alternatives. We currently offer two groups—one in Europe and one in the United States/Canada; all are conducted in English. This initiative, begun in the fall of 2018, has generated strong interest, and we hope to accommodate as many people as possible. Therefore, the U.S./Canada group now operates on a weekly, drop-in basis, as your schedules and needs allow.

    The support groups, which last 90 minutes, are moderated and provide a confidential space where people can share information and experiences that foster a dialogue about psychiatric diagnosis, the use of psychiatric medications, and non-drug alternatives. We hope these groups will help parents and other family members to feel less alone as they struggle to best help the children in their lives. Everyone in the group has the opportunity to speak, and everyone is expected to be respectful of others. The moderators occasionally invite guest speakers to the meetings. Although MIA is hosting these forums, the moderators do not represent MIA. Their opinions and suggestions are their own.

    Please write to me with any questions you may have about the support groups. You may also want to visit our Family Resources section, which provides information about drugs, blogs written by both professionals and parents, Q&As, research news, and other informational links. To sign up for a support group, please click “sign up here” at the bottom of the page and then complete the form. –Miranda Spencer, Parent Resources Editor

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: Europe

  • MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada


    September 13, 2022

     

    Time: Weekly, Tuesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, U.S. Mountain time (5:00 pm Pacific, 7:00 pm Central, 8:00 pm Eastern). Next meeting: June 21, 2022

    A space where families can exchange information and share experiences to foster a dialogue that goes beyond the predominant mainstream medical treatment model. Welcome! This Mad in America (MIA) forum hosts online parent support groups. We have started these groups in response to the many inquiries we get from parents who are skeptical of conventional drug-based treatments for children struggling with mental health issues and are now looking for alternatives. We currently offer two groups—one in Europe and one in the United States/Canada; all are conducted in English. This initiative, begun in the fall of 2018, has generated strong interest, and we hope to accommodate as many people as possible. Therefore, the U.S./Canada group now operates on a weekly, drop-in basis, as your schedules and needs allow.

    The support groups, which last 90 minutes, are moderated and provide a confidential space where people can share information and experiences that foster a dialogue about psychiatric diagnosis, the use of psychiatric medications, and non-drug alternatives. We hope these groups will help parents and other family members to feel less alone as they struggle to best help the children in their lives. Everyone in the group has the opportunity to speak, and everyone is expected to be respectful of others. The moderators occasionally invite guest speakers to the meetings. Although MIA is hosting these forums, the moderators do not represent MIA. Their opinions and suggestions are their own.

    Please write to me with any questions you may have about the support groups. You may also want to visit our Family Resources section, which provides information about drugs, blogs written by both professionals and parents, Q&As, research news, and other informational links. To sign up for a support group, please click “sign up here” at the bottom of the page and then complete the form. –Miranda Spencer, Parent Resources Editor

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

  • Live Free Virtual Training: Psychotherapy Networker's Healing the Wounds of Trauma: An In-Depth Workshop with Gabor MatĂ©, MD and Bruce Perry, MD

    Live Free Virtual Training: Psychotherapy Networker's Healing the Wounds of Trauma: An In-Depth Workshop with Gabor Maté, MD and Bruce Perry, MD

    N/A
    September 16, 2022

    Join two of the most profound healers of our time to access unique insight into the causes of suffering and the potential for healing!
    FEATURING Dr. Gabor Maté comes an in-depth workshop based on his brand-new book The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture – a riveting follow-up to In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.
    With SPECIAL GUEST Bruce Perry, MD, renowned child psychiatrist and co-author of the NYT Best-Selling What Happened to You? (with Oprah Winfrey) and The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog.
    This all-new clinical workshop, based on the brand-new book The Myth of Normal, could powerfully shift your understanding of traumatic stress and how we, as therapists, can help people recover and heal.
    Together, they’ll explore with you the most common misconceptions around trauma and chronic stress, how and why we get stuck, and the specific pathways to healing.
    Gabor will specifically cover some of the most prevalent mental health diagnoses therapists are seeing today including: ADHD, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Self-Harm, ODD, Eating Disorders...
    And how we should be treating them through the lens of developmental trauma.
    This is a rare opportunity to join two leading clinicians in developmental trauma who have never been together in a workshop before and may not ever again.
    Space is limited. We fully expect this live virtual workshop to reach capacity....
    So register FREE today with just your name and email.

    12:00pm ET - 4:00pm ET  Can't attend live? Register anyway for 14-day free access to the training!

    Live Free Virtual Training: Psychotherapy Networker's Healing the Wounds of Trauma: An In-Depth Workshop with Gabor Maté, MD and Bruce Perry, MD

    A Disorder 4 Everyone! Online Festival 2022

    A Disorder 4 Everyone! Online Festival 2022


    September 16, 2022

    Time is in UK/BST.

