Croft life is certainly not romantic

Croft life is certainly not romantic; it is pure hard grind. The weather has been mostly wet and our garden & fields are waterlogged. Every time the dogs go out they come back covered in mud. The pigs have been escaping. Charlotte in particular is a very intelligent nosey pig; we keep wavering about keeping them for breeding or saying bye bye to them for dinner. I keep looking at Charlotte and make loads of excuses as to why we should keep her, even though I know in my head that they should go.

This last 2 weeks have been very cold, our Rayburn refuses to go to a decent temperature, it reminds me of my childhood when we used to get dressed as quickly as possible when we got up in the mornings and there would be frost on the inside of the windows.

Yet I still love it here, going down to the beach empty of people, watching the waves crashing in, watching the storm clouds gather in the huge sky. Walking the croft with the dogs on a frosty morning. Every time I go into an overheated building now I get claustrophobic and feel as though I am being boiled alive.

Ron has been away this week, working in Oxford & doing an AGM for the Haven in Colchester.
He arrived back yesterday & today we are all travelling to Denmark for a weekend in Copenhagen & Malmo in Sweden. Ron is working at Slotsvaat on Monday & I am sightseeing with the kids. Hoping to spend the day in Tivoli gardens tomorrow, perks of travelling so much is we can have the occasional trip like this on air miles.

The kids are becoming far too sophisticated travellers, asking whether they can be business class, & why are their no films on the flight. I think I was 15 before I went on my first aeroplane yet our kids have been to the other side of the world several times now; perhaps that is why it is so important that they are grounded in Lewis. Where life is much simpler & they cant keep asking for the latest new gadget.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

We arrived home to utter chaos

We arrived home to utter chaos; I have now learnt never to rely on an adolescent teenager. The house was unliveable in for 3 days so luckily Seppi let us use her holiday cottage.

Although we had bad weather in Australia, particularly in Melbourne I don’t think we were quite prepared with how cold & wet it would be. We have all acclimatised now. I must admit that now the cottage is sorted, the fires have been burning & it’s warm & cosy I am glad to be home for a few weeks.
Charlotte & Laia our 2 pigs have really grown, we now have to decide whether we are going to use them to breed or whether they will keep us in Pork for the next year.

Ron’s eldest daughter Victoria graduated from university in Teesside as a psychiatric nurse a fortnight ago; she has worked really hard and is very passionate about recovery and how people are being treated. I think she will be another strong advocate for humanity based nursing care in the future.

We have just heard we are off to Palestine for 2 weeks in January. I am really looking forward to seeing how they are doing. It was so good having the 2 nurses over with us in Australia, one of them had never left Palestine before. Their enthusiasm & desire to see recovery based practice happening in their own services is wonderful particularly given the circumstances & the lack of resources they have. I now find it difficult when uk based staff moan about lack of finance and use this as an excuse to do nothing, when I have been privileged to see staff do great things with very little.

The chief nurse is a midwife by background & due to john Watkins I found out that the word “therapist” in its original translation means Midwife of the soul, I think this describes so accurately what good nursing practice in psychiatry should be about, helping the person through their crisis and finding themselves in the process- reborn and transformed.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Last week in Australia

Last week in Australia, weather is obviously acclimatising us ready for Lewis. We have had a wet, windy cool week.

This week was a breakthrough for us in Australia with our first making recovery champion’s course specifically for clinicians of state services. We were based in Frankston on the peninsula. We had 24 fantastic people on the course 15 from Peninsula mental health services, 2 from Queensland, 2 from Tasmania, 2 from Canberra & 3 from the Northern Territories. They are all part of beacon projects to reduce seclusion and restraint in acute services.

They were really creative, passionate about their work and thoroughly committed to leading change. They are all going to make fantastic change agents.

We laughed loud every day, shared the occasional tear and came across an enthusiastic Geordie recently recruited from the UK. Ron found another ‘voice’ in a very wise social worker from Queensland she knows who she is!!!!

We have had 12 weeks in Australia this year, 4 weeks in NZ, the southern hemisphere is feeling like our 2nd home, I am really beginning to understand how the 2 country are, politics, humour, environment, people, spirituality. I have felt particularly close to the traditional owners of both lands and feel that they are my spiritual teachers.

I feel so privileged in our work that I meet so many people whose humanity, care, passion for good mental health continually reinforces my believe in people. We had a public meeting at Prahram mission in Melbourne & 75 people turned out packing the room. We thoroughly enjoyed our talk .

Australia is on the cusp of exciting times in its Mental Health, as they are embracing a similar agenda to Scotland in looking at a population based approach to mental well being for all and recovery being the main focus of all services.

I am sitting writing this in Glasgow airport we have just had 23 hours of flying and are now waiting on our next flight to Stornoway. The kids have been amazing , only squabbling a couple of times.

Home

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Sydney for 5 days without the kids- time to play! (although some work too)

3 days with Marius & Sandra, Sydney has been a chance to recharge our batteries. It was wonderful to spend some quality time with Marius & Sandra (Romme), we have our outline plan now for the first world meeting on hearing voices which will take place in Maastricht next year-watch this space. We took them to our favourite bits of Sydney, down to the harbour, out to Watsons bay to Doyles for a fish lunch, Bondi beach, I had 20 minutes in the surf, the currents were strong and there were too many people so I retreated back to the shore.

The apartment we stayed in had a roof top garden where we sat for evening drinks and to watch the sun as set it over looking the harbour and the CBD.

Ron & Marius went to the opera house to see a ballet, whilst Sandra, Monica & myself went for drinks and a fabulous Thai meal.

Ron & I worked for St Vincents on the Thursday, Ron has been working here over last couple of years as they take their services on a huge period of change & discovery towards working from a recovery philosophy.

It was a hard day with several short sessions through out the day, but very positive. We were invited to the acute ward for chocolate cake after lunch, this was the most poignant and connecting part of the day as I listened to peoples stories of their journey, there was much wisdom , woundedness & spirituality + some great guitar and song making.

Friday we had the luxury of a whole day to ourselves, we stayed at our favourite Holiday Inn, near the harbour. Had a long lie in, big breakfast, a swim in the roof pool and then took a ferry to Darling harbour, lunch in china town & 2 hours looking round paddy’s market before taking a taxi to the airport, only to find the plane was delayed and a huge electrical storm brought the airport to a halt for an hour.

