Thistle County Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne
15-16 June 2015
The relationship between voice hearing and loss or trauma suggests that they are personified aspects of dissociated experiences. Voice dialogue is an approach to working with voices that accepts them as having meaning within the context of people’s lives. Voice dialogue emphasises the relationships that people have with their voices. Compassion is therefore an important aspect of facilitating better relationships with voices. It helps build resilience in order to address the traumas represented by the voices and it mitigates against the shame and stigma of having such experiences.
This workshop will outline basic skills for engaging with such dissociated elements in order to aid mentalizing, facilitate internal cooperation between aspects of the self, and ultimately improve emotional well-being.
Dr Angela Kennedy has been a Psychologist in the NHS for 24 years and is a trauma therapist working in Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. She is currently service lead for a specialist psychological therapies team working with people who experience enduring psychotic symptoms. She is actively creating systems for services to be ‘Trauma-Informed’ and is Project Lead for compassion focused management and culture in TEWV. Angela is on the board of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation and is the psychological therapies lead for the North of England Clinical Network.
Jacqui Dillon is a respected speaker, writer and activist, and has lectured and published worldwide on trauma, psychosis, dissociation and recovery. Jacqui is the national Chair of the Hearing Voices Network in England, Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, Durham University and Visiting Research Fellow at The Centre for Community Mental Health, Birmingham City University.
Jacqui is the co-editor of Living with Voices, an anthology of 50 voice hearers stories of recovery, Demedicalising Misery: Psychiatry, Psychology and the Human Condition and the 2nd Edition of Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Psychosis. She has published numerous articles and papers, is on the editorial board of the journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches and is a foreign correspondent for Mad In America. Jacqui is also a voice hearer. For more information, please see her website.
WORKSHOP PRICE = £225 (price includes lunch and refreshments). The workshop will run from 10-5 on Monday, and 10-4 on Tuesday.
You can download our registration booklet here. For more information and how to register, please visit the Compassionate Wellbeing website. Details are also available upon request via email.
Those who have attended a previous Compassionate Wellbeing workshop are entitled to a discount of £25.
You can view a short film explaining some of the principles of Compassion Focused Therapy below.