    In September of 2020 two and a half thousand people from over 15 different countries registered for the A Disorder for Everyone Online Festival. In September 2021 much the same happened.

    For the last 2 years AD4E has brought together wisdom, experience and passion for change in an online festival full of inspiring contributors who all challenged the mainstream medicalised paradigm of emotional distress that labels and pathologises people’s suffering.

    The feedback we received in the weeks & months that followed both events was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging and it provided us with yet more evidence that the appetite for this discussion is growing exponentially.

    Too many people have simply had enough of people’s stories and experiences being negated and dismissed by scientifically questionable labels. They want change, and they want to be part of a movement that is demanding change.

    This September 2022 we are doing it all again. Please sign up to join us and please help to spread the word as much as possible.

    A Disorder 4 Everyone! Online Festival 2022

  • MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada


    September 20, 2022

     

    Time: Weekly, Tuesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, U.S. Mountain time (5:00 pm Pacific, 7:00 pm Central, 8:00 pm Eastern). Next meeting: June 21, 2022

    A space where families can exchange information and share experiences to foster a dialogue that goes beyond the predominant mainstream medical treatment model. Welcome! This Mad in America (MIA) forum hosts online parent support groups. We have started these groups in response to the many inquiries we get from parents who are skeptical of conventional drug-based treatments for children struggling with mental health issues and are now looking for alternatives. We currently offer two groups—one in Europe and one in the United States/Canada; all are conducted in English. This initiative, begun in the fall of 2018, has generated strong interest, and we hope to accommodate as many people as possible. Therefore, the U.S./Canada group now operates on a weekly, drop-in basis, as your schedules and needs allow.

    The support groups, which last 90 minutes, are moderated and provide a confidential space where people can share information and experiences that foster a dialogue about psychiatric diagnosis, the use of psychiatric medications, and non-drug alternatives. We hope these groups will help parents and other family members to feel less alone as they struggle to best help the children in their lives. Everyone in the group has the opportunity to speak, and everyone is expected to be respectful of others. The moderators occasionally invite guest speakers to the meetings. Although MIA is hosting these forums, the moderators do not represent MIA. Their opinions and suggestions are their own.

    Please write to me with any questions you may have about the support groups. You may also want to visit our Family Resources section, which provides information about drugs, blogs written by both professionals and parents, Q&As, research news, and other informational links. To sign up for a support group, please click “sign up here” at the bottom of the page and then complete the form. –Miranda Spencer, Parent Resources Editor

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

  • Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Politics of Identity

    Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Politics of Identity


    September 25, 2022 September 26, 2022

     

    This conference will take place online on 24th September 12.30pm – 6pm and 25th September 12.30 pm – 6pm BST 

    Who or what decides who we reckon we (and others) are? Are we the architects of our own identities or else the pliable outcomes of internal and external forces, both conscious and unconscious? How should we navigate the wide medley of rival theories between those two stark positions? Psychology revolves around these core questions for which the repertoire of answers has never been entirely value-free, satisfactory or settled.

    Freudian psychoanalysis posits a primal ingredient of autonomy in the newborn as an inherently unruly creature, and later some autonomy is gained insofar as a person works through their acquired demons and delusions. For Erikson, identity is a ‘fundamental organizing principle which develops throughout a life span’ and consists of experiences, relationships, values, beliefs, memories, that make up a person’s subjective sense of self, which can remain stable even as new aspects of self are added. For Lacanians, by contrast, identity appears to be the ultimate objet petit a. In any case, the way one conceives of identity, and its (de)formation, has consequences for how one views the wider world and its varied occupants. Modern identity politics, whatever its merits may be, seems geared to drown out issues of class and of economic advantage.

    This online conference examines these questions in several interrelated arenas, (1) in the realm of theory, (2) in the treatment room and group, and (3) in the public sphere, where “identity politics” is prominent and often operates as a divisive instrument socially.

    Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Politics of Identity

  • Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Politics of Identity

    Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Politics of Identity


    September 25, 2022 September 26, 2022

     

    This conference will take place online on 24th September 12.30pm – 6pm and 25th September 12.30 pm – 6pm BST 

    Who or what decides who we reckon we (and others) are? Are we the architects of our own identities or else the pliable outcomes of internal and external forces, both conscious and unconscious? How should we navigate the wide medley of rival theories between those two stark positions? Psychology revolves around these core questions for which the repertoire of answers has never been entirely value-free, satisfactory or settled.

    Freudian psychoanalysis posits a primal ingredient of autonomy in the newborn as an inherently unruly creature, and later some autonomy is gained insofar as a person works through their acquired demons and delusions. For Erikson, identity is a ‘fundamental organizing principle which develops throughout a life span’ and consists of experiences, relationships, values, beliefs, memories, that make up a person’s subjective sense of self, which can remain stable even as new aspects of self are added. For Lacanians, by contrast, identity appears to be the ultimate objet petit a. In any case, the way one conceives of identity, and its (de)formation, has consequences for how one views the wider world and its varied occupants. Modern identity politics, whatever its merits may be, seems geared to drown out issues of class and of economic advantage.