Finally arrived back in Melbourne close to 11pm and headed back to Ron’s family and kids.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Buzzing after a successful Recovery confrerence and INTERVOICE meeting

The third weekend was spent gathering together ready for the conference. Its home from home, with Marius Romme & Sandra Escher staying near us, we had them, Julie Downs, Paul Baker, Monica Hoffman, Trevor Eyles, Mike Smith & Marian Aslan for drinks t0 meet Joe Calleja the CEO of Richmond Fellowship. He has done a fantastic job at getting this conference organised
Recovery from Psychosis conference is the first of its kind here in Australia.

We had Rufus May, John Watkins, Ron, Myself, Jacqui Dylan, Romme & Escher, Dirk Corstens, all speaking at the same event here.

The atmosphere was electric; we had many workshops as well. People were buzzing and energised, the government of WA was there to talk about how they wanted to take the recovery agenda forward here. People attended from right across Australia. It was history in the making

This was then followed by the first ever intervoice meeting outside of Europe, Scotland won the prize for most attendees with at least 17 people there most of them voice hearers, there were also delegates from Japan, Germany, Denmark, Holland, England, Australia, NZ, & Palestine
The meeting concentrated on the relationship between emotions and voices, with lots of discussions & an open space event. There were 109 delegates and it was deemed the most successful Intervoice meeting so far.

We left lunchtime on Saturday, feeling a mixture of exhilaration & exhaustion to fly to Melbourne, the kids are staying with Ron’s sister for 2 weeks whilst we carry on working in Sydney & Melbourne

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Back to Australia

We were really well looked after Friday night after the first course finished, invited to a BQ by social work students from Curtin University. They have developed a real fondness for Ron after receiving lectures from him last year.

Week 2 in Perth, the weather has changed, its, grey, cloudy & intermittently wet, could be Scotland, oh well we are working so not so important. The 2nd course has gone well, lots of discussion & debate on the first 2 days, but by the third day people were seeing & feeling recovery, the who am I’s had worked their magic yet again. The recovery process is alive and well, watching it run its course over and over has given me a deep sense of what is important in creating mental well being.

I love running this course with Ron, I see it produce profound change and recognition in people. People are amazing, the lives they have led their resilience and will to keep going through adversity, I feel humbled and in awe at how simply listening to their stories can produce such healing, growth and connection.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Jet lag and Recovery

We are 4 days through the first making recovery course here in Perth WA, my brain feels in free fall, some where stuck between Dubai and here. Only 10 days ago we were leaving a very windy wet isle of Lewis arriving for a night in Glasgow, then heading to Dubai.

Dubai was 3 days out of reality, a holiday booked before the credit crunch, at Atlantis an over the top fantasy resort, way out of our decimated financial resources , but oh well you only live once. We got to Dubai airport to leave for Perth arriving at 12.30am to find that the flight was full & they were asking us to change flights till the next morning, we were offered a free return flight between Dubai & Perth and decided that we could just about manage by going on the later flight. This meant going back to a hotel for 4 hours sleep before returning to the airport.

The kids were great coping with all the changes and finally we flew out 10 hours later arriving in Perth 12.55 am. Finally we all got to bed about 3am. By the next night jet lag had set in & Francesca had a virus , so not much sleep before the first night of the course , same the 2nd night, finally last night everyone went to sleep before midnight.

As usual the course has wound its own way , Ron & I have trusted in the process and its delivered, what amazes me again are the stories people have to tell, and the capacity we humans have to heal ourselves.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

A report from Rons visit to Italy, a long awaited marriage announcement, Phil and Poppy get Szasz Award ... and green tomato chutney

Ron came back today from his Italian tour. The 2 weeks went extremely well, tried out new things, went to new places & familiar places, for about the 6th year running he spoke at Trento, he didn’t manage the speech in Italian as time was too short , but for a change they have a written version of what Ron said already translated into Italian by Angelo.

Two dear friends of ours have finally decided to marry, congratulations Donatella & Pino.

Ron was moved to tears at one event in Palmanova, where a group of voice hearers spoke who had come to some previous training we had done, each gave a testiment of their progress on their recovery journies. This is what makes our work so exciting, helping to unlock the amazing potential these people have.

Back at home I have been busy on the croft getting ready for our departure to Australia on Monday. We have had lots of rain & gales but

Just got a wonderful press release to say Prof Phil Barker & his wife Poppy have won the 2008 Szasz civil liberties award. I cant think of a more deserving couple.

My mind is busy racing through all the things I need to do before Monday evening when we fly to Glasgow, this includes making green tomato chutney with all the tomatoes from the greenhouse, I think tomorrow is going to be a long day

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Rons Sponsored Head Shave on Youtube

See Ron getting his hair shaved for charity on Youtube here

Ron got his head completely shaved for charity!

They auctioned his pony tail for 105 pounds and money was also raised by sponsorship and a lottery.

It happened on the 24th September 2008 in Dundee, Scotland.

with Music & Poetry with Kit Clark, Kevin McCabe & The Haven Music and Poetry Group

Held at the Drouthy Neebors, 142 146 Perth Road, Dundee.

all proceeds go to the Scottish and Palestine Hearing Voices Networks to enable members to attend the INTERVOICE meeting in Perth, Australia in November 2008.

If you would like to, you can donate online here

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Hair cuts ....

Ron´s sponsored headshave:

Ron checking where his pony tail used to be as Alex does the finishing touches

Last week Ron & I returned to Drumoig to run our recovery champions course again, it was a small group of 8 people but what a powerful week. Again it was the power of the stories that we heard over the week that drove the course, the question “who am I?” again leading to much reflection, soul searching and honest accounts of where people had been on their journeys so far, what is so amazing is it doesn’t matter whether the course is a mix of workers/consumers what comes out is the human distress, the pain & joys of living our lives, the labels are dropped and real people emerge.

Friday after the course had finished I finally got my hair all cut off again, I tried so hard to grow it but it just wasn’t me I returned home sleeping in the back of the van in Ullapool before catching the Saturday ferry home. Ron’s mum had been looking after the kids so the house was spotless and I couldn’t find a thing!

