Finding focus – staying with the fear.
I am deeply affected by the current environment – the social and political one, that is. I try not to hide away though it is incredibly tempting. I try to stay engaged with the world however maddening it is.…
Has the pandemic narrative affected how we relate?
Discourse and debate… It used to be okay to disagree on all sorts of stuff. Didn’t it? Or am I romanticising and being nostalgic? Now adays I worry about saying most things on my mind because I might get…
There is always a backlash… Tales from times of uncertainty #5
Before covid I didn’t trust politiciansBefore covid I didn’t go to maintream media for informationBefore covid I knew that people working within medical science are just fallible humans like the rest of us This past year has done nothing…
Peer supervision for Hearing Voices Group facilitators
I have had a long think about how to get started and have decided to offer 2 monthly spaces online (zoom). These spaces will be open to anyone who is facilitating or co-facilitating a hearing voices group. I am…
Hearing Voices online event
I came across this today and thought it sounded interesting and wanted to share it in case someone ese might like it too. If you are in Europe you might need to check the time difference if you are…
Blog about my passion for facilitation
I’ve shared some reflections on facilitation on the website I run with my partner. Facilitation Chat I, Elisabeth, have a lot of passion for facilitation and I have recently decided that I would like to offer support to people…
Celebrating World Hearing Voices Day
Ten days ago I joined an online event celebrating World Hearing Voices Day. I had been invited by someone I knew and they’d suggested I could contribute something to the event. They mentioned the talk I did for the…
The art of; receiving kindness
Being on the receiving end of kindness and compassion is something I have struggled with quite a lot and still do. I help organise regular group supervision session for people who work with people who hear voices or has…
Tuesday morning rant… Tales from times of uncertainty #2
So here is the thing.I hate stats and the idea that something can be “evidence based”.I hate the way media and government and institutions use stats and supposedly science based arguements for decision making that is often inhumane rather…
To control or not to control… Tales from times of uncertainty #1
With the focus so much on the virus and stopping the spread of it, I worry how I am going to see other people… Fuelled by fear and uncertainty it feels tempting to start blaming and shaming. It feels…
(Female?) raging
I think there is a lack of useful representation of female aggression, wrath and rage in the Northern European cultures that I am part of. I don’t know how to be angry in a way that I and others…
Do we really want a world without voices?
We seem a long way away from accepting voices as – not just a normal – but a natural part of human experience. The voices I hear passionately object to a world without voices – and so do I.…
New website about hearing voices
Hearing the Voice has created this website to share information and perspectives on hearing voices. It has been under way for more than two years and o lot of thought and care has gone in to it. They’ve consulted…
Making difficult stuff meaningful
What has hair, a death festival and chronic pain and fatigue got to do with each other? Thinking about meaning My will to live depends on my ability to find meaning in the life I am living. Sometimes…
A visit from the past: Learning to be with ourselves…
Woke up this morning feeling quite bored with myself and the things I think about. My chains of thoughts taking me down weird paths and I figured a needed a bit of distraction. I decided to Google myself. Haven’t…
Tales from Times of Exhaustion #7 – painful awareness
It’s been a tough weekend. After coming back home from travelling my ‘system’ slowly transitioned. And as the excitement, adrenaline, focus and determination left my body, I was left with raw overwhelm and overstimulation. It’s difficult to describe what…
Tales from Times of Exhaustion #6 – interesting challenges
The past couple of years I’ve consciously tried to limit the amount of travel abroad I have to do in a year. With family and friends in Denmark and work that sometimes involves travelling abroad I can’t avoid it…
Tales from times of exhaustion #5 – when things don’t go to plan
June and July seem so far away now. Re-reading my blogs helps me remember how I was feeling and how I was managing. Time kept doing what time does – moving. In the past couple of months I have…
Real lives, real experiences, real wisdom
There is such an untapped wealth of knowledge and wisdom that comes from people’s personal experiences of finding their way through life. Integrated Voices (its current working title) is a website being developed by Hearing the Voice in Durham…
Gratification
Feeling gratified… Feeling like you have achieved something meaningful, feeling pleased with – or proud of – yourself and maybe give yourself a treat. I have heard that our biology is supposed to reward us when we experience good…
Going to the gym for the first time in years…
