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.