This week Ron has been running a voices residential week with the help of Dirk Corstens & Eleanor Langdon . It has been hugely successful with several of the participants further on their recovery journeys by the 4th day.

In the midst of the week Ron had his sponsored hair cut in Dundee the evening went well with ron’s pony tail auctioned off for 105 pounds.

Meanwhile I was back at home working hard on the croft, the rest of the potatoes have been harvested & I am really pleased with my first crop. Heidi the goat is now in the old pig pen at night leaving the chickens to themselves again.

Funniest moment this week was going down to the bottom of the croft , the pigs had escaped their pen and were down at the bottom by the fence on the other side were about 40 young cows staring in at them all around the gate, looking totally bemused .

Ron is off to Italy on Monday, I was meant to be going too , but unfortunately our childcare broke down due to family illness so I am staying on the island.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Stir crazy Ron and the joys of living on Lewis

Started this weekend with another good meal at Sulair, with Ron & Seppi.

Sunday Ron was going off island for 3 weeks, he has been absolutely stir crazy, he has been on island for 7 weeks, apart from his heart bypass, I think this is the longest he has stayed in one place since we have been together. He almost didn’t get away as 10 minutes before we needed to drive to the airport he couldn’t find his wallet. Panic set in until he realised he had left it in his trouser pocket last night.

He has started his week in Welshpool, in Wales, catching up with the staff at Phoenix House, part of Acorn Care. Things are moving fast since we did the recovery training in July. The staff are really making a difference and feeling great about their jobs, this is so satisfying to hear.

Meanwhile I have been catching up with work on the croft. Baba & Dolaigh have taught me how to make a peat stack, my peats are now safe & secure from the winter wet.

The Pigs are now down at the bottom of the croft and are busy ploughing the field up.
Heidi the goat has settled in well and is demolishing the tall grass and weeds around the house.

Tomorrow Ron is at the Asylum conference for 2 days catching up with many old friends.
I wish in some ways to be there, but actually am very glad to be at home, I think my travel problems over the last couple of weeks have consolidated my belief that living on Lewis was the right thing to do for us and our family

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Fly me to Southampton....

Spent Monday racing around preparing to leave Lewis for work in Southampton, in southern England. I just made it to airport just as they were closing the gate. First flight went well, then went to check-in for second part of flight from Glasgow to be told that this flight didn’t run any more and that they had e-mailed me to this effect, panic set in what am I going to do , referred to flybe desk, to be told that I could catch flight at 6.45 am to Southampton instead. Now needed an hotel and I had no phone numbers so I could let Southampton know what was happening, quick phone call to Ron to see if he could sort that out from home and I concentrated on finding a bed.

Eventually picked up from airport at 8.20 am by Joan the matron of the Forensic unit, we had never met but found each other straight away. She took me for a quick tour of her unit before we made our way to the training venue. I had 23 forensic staff for 3 days on recovery and person centred planning.. they seemed quite a quiet group at first but soon got stuck in ,stretching me and myself stretching and challenging them. I love this kind of facilitation, so much is dependant on the relationship I can build with the team in the first few hours, I suppose this mirrors & models what we have to do in our jobs as recovery workers building the relationship , creating trust, creating the environment for challenge and growth.

Joan was a fantastic host taking me for a long walk in the new forest we saw many deer including a beautiful stag. Also drank some good ale in some great proper pubs. Many thanks to her for her wonderful hospitality.

The last afternoon the team did an action plan of how they were going to take recovery forward. There was so much enthusiasm and motivation in the room, I can’t wait to go back next year and to see how they are progressing.

Before I knew it I was back in Stornoway, Friday morning at 8am, shopping in Tesco’s before returning home.

---

Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Contrasts

What a week of contrast’s.

Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent frantically getting my peat’s in. With the help of Kyle & DS & his tractor we brought 6 loads of peat’s in of the moor. I had done it successfully stacked and dried my peat’s and got them in before the bad weather starts. We have enough peat’s now to keep our stove burning throughout the winter as well as being physically stronger I feel emotionally very good, there is a lot of anxiety getting your peat’s in and I didn’t want to look like the stupid incomer who hadn’t a clue what she was doing. Saturday night we had our first gale in months it was such a shock and it’s rained on and off all week so I got the peat’s in just in time.

Sunday we added a goat to our menagerie. She is called Heidi and is already pregnant, by yesterday my son Finn reported that she has already turned a big patch of weeds into a football pitch, I think the goat is going to be one of his favourites. Finn has also decided to stay with us, this was an amazing feeling for me having Finn back and our family feels whole again. I do feel sadness for Chris and Helen who he has lived with for the last year, they have done a fantastic job with him, and Finn has really got a strong bond now with his dad which wont be broken now.
Tuesday at 5.30am I set off for the mainland caught the ferry and headed for Dundee.

We have exchanged our family car for a big red van-with 6 seats so we can pick up more things off the mainland which we need at home, later on we hope to use it to take our produce to markets. After picking the van up I headed to Glasgow, Wednesday was spent in an orgy of shopping in IKEA etc, but it seemed more a chore than an enjoyable experience.

Arrived in the evening to Motherwell, ready to start training Thursday morning for LAMH a local mental health organisation that is embracing recovery and doing some really good work.
Went out to the van to bring some gear for training to find it had been broken into , & my precious I-pod and satellite navigator had been stolen from a locked glove compartment. Everywhere was strewn with glass, this was 5 minutes before I was due to start training. Take me back to Lewis!!

Any way the group were great as I had to make several phone calls to get things sorted. I love working with support workers because they don’t have any difficulty with the concept or ideas of recovery , are not phased by it’s simplicity and are eager to go back and put the ideas in practice. There is no need to deal with “professional sensitivities” and they understand implicity the need to be human beings first.

Tonight I drive up to Ullapool to catch the 10 o’clock ferry the last late ferry of the year.

Tomorrow will be full of football matchs and chores, hopefully Sunday will be a rest day before I set out for southhampton on monday.

Photo Gallery 2008

Pets and Animals August 2008

---

Ron in Italy, July 2008

---

Recovery Champions 2008

---

Australia and New Zealand 2008

March 2008, Perth

January 2008: Making Recovery Happen, Ron speaking in Perth, West Australia

Rest and resilience in a challenging world

School holidays finish today, frantically trying to get the children into bed and I’m losing.

Francesca has given in and gone to sleep, it’s her first day at school tomorrow but Rory and Finn are finding 100 reasons why they cant get to sleep.

Finn has been living with his dad for the last year and is trying out school here with a view to coming back to live with us. The choice is not about which parent he wants to live with but which place has the better football team for him to join, he dreams about being the next Beckham!

Talking of dreams Ron and my dream of the bunkhouse/recovery training venue looks likely to be on hold for a while as we have yet to sell our house in Fife. Any one out there wants a lovely 4 bedded eco-house in Wormit, Fife to buy or rent, please get in touch.

Ron & I seem to be taking it in turns to get despondent about our situation whilst the other try’s to spin out a more positive viewpoint. We have so many plans to implement here but most of them require cash.

Ultimately we are luckier than a lot of people in the present economic climate, we have a good amount of work, a roof over our head, a beautiful environment to live in, good friends, each other -perhaps these elements give us the building blocks for our mental well being and the resilience and toughness to stay self employed. Ron has been training in one form or another now for 16 years and was hoping to slow down next year, instead it will be full on for both of us, at least we are both passionate about our work, passionate about recovery and driven in our fight to change the mental health system.

Next week I'm back to work it will seem strange to leave this safe cocoon and be back in the big real world.

Karen stacks the peats and finds herself reflecting on the meaning of recovery

Angelo was meant to be with us tomorrow but his mother is very seriously ill so has decided to cancel his trip. This is such a pity as i was looking forward to showing him and his girl friend our island.

Angelo

I stacked the last of my peats today, this is very late but I cross my fingers for 2 more weeks of sunshine so they will be thoroughly dry and I can bring them off the moor.

Each time I have gone up to them I have brought a couple of bags back full of the dry peats and we have started burning them on our Rayburn, apart from the lovely peaty smelling smoke, there is something very satisfying about burning something that you have worked physically hard to produce.

I have found my time out on the moor with the 2 dogs stacking and turning the peats very enjoyable, as I go off in my own world, as I carry out the monotonous and back breaking work I have been thinking of all the ways we could diversify the recovery training to include other excluded groups from society. I find my mind is at its most creative when I am doing something repetitive; swimming was my usual time for creative thought. When I was working in the NHS I had the most fantastic manager called Mark Varrah. We connected straight away, I think he loved my off the wall thinking, I remember designing services on the back of scraps of paper , presenting him them and him replying go and do it then and I did. Way before I knew Ron I created this wonderful thriving day care provision in Gloucester; with much help from some fantastic staff and people who used the service, we had organic gardens, African drumming all kinds of creative artistic groups run by real artists, bright yellow walls that hid the nicotine. The doors were always open we started at 8am and didn’t close until 8pm then had a couple of support staff who took people out to the cinema and clubs.

I loved my job, there was a can do attitude it was a positive place. I thought I had good succession planning in place for when I left, but with in 6 months after I left they had turned the place into an NHS building again. Gone was the garden replaced with a car park my yellow walls were magnolia push button locks were put on all the doors and the staff had retreated back to the office. Then there was a succession of suicides of gifted young people that used to come to the centre. I don’t know whether the regime change had anything to do with that but Ii remember feeling so angry at their wasted lives. They were seen as just mad people by some, bad by others, manipulative, lazy, lost , spoilt some of the words I over heard. What i saw was young people with lives blighted by what had happened to them, being gay, but Christian unable to come to terms with that, another losing a brother in a car crash and wishing it was themselves. What did we do about it we gave them pills to block it out and labels and illnesses why can the NHS find it so hard to deal with human emotional pain, why cant we hug, hold a hand, sit still why some one cries, why do we feel the need to stifle pain, to ignore it, feel embarrassed by it or even worse feel threatened because of our own insecurities and baggage.

Rons sponsored hair cut, 24th September 2008

A REMINDER that Ron is doing a sponsored hair cut on 24^th September in Dundee to raise money to send some Scottish and Palestinian people to the Intervoice conference in Australia.

We need as many sponsors as possible , you can download a sponsorship form from here.

Soon you will be able to sponsor directly by secure on-line payment …… more details soon ...

Welshpool, churches, the Italians .... and our homegrown vegetables.....

Our lovely chickens, our son, Rory's job is too feed them caterpillars picked off the brassicas ...

2nd August

The Italians have gone home, life has slowed down slightly.

Marcelo Macario who was visiting us with his family is a fabulous Italian psychiatrist working near Savonna. He has been fundamental in helping us spread the recovery message across italy, helped by ther fact that he is seeing it happen with his own patients. Angelo has turned from paranoid schizophrenic to an English translator , he translates all our materials into Italian and now translates at most events we train at in italy. Angelo is visiting us in a weeks time with his girlfriend. Ron always speaks on world mental health day in Trento at a mental health conference. This year Ron proposes to learn the speech in Italian so he can do the entire speech at the conference in perfectly spoken itlaian, if it comes off it will be entirely due to Angelos tuition.

Life on the croft continues to be busy. Last week was spent with me turning all the peats to dry them out. I am running out of time and just hope for another couple of sunny weeks. My vegetables are ready to eat and we have now had carrots, courgettes, runner beans , curly kale & a few of Rons tomatoes, Rory is earning a fortune picking off all the caterpillars from the brasicas and feeding them to the chickens!

---

21st July

Our work with mental health staff in Welshpool proved to be very positive and it turned out to be a successful recovery champions course. Nearly all Phoenix House staff and 6 staff from Woodlands are now really keen to put into practice all they have absorbed this week. They have a fantastic management team in Jackie, Peter, Neil & Sunni and I hope to see some really good recovery stories eminating from phoenix in the next 12 months, Acorn Care have a wonderful group of staff to do them proud.

I also got to go to a beautiful spiritual place for the second time at St. Melangels church. It is right in the heart of Powys countryside. There is a beautiful little church that is on the grounds of a far older sacred place. It is magical , calming and within 20 minutes of being there I was completely chilled.