    This online conference examines these questions in several interrelated arenas, (1) in the realm of theory, (2) in the treatment room and group, and (3) in the public sphere, where “identity politics” is prominent and often operates as a divisive instrument socially.

    Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Politics of Identity

  • Rehumanize Meeting

    Rehumanize Meeting


    September 27, 2022

    Rehumanize is a monthly gathering for survivors of involuntary treatment.  We meet on the 4th Tuesday of every month over Zoom at 7pm EST.  At each meeting, we affirm for one another that what happened to you was not "care." We discuss how we have healed from the trauma and dehumanization, how we have found safety in our bodies again, and where we have found peer support offerings and alternatives to the carceral mental health system.
    Registration is anonymous and the signup list is not reviewed or used for any purpose. Individuals may join the meeting anonymously and can keep their cameras off or just listen. We encourage everyone to curate the level of comfort and privacy that feels best.
    Peer supporters with lived experience of psychiatric incarceration are welcome to attend.  Licensed clinicians and mental health care workers employed in coercive environments, regardless of lived experience, are not welcome.

    Rehumanize Meeting

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada


    September 27, 2022

     

    Time: Weekly, Tuesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, U.S. Mountain time (5:00 pm Pacific, 7:00 pm Central, 8:00 pm Eastern). Next meeting: June 21, 2022

    A space where families can exchange information and share experiences to foster a dialogue that goes beyond the predominant mainstream medical treatment model. Welcome! This Mad in America (MIA) forum hosts online parent support groups. We have started these groups in response to the many inquiries we get from parents who are skeptical of conventional drug-based treatments for children struggling with mental health issues and are now looking for alternatives. We currently offer two groups—one in Europe and one in the United States/Canada; all are conducted in English. This initiative, begun in the fall of 2018, has generated strong interest, and we hope to accommodate as many people as possible. Therefore, the U.S./Canada group now operates on a weekly, drop-in basis, as your schedules and needs allow.

    The support groups, which last 90 minutes, are moderated and provide a confidential space where people can share information and experiences that foster a dialogue about psychiatric diagnosis, the use of psychiatric medications, and non-drug alternatives. We hope these groups will help parents and other family members to feel less alone as they struggle to best help the children in their lives. Everyone in the group has the opportunity to speak, and everyone is expected to be respectful of others. The moderators occasionally invite guest speakers to the meetings. Although MIA is hosting these forums, the moderators do not represent MIA. Their opinions and suggestions are their own.

    Please write to me with any questions you may have about the support groups. You may also want to visit our Family Resources section, which provides information about drugs, blogs written by both professionals and parents, Q&As, research news, and other informational links. To sign up for a support group, please click “sign up here” at the bottom of the page and then complete the form. –Miranda Spencer, Parent Resources Editor

    MIA Online Parent Support Group: US/Canada

  • Research Agenda to Address Early Mortality in People with a Diagnosis of a Serious Mental Illness

    Research Agenda to Address Early Mortality in People with a Diagnosis of a Serious Mental Illness

    N/A
    September 29, 2022

    This unique series presents on innovative approaches to community-engaged research. Audience members include patients, caregivers, payer systems, industry, policymakers, scientists, and other stakeholders! Presentations last 20 minutes and then we have 10 minutes of open conversation to facilitate new collaborations!

    Research Agenda to Address Early Mortality in People with a Diagnosis of a Serious Mental Illness

    ISPS US: The Voices Behind the Book of Form and Emptiness

    ISPS US: The Voices Behind the Book of Form and Emptiness


    September 29, 2022

     

    The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki tells the story of a young voice hearer named Benny Oh. The novel is narrated by one of Benny's voices, a book that tells the story of Benny's life. Although Benny experiences mainstream psychiatric care including psychiatric hospitalization, it is not the medical model that helps Benny make sense of his life.

    Like many voice hearers, Benny makes meaning out of his experiences through developing relationships with fellow psychiatric survivors and voice hearers, and through finding ways to relate positively to his own voices. The Book of Form and Emptiness, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022, is a remarkable example of how the core principles and understandings of the Hearing Voices Network approach are reaching new audiences around the world.

    On Thursday, September 29th at 6PM Eastern, join us for a lively conversation with Ruth Ozeki and the Hearing Voices Network USA about the power of our voices and the stories we inhabit. Panelists include: Ruth Ozeki, Author; Jeannie Bass, Director of Peer Services and HVN-USA Board member; Claire Bien, Author, HVN-USA Board member, and president, ISPS-US; Derek Pyle, Writer and HVN support group facilitator. With thanks to Remy Blasko.

    ISPS US: The Voices Behind the Book of Form and Emptiness