Trying to practice what I preach… Really enjoyed doing our ‘connecting with the body’s resources’ workshop at Leeds Beckett Uni today but afterwards I found myself feeling anxious and frazzled this evening. Partly because I haven’t been sleeping well…
Russell Brand talking mental health
“Disconnected systems create disconnected people” Been hoping he would get round to talk about these things in a nuanced way. And for the millionth time I am thinking to myself: “What a mad world we humans have created for…
Compassionate approaches to Mental Health: Building Compassionate Communities – a two day event March 30 & 31
I look forward to contributing to and participating in this event. I usually feel wary about conferences because they can be a draining experience for me; too many unfamiliar people, too much information and not enough time or space…
Healthy Minds Newsletter
I have been volunteering with Healthy Minds in Calderdale since I moved to UK and have found it a good way to be involved with the local communities. I feel excited about the new developments and thought I would…
Hello Self-loathing, my old friend…
Self-loathing as a belief system Today I did a session on beliefs with a community team and one of the subjects that came up was self-loathing. It can be painful to witness somebody caught in cycles of self-loathing, it’s…
Grieving every day
As far back as I can remember I have experienced times of intense sadness. Feeling like a heavy weight is dropped into my solar plexus and at the same time as if some creature is clawing at my insides.…
Fundraising Art Auction
Artwork has been coming in these past weeks and it looks as though more is on its way which is amazing! We are very excited to share that from October 2nd it will be possible to see the artwork…
There are things more important than surviving
This survival of the fittest idea… Am I the only one who thinks we (as a human race) need to stop telling ourselves and each other that we have to be strong, be fighters, be resilient and prove our…
Things I’ve come across recently
Just thought I’d share some of the things I’ve enjoyed reading this past week. Not necessarily enjoyed in the sense that they made me feel uplifted. More that they all feel like important reads for different reasons. Clicking on the…
I really do think Self Care Rules
Getting proper rest when I feel overwhelmed can be tricky. After more than a month of looking after myself, I am finally able to have a fairly lazy day without a) feeling guilty about doing nothing b) feeling like…
Feeling the ground beneath my feet
I used to live in a state of constant overwhelm and anxiety. Only I didn’t realise it at the time, because it was all I knew. I suspected something was wrong; the suicidal yearnings and impulses to self-harm were…
The forgotten body
I think that the way society works today, it can be easy to forget the body. Even though we are bombarded with stuff about body image, food, exercise, healthy living and the importance of appearances, none of this really connects…
Training: Compassionate Communication in Mental Health settings
NVC training London February
Self Care rules!
I am a passionate fan of self-care, of looking after ourslves. But I struggled for years with how to look after myself – and what it meant. My head was overloaded with all these rules and input I got…
Connecting the past and the present
This week my partner Rufus and I went down to London to facilitate two separate workshops together with our friend Anders. First day we looked at Using Mindfulness with Psychosis and second day we shared different ways of Talking with…
Colouring in for adults
I have been a big fan of colouring-in all my life. I first came across colouring for adults in the form of colouring-in Mandalas for all ages in Denmark about 5 years ago and I still have some of…
The Hearing Voices Approach
Destigmatising and demystifying the experience of hearing voices is something I feel very passionate about. I myself have always heard voices and I was lucky enough to have a family that did not think it was unusual or problematic.…
The Yellow Book
Today I went to London to spend some time celebrating the project RethinkYourMind and all the people who had contributed to the creation of The Yellow Book and 4 singles. I went without really knowing what to expect; what…
So much fear
“A life lived in fear is a life half lived” – from Strictly Ballroom Fear is what is on my mind today, looking back at the results of the recent elections in the UK and Denmark. Not that I…
Thoughts on change #1
Creating Change What do we need in order to create sustainable long-term changes around us? This is a question I often ponder. Whenever I encounter distress, pain, brutality, ignorance and injustice, my mind starts going over different understandings, different…
The Possibility of Healing
Stories of spontaneous healings have been told for thousands of years – maybe even longer. I do believe that healing can happen in ways that science and medicine cannot explain with their views on life and the world.
A…
What if we could learn to #BeWithPsychosis?
Here are some of my reflections on living with distress and challenging sensory experiences
Living Life Gently 