I was also getting cross at Ron who didn’t seem to be enjoying the silence , until i asked him what was wrong and he said the place was far from silent for him as he could also hear the pain and suffering of the place. For him churches will be ever associated with abuse.

It makes me feel so angry to see the pain in his face, as he cant enjoy the spiritual nature of this place when the yearning to be a priest still lies at the bottom of his heart and being, maybe the popes apology will help , but I don’t think so .

I also had too many wines two nights in a row, laughed like I haven’t done for a long time thanks to Joe's incredible humour and sang some Jazz which was very cathartic.

After the course was finished it was a mad dash to collect the children from Gloucestershire drive up to Glasgow, reached the hotel just after midnight, then up again at 7.30 breakfast then meet the Italians at Stirling who wetre coming up to the island with us.

I took the scenic tour to Inverness, missed the turning ended up miles out of our way got back to the A9 to find the road was closed, crawled along the detour and only just made the boat as it was half an hour late.

Crazy, knackering but we made it, the crossing was a little rough, there were a few green faces , we arrived in Stornoway, hit the supermarket and were home by 10pm having driven nearly 800 miles in 24 hours.

karen

Implementing recovery and the important things in life

Ron’s trip to Palestine is going well. For 2 days he worked with a small group of inpatient nurses in Bethlehem hospital. They have completely immersed themselves in recovery since we did the making recovery champions course there. Ron says it is wonderful to see such enthusiasm backed up already with early results. Each patient they are caring for now has a set of recovery notes, these include the persons personal narrative and a PATH of where they are aiming for. They are already seeing the patients respond differently. The place is completely under resourced, the nurses wages are tiny, yet they are implementing recovery. The third day he met other staff still as enthusiastic as well.

How is it then our resource rich NHS finds it so difficult to do the same? Its also interesting that the WHO pilot site study in to recovery from schizophrenia found it was the so called “third world “ nations that had the highest rates of recovery, using very little medication and with very few resources. Is it to do with the powerful pharmaceutical industry, or our benefits system which rewards people to stay ill?

Perhaps it is something to do with how we now live in the West that is the problem. We have lost touch with what we are on this planet for. I read an article the other day that stated that teenagers were getting back problems which were much more associated with old age; it seems this was caused by them always walking on concrete. When was the last time you felt mud, dirt or sand amongst your toes?

I think this was one of the reasons I have come to Lewis, my feet are firmly planted back in earth, my vegetables are growing in the garden. I am eating my own chickens eggs and breathing really clean air - I can feel my mental well being growing by the day. My blood pressure which was high when I arrived on the island is now back to normal, I haven’t lost any weight but it is turning to a little more muscle. Two nights ago I went down to the end of my croft to watch a beautiful sunset over the Atlantic, I started to cry, but it was tears of pure joy as I realised this was not a dream but my reality , my home.

Ron in Italy

Amazing light, late night gardening and Ron leaves for Palestine

The light here is amazing at this time of year, We turned the lights off to go to sleep last night at midnight and semi daylight streamed through the edges of the blinds, it truly doesn’t get dark.
What is strange is how it affects you physically. The kids aren’t able to go to sleep until after 11pm, I often don’t feel tired until gone midnight, the other night I found myself gardening at 11.00pm. Would this be described as slightly manic behaviour on the mainland? What is interesting is the kids aren’t acting as if they are over tired & I feel full of energy.

I presume that on the dark winter nights all of us will want to sleep from early evening and catch up on all the lost sleep.

The light is certainly good for Ron’s tomatos. Never thought I would be jealous of a plant but he nurtures and talks to them more than me.

Ron is off to Palestine tomorrow. He will be working in Bethlehem hospital and other health centres on the west bank; unfortunately Gaza is still out of bounds.

Ron is going to be doing more in depth voices training with the staff; next week Dirk Corstens a fantastic social psychiatrist from Holland will join him. They will be doing some training together with the psychiatrists on voice dialoguing.

People are much more open to our ideas there. I wonder if it is because they have very little money to spend on anti psychotic medication so are more open to other forms of treatment.
Last time we were there together and ran a 5-day recovery course making recovery champions with some of the staff from Bethlehem hospital and the surrounding CMHT’s. The staff invests a lot of their personal money and time in gaining good degrees and postgraduate training.

What was truly amazing though was because of the crisis with receiving no eec funding the staff had not been paid for 6 months but still carried on going in to care for their patients, some how I cannot imagine that happening in the UK.

Sexy Leonard Cohen .... a new piglet .... and the cold realities of being on the road

What a weekend. Leonard Cohen was absolutely amazing. If I have that vigour, sex appeal and stage presence when I reach 73 I will be well happy. He played for nearly 3 hours, the crowd was wonderful, relaxed and friendly, and we ended up in the local pub with a few people we had been sat with.

Ron loved it, sang along, shed a few tears and had a big grin on his face throughout the concert.

Back to reality though, arrived home at 7pm last night and was out of the door by 5.45 this morning, firstly to catch the ferry to Ullapool, drive down to Glasgow, leave the car at the garage to be serviced and now I am waiting for a flight to Birmingham.I have another 3 days with Stafford forensic services; with 20 staff looking at recovery and person centred planning.

Ron is home on childcare duties. He has just informed me we have another 8-week-old female piglet on the way –company for Charlotte. This will be interesting to see how they get on.
I am now on a train travelling from Birmingham to Stafford its ¼ past 8, I have now been travelling for 14 ½ hours, I have a stinking cold, feeling sorry for myself, the plane was late the train was late and I now wont arrive at the hotel until 21.15.

This is definitely the unglamorous part of training. I need bed, a bowl of soup and some lemsip!

Yours in sickness Karen

Birthday Prezzie for Ron - Leonard Cohen in Dublin!

Ron’s birthday went well, the weather stayed dry but breezy.

One of his presents from me was 2 tickets to see Leonard Cohen in Dublin tomorrow Friday13th.
Cohen has been one of his musical heroes, but even I was suprised how emotional Ron was when I told him. So first thing tomorrow we fly to Dublin for the weekend for the craic and the wonderful music and poetry of cohen.

The break together will do us both good. We are not taking a laptop and are going to have a well earned rest .

I will report back early next week

Lul

Karen

Recovery champions in Swansea .. haute cuisine on Lewis and a Birthday Boy ...

Sorry this blog is late it has been a very busy few days.

Ron and I were in Swansea until Thursday night. We were running a 4 day version of Making recovery happen course with 15 participants who wanted to become recovery champions for Swansea. What a group, Swansea is not going to know what has hit it. They were so motivated and passionate , If they are given the space to bloom then Swansea will be a centre of excellence for recovery in a few years time. The group was truely multi-disciplinary with Psychiatrists, nurses, OT’s, a psychologist, social workers, voluntary sector staff and a fabulous support worker and true to form, as we were in Wales, fabulous singers.

I returned to Lewis Friday morning car-less ,with no chance of a hire car wondering how I was going to manage , as Rons family were going to be foot passengers on the evening ferry arriving for Rons 50th birthday bash.

Luckily my very dear friend Seppi came to the rescue and I borrowed her car for the morning, even more luckily Grants garage managed to fix my car by lunchtime so I was able to pick everyone up.

With the help of Seppi’s van we have managed to put up all the family at the house which is pretty incredible seeing the size of our croft house.

Last night 10 of us went for a fantastic meal at Sulair a restaurant in Port of Ness. If you love beautifully presented & cooked modern Scottish food , you must visit Lewis and the restaurant. I think it would be hard put for me and Ron to think of any where in the world we have been and tasted food that was any better.

Today it’s Rons proper birthday so we are all having a big BQ, I think I may stay off the wine though as my head is still throbbing from last night.

It’s been a quiet week for working to recovery....

It’s been a quiet week for working to recovery, which has meant that Ron has had a whole week on the island, and I visited Fife for 24 hours.

The architect came Monday so we shaped up the plans for our bunk house/training venue. It will have 20 beds, a large training /dining area, kitchen, an office ad editing suite, treatment room for visiting therapists, drying room for wet gear and wetsuits and possibly a sauna. We have missed the next planning meeting so September will be D Day.

The weather has continued to be glorious up here, with no rain, blue sky’s but coldish winds.
Ron has been out in the poly tunnel and we have 20 vigorous tomato plants and the strawberries are fruiting.

He has also built a piglet pen for our new Tamworth female piglet that arrived Friday. Francesca has called her Charlotte so I guess she won’t be going in the freezer.

It is truly wonderful watching the whole family relax up here in our new lifestyle. Frankie wandering around bare foot and care free. Rory cycling to school every day and now managing the hills, Ron proud of a day’s hard labour, and myself watching the croft take shape and our ideas progress.

Ron is of to Angus this afternoon to work with 20 peer worker recruits for a week. Again watching them grow and develop during the week and over the next few months is what keeps us doing this work.

More photos from Australia 2008

Gone Fishing!

Ron Coleman - A fallen Angel?

Speaking in Australia, Making Recovery Happen

Karens back from Stafford, England, Ron goes to Reggio Emilia, Italy - but what about the new garden?

Last weeks training went well, it is always heartening when staff who are working in very challenging conditions are eager to embrace the recovery process and think of creative ways they can use it in their work.

I left Stafford feeling very encouraged; then the long journey home. One of the negative aspects of moving to the island is an extra flight, but also the last flight is early evening so I have to stay over night in Glasgow then catch the first morning flight at 7am.

Ron meanwhile was flying out from Stornoway on his way to Italy so we met at the airport for half an hour before his flight was called.

He is in Italy most of this week, on Saturday he was at the first Italian national hearing voices meeting, more than 400 people turned out which was amazing. There is so much enthusiasm and good will for our work in Italy, they are embracing both recovery and hearing voices and many of the psychiatrists are very involved in spreading the ideas over there. We have made some excellent friends, the dearest of which are Angelo our translator and Marcello a psychiatrist, who are also using the ideas in their work. Angelo has been recovering for the last few years and at a meeting run by Ron on Monday he announced to the audience that he was now recovered, did not see him self as mentally ill and was ready to embrace a new life with his girlfriend he now see’s himself as a translator and is busy translating fictional books for a publisher. It was very emotional and fantastic as we have been involved in Angelo’s journey for the last 6 years. He is a very intelligent, thoughtful man.

Meanwhile back on the island I have been concentrating on the garden, we have created a walled garden made of turf to protect the vegetables from the wind. I have spent a few back breaking hours digging and now have the potatoes, courgettes, pumpkins, leeks and onions. Today I have bought blackcurrants and gooseberry bushes, and winter greens, cabbage, kale, & sprouts to plant.

The weather is still beautiful, I feel alive, relaxed and I ‘m recovering!

Lol

Karen

I am sitting at Stornoway airport waiting for my plane ...

I am sitting at Stornoway airport waiting for my plane to Glasgow, then on to Birmingham. Its my first training alone off island since we moved and it is Ron’s turn to look after the kids. In fact it’s his first time he will be on island for a whole week.

I am leaving the most glorious weather, blue skies little wind, its warm and beautiful.

Over the weekend we acquired our first animals a cockerel and 3 hens and they straight away produced 3 eggs for us.

The cockerel is still young but just beginning to find his voice. I have just been to choose a black Labrador/collie cross puppy for Rory and Friday we pick up the puppy and 2 baby guinea pigs; both in the hope that we can entice Rory off the computer and his world of Runescape………….

I am sitting in Glasgow airport waiting for my next flight, this is the reality of being a trainer long journeys at the mercy of airport staff each with their own security rules; stuffy hotels and lonely evenings. Most of the time it certainly ain’t glamorous.

Tomorrow I will be working with 20 people who work for Staffordshire and Shropshire forensic services looking at how we can apply recovery with in their services. This is my fourth 3-day workshop with different staff from the same services. We have had some fantastic discussions and I have been heartened by the creative “can do” attitude of the staff.

The joys of Gardening, Administration, Angus, Sunderland and most importantly Vicky

Another week and Ron is away again. Monday and Tuesday he was engaged in consultancy work in Angus, helping people find a way forward with their day services, on the second day they did an organisational PATH which everybody enjoyed doing, Ron is no artist so one of the staff did all the drawing

Tomorrow he is in Sunderland for his annual lecture at the university for the Psychosocial –Intervention course. He always likes visiting the north east as he lived there for a while. It also gives him a chance to catch up with our daughter Vicky who is in her third year of mental health nurse training in Middlesbrough.

Meanwhile I am continuing making our home liveable in. I started on the garden this week as we have had a series of sunny days, there is nothing like getting your hands really dirty and using muscles that have forgotten how to work.

I have also taken most of the administration of working to recovery back from Sonja now. We have been so busy training I hardly had time to even keep an eye on the admin so I am having to relearn most things. So bear with me over next couple of weeks if your orders are late.

You may have noticed the website is slowly changing, this is because we are now using Radish to keep our site up to date which means we are now working closely again with our old friend Paul Baker, there will be more changes in the next few weeks.

Well must go and pick up Rory from the youth club, the kids have really settled into island life quickly, probably because they are so used to travelling with us and adapting to new situations and Frankie has started using her first Gaelic phrases, with all the confidence an ebullient 5 year old has ...

Lol
Karen

It has been a beautiful week on Lewis, blue skies, light winds and wonderful sunsets, I feel at home here already.

The course went very well last week. The presentations were stimulating and creative, the last one a role-play based on the “mental health bus’ was particularly funny.

I left Ron in Dundee to come back home as he was flying to Denmark. He has been working for the “Castle” near Copenhagen for the last 3 years helping them change manage a rehabilitation service into a recovery orientated one. They have already had many successes, he also works with Jorn & Anne Erikson in Psykovision a sister agency to ours, so he currently working with voice hearers and workers 2 hours away from Copenhagen deep in the countryside.

Speaking of voice hearing I caught up with Rufus May’s documentary about the Doctor who Hears Voices






Wow well done Rufus, it was thoughtful and brave and I hope it helps to timulate debate in a positive way. I remember Rufus “coming out” about his diagnosis at one of our early Handsell conferences we used to hold in Birmingham. He attended the conference and approached Ron & I to ask if he could get up and speak, he gave a moving account of his life and psychotic experience, he and a lot of the audience including me were in tears, he was honest and open.

Since then he has gone from strength to strength in his fight to see different approaches to working with psychosis accepted in the main stream. I wish him luck with his nomination for the Mind Champion award –he deserves it. Especially as he still fights the system from inside as an excellent psychologist.

We have run 3 voice dialoguing courses with Rufus & Dirk Corstens and will be incorporating the course in a residential course we are planning in Fife from 22nd September to 26th, Dirk and Eleanor will be involved along with Ron, unfortunately Rufus is away teaching in Switzerland.

Well I must go back to unpacking boxes, I still have so much to do to make this place a home

Lol

Karen

Recovery course - but where is Ron?

What a week! Left Lewis on Saturday not knowing where Ron was, he wasn’t answering his mobile and arrived on the mainland to find he had been admitted to hospital.

Recovery course to start Monday - I´m in big trouble!

His diabetes was way out of control and the doctor was telling me he wouldn’t be out by Monday.

No choice but to start the recovery course on my own. The course participants were fantastic, very supportive and understanding. I ran the first 2 days on my own , all was well , course proceeding as it should, me feeling fairly exhausted though as I run between Arbroath where the children are staying, Ninewells hospital in Dundee and Drumoig Fife where we were doing the training.

Luckily on the third day I receive a phone call from Ron to say he is being discharged and he is on his way to the course, a weight leaves my shoulders as he arrives and immediately stamps his mark on the course.

The course has had some really diverse participants from across the UK. Participants from a personality disorder unit in Colchester, from St mungo’s homelessness charity in London, a new private unit in Welshpool based on recovery, Mind in Birmingham, Glasgow & the Borders health boards, Aberdeen shire social services. Turning point Scotland, Plus Perth, Augment Arbroath, Dundee hearing voices network , Shetland Link and Richmond fellowship Scotland.

This has led to lots of cross fertilisation , new friendships and links and loads of conversation and debate both during the day and at the bar in the evening.

Its now friday morning and I wait in anticipation of the presentations to see what they have to say, they have been a great bunch of human beings.

Ron has already spent most of the last 2 weeks off island.

Last week he was down in Bristol running a workshop for Second Step Housing and speaking at a Rethink stake-holder event both were themed on taking recovery forward, there has been lots of talk of the theoretical aspects of recovery but much less on actually practically implementing it, something Ron & I love getting involved in. This is the nuts and bolts of recovery, how to "be" a recovery worker, using the tools of person centred planning, of working differently with psychosis and self harm, using "self" as a recovery model.

How many organisations have actually looked at how they organise themselves? Are their policies recovery focussed or do they hinder recovery? Are their middle managers onboard, is their paperwork recovery focussed, do they treat their staff in a person centred way?; these are the kind of questions Ron & I like to ask when we are engaged to work for an organisation.

This week he has been in Angus working with consumers on how they can take their day services forward.

Then the train down to Chester to work with Social worker ASW students, then the train back to Fife where he is running a workshop at the fife recovery conference.

An exhausting programme of training and travelling which he equally loves and hates. I cannot imagine him being in one place for more than a few weeks before he gets the urge to travel, still it will be interesting watch him relax and develop his garden and the croft so eventually we wont need to go off island so much.

Saturday: Off the island

I got off island today with the kids to join Ron

We are running our making recovery happen training at Drumoig in Fife next week.

I love this weeks training, watching how people develop over the week and "recover" - they all leave with a very deep understanding of what recovery means to them, the "them and us" of worker – service user - disappears as everyone realises they are all human beings with strengths, gifts and some failings.

I am always proud of the presentations they do on the last day of the programme, usually very creative, one group in Perth - Western Australia did such a fine drama that they have just filmed it and put it into a competition I hope they win’ it is fantastically powerful; we will soon have this on our site for people to down-load.

This particular week has been sold out for over 6 weeks, which is fantastic, I first had the idea for this course over 5 years ago and S.A.M.H agreed to run the first course for their staff and service users. What was fascinating was watching what happened to the service users on the course, within weeks one had left services to set their own business up in cultivation. One decided they didn’t need services again and another, Agnes Smith, became a fine speaker and trainer in her own right which was fantastic especially as she hit 60 I think the week of the course.

