Hi everyone, apologies to those who were hoping to attend the North Vancouver Voices & Visions support group today (July 8th). The group has been cancelled for this evening. The next session will take place on the 4th Thursday of the month as usual, on July 22nd. We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to seeing you at the next session!
2021 World Hearing Voices Congress: Update and Call for Submissions
The 2021 World Hearing Voices Congress will be taking place September 1st-3rd in Cork, Ireland, with a hybrid virtual/in-person format. The theme of this year’s Congress is “Solidarity in Times of Adversity: The Global Voice Hearing Community Reconnecting”. The conference organizers write:
This year’s Congress will create spaces for voice hearers, family members, carers, practitioners, academics, and all those interested in the principles and values of the International Hearing Voices Movement, to connect and/or reconnect with one another in a post-pandemic world, either in person in Cork, Ireland or online across the globe. Drawing on two ancient Irish traditions, the Congress organisers aim to provide a platform (ardán) to focus on the ways in which many voices can work together, supporting each other in difficult times (meitheal).
*Ardán (pronounced ar-dawn) is an Irish word meaning platform, stage, but it is also used in the context of ‘raising one spirits’!
*Meitheal (pronounced meh-hill) is the Irish expression of the ancient and universal appliance of cooperation to social need, referring to the co-operative labour system in Ireland where neighbours help each other in turn with farming work, such as harvesting crops. It establishes community unity through cooperative work and mutually reciprocal support.
Online registration for both in-person and virtual tickets is now open: click here.
The call for papers, presentations, workshops, and performances is also now open (deadline for submissions is July 30th): click here.
To learn more, visit the conference information page on the Intervoice website, or check out Hearing Voices Network Ireland!
Statement on the detection of unmarked graves at former residential school sites
Content warning: discussion of anti-Indigenous racism, genocide
If you are in need of support, please call:
- The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
- KUU-US Crisis Line: 1-800-588-8717
- Tsow-Tun-Le-Lum Society toll-free line: 1-888-403-3123; main office 250-390-3123
- Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society main office 604-985-4464; toll-free 1-800-721-0066
Over the last several weeks, following the detection of 215 unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, over 1300 unmarked graves have been located at 6 residential school sites across Canada. Today, Cowessess First Nation announced the detection of 751 unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School. It is important to note that the knowledge that Indigenous children were killed at residential schools – by neglect and abuse, and as an act of cultural genocide – is not new. Indigenous survivors and their communities have testified for years about the violence of residential schools, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final 2015 report estimated thousands of deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools, many of them whose names were not recorded. Nevertheless, the grief and horror of having these and other deaths confirmed is immense.
The BCHVN recognizes this is an enormously difficult time for many. We recognize that words alone cannot ease the suffering of the past or the present. We recognize that distress is rational response to the violence of colonization – including not only the traumatic legacy of the residential school system, but the ongoing occupation of Indigenous lands and disenfranchisement and criminalization of Indigenous communities. As a grassroots network supporting people who hear voices, see visions, experience extreme states, or who have other unusual sensory experiences, we believe in the importance of understanding mental and emotional health within the context of people’s lives. This includes reckoning with Canada’s colonial past and present.
We encourage non-Indigenous readers to review the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report, linked above. We also encourage you to review the TRC’s Calls to Action report to learn more about what steps you can take towards justice. If you are able, we also encourage you to donate directly to Indigenous-led organizations and initiatives. You can donate to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society here. You can browse a list of Indigenous organizations in BC here.
Call for proposals: ISPS-US Virtual Conference
The call for proposals for the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis US Chapter’s upcoming virtual conference is now open! The conference will take place November 5-7 and the theme will be “Moving Toward Shared Understandings in Psychosis and Extreme States: Professional, Individual, and Family Perspectives.” Proposals are due by July 5th. For more information, visit the ISPS-US website.
From the ISPS-US website:
Psychosis and extreme states are complex, multifaceted phenomena. Mainstream mental health care in the United States has historically presented a narrow view of both root causes and treatments for the distressing symptoms associated with psychosis, viewing these experiences from a purely bio-medical framework. However, scientific advances over the past decades, and greater awareness of social, cultural, and societal influences on mental health have opened up opportunities to shift the conversation toward more humanistic, person-centered understandings. Thanks to the contributions of people with lived experience, family members, and enlightened practitioners, many of the experiences associated with psychosis are now understood as ways in which the human mind and spirit respond to confusing, challenging, and often difficult environments and relationships. While much progress has been made, much work remains to be done.
Join ISPS-US at our 2021 Conference and Annual Meeting as we consider the progress that can be made when multiple perspectives are honored in the treatment and understanding of psychosis.
We welcome presentations that examine and build upon rich collaborations between people with lived experience, family members, researchers, and clinicians across theory, practice, and innovation. We especially encourage presentations that acknowledge and address the additional burdens faced by people of color whose efforts simply to live in an increasingly hostile world can lead to psychosis and extreme states. Join us as we seek to reimagine a future that offers greater hope, understanding, and possibility for all people who experience and struggle with extreme states.
This year we plan to include an interactive Creative Healing Space to present an array of therapeutic and creative arts modalities used for treatment, and as forms of self-expression that provide connection, comfort, joy, and healing. These can include origami, visual art, poetry, photography, music, dance, spoken word, and more. This Creative Healing Space was inspired by the ISPS International Congress, to be held in Perugia, Italy in September 2022. With permission, we will take these submissions with us to Perugia next year.
Chilliwack group update
The Chilliwack Hearing Voices group will now be hosted by Communitas Peer Support and will be held over Zoom every Monday at 6 pm. Anyone in BC is welcome to attend, but people in the Fraser Valley region are particularly encouraged to check out the group! For more information, please visit the Communitas website here: https://peersupportcsc.com/service/hearing-voices/
As a reminder, if you’re unsure of what to expect at Hearing Voices support groups or whether they’re right for you, an information session and community roundtable will be taking place over Zoom tomorrow, May 6th, from 5-6 pm (PST).
We hope to see you there!
Update: Living with Voices & Visions Virtual Event
The date for the Living with Voices & Visions virtual event has been changed. The event will now be taking place on Thursday, May 6th. Please share the updated poster!
Join us Thursday, May 6th from 5-6 PM (PST) for an opportunity to learn about the BC Hearing Voices Network, hear personal experiences from those living with voices, visions, and unique experiences, and learn how to participate in local support groups.
This event is open to those who experience voices, visions, or other unique sensory experiences, their supporters, those working in mental health, and any others who are interested!
Speakers include:
Rory Higgs
Rory Higgs is a non-binary artist, writer, and activist living and working in Vancouver. Rory serves as a facilitator for Voices and Visions groups, and is the newly appointed administrator for the BC Hearing Voices Network. Rory’s work on this movement has been published in the Health and Human Rights Journal.
KC Pearcey
KC has been a voice hearer and vision seer for nearly 15 years. He was a participant in Voices and Visions groups when they first started in Vancouver in 2013 and began co-facilitating the groups in 2018. He is also a Peer Support Worker for Coast Mental Health and has co-facilitated a Voice Hearers group for that organization as well. Additionally, he co-facilitates Living Well with Voices and Unique Beliefs for the North Shore Mental Health team.
Zoom link: https://vancouvercoastalhealth.zoom.us/j/65896012879?pwd=L0pnb2d3YW9pY2o4Q S9nVmU4UGcvQT09
Questions? Email Gill Walker at gill.walker@vch.ca for more information.
Virtual Event: Living with Voices and Visions – May 6th
UPDATE 19/04: The date for the Living with Voices and Visions virtual event has been changed! The event will now be held on Thursday, May 