Ron and I would love to have a pot of money to run and research this course for a few groups of service users and watch their progress, any brave NHS trusts or organisations with a few spare pounds please come forward, we believe that courses like these could safe millions in the future from service users discharging themselves because they are well.

One of the biggest bug- bears of training is watching consumers struggle at our events because they are over medicated and have distressing side effects. In Melbourne we met up with John Watkins, a hero of Ron’s who wrote a book a few years ago called "Hearing voices a common human experience". He was a lovely modest man who has fought for better services for years in Melbourne.

He has written a book called Healing Schizophrenia-using medication wisely; it is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn more about their medication, possibilities of coming off it and alternatives. He has done some impressive research for the book and some very surprising quotes emerge. For example Bleuler the father of schizophrenia says quite categorically that no more than 10% of people with schizophrenia should be kept on long- term anti psychotic medication, something I wish our present day psychiatrists would adhere too.

Anyway read it for yourself, the book is now available through our website as we felt it was important that this book was known about more widely.

Photos from our work visit to Austraila and New Zealand (when we took some time off)

Some photos of our work visit to Austraila and New Zealand (including when we took some time off)



The lads who attended our last Recovery course in Perth, Austraila showing off their bellies ...

Sunset in Wellington taken from the house we rented over looking South island in the distance

Any idea where we are? Ron in discovery mode ... on a boat in Shark bay , near Monkey Mia

Recovery Island ahoy! Daytime view from our house in NZ

"Daddy, what´s that behind us ..."

This is the life! Ron and Karen contemplating joining "I´m a celebrity - Get me out of here" - nah!

Inside a tree with mummy and me! - Karen and Francesca

From Perth Austalia to the Isle of Lewis

Well, what a contrast.

2 weeks ago we were swimming with dolphins at Monkey Mia in Australia (see previous post) with the temperature at 36C, today we wake up in Ness on the Isle of Lewis, its blowing a gale and yesterday it was snowing and 5C.

Our move from Fife to Lewis went surprisingly smoothly, the ferry was on, the weather lovely , in fact the crossing was so smooth it was like a summers day We made our way to the house and the van followed with our wordly possessions.

Hit our first problem the driveway, the lorry trying to back in got stuck in the peat and had to be towed out by a local farmer on his tractor, the weather was beautiful though , blue skys , no wind we finally got all possessions into the house by 10pm except our big American fridge which was not going through the doorWe had a local guy Kyle on hand who managed to set up the beds, ours immediately got covered in boxes, but Francesca & Rory (our children) had a relatively normal nights sleep in their own beds.

Ron & I ended up on the sofa, next morning was a different picture , a howling gale , heavy rain, no coal for the fire and the floor of the kids bedroom flooded from an unknown source.

Again a local to the rescue , Richard the plumber and rayburn mender, sorted out the central heating pipe causing the flood in the bedroom. Ron, I and the kids headed for Stornoway, to buy new fridge freezer, and vax to restore the carpet in the kids room. A week on we have mastered the rayburn, I have successfully cooked on it, there are no boxes left in the house, the shed is still packed solid with boxes though, Ron has wetted the new house at the local social club and more importantly put his first seeds in the poly tunnel and the strawberry plants. Recovery- my understanding is improving every day.

Its been an expensive week though, anyone wanting training we still have two weeks free in May and June!!!!

Lol Karen

March 2008, Working in Australia and New Zealand

Wow it is hard to believe that we have been out of the UK for 8 weeks now and what a fabulous trip we are having.

We spent the first couple of days in Dubai before arriving in Perth, Australia on a Thursday I had got my dates completely mixed and started arguing with the hotel receptionist that it was Friday and they should have a room for us, luckily they had a spare room so the kids, Ron & I were able to sleep off our jet lag. Ron & I have been working here in Perth on and off for almost 3 years.

Richmond fellowship WA took the brave step of introducing us here and training their staff in recovery, due to their growing success here we have been asked back a number of times and our making recovery courses are now regularly oversubscribed and more and more people are wanting to attend from other Non government organisations and now the government funded health service have come on board and are sending their staff and consumers onto the training. Much of this is due to the tireless networking of Joe Calleja the CEO of RF here, who is totally committed to making recovery happen within the state of WA.

We are always made to feel very welcome here and now feel very much at home, accept for the heat it has regularly hit the high 30’s.

After 2 successful making recovery happen courses in January we took to the road in a camper van for a few days rest and a workshop in Esperance. This again went very well with over 60 people attending the event which is unheard of for a small place like Esperance. It was so good to see so many people embracing the ideas of recovery.

We then made a small stopover in Melbourne before flying out to New Zealand. Hiring another camper van for a few days holiday before hitting Palmerston North for a 4 day psychosis course. This was a new venture for us and proved to be very successful with 30 staff attending the first 2 days looking at the theory behind hearing voices, then 15 staff returned with a voice hearer each to explore the voice hearer’s voices using the voices workbook.

It was wonderful to watch the transformation as people began to understand why they heard voices and that they could take control and learn to live with their voices. Also to hear staff say how much they had learnt about their voice hearers that they had no idea about before. We have already had back stories of people carrying on the transformation after the course had finished. I am always taken back by peoples trust and honesty when we run this programme and their ability to stand enormous emotional pain so they can transform their lives. So often trauma, especially childhood sexual abuse is at the root of their voice hearing and what Ron & I are understanding more and more is that it isn’t the abuse that is the issue but the feelings the person is left with often shame and guilt.

We then moved on to Wellington to run the same course for Wellink followed by another making recovery happen course for them. Again we saw consumers transforming before our eyes as they understood that there was hope and that they had the power to change their lives.
Now we are back in Perth , I am running a 2 day person centred planning course whilst Ron is visiting individual units to offer mentoring to the staff and consumers on site, and next week our last making recovery happen course which apparently was oversubscribed, so we will be back again in October.

Our final week is back in a camper van up north to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia with a workshop in Geraldton on the way up, with temperatures regularly up in the 40’s up there I will be longing for our return to Scotland on 22nd March, and our move to the isle of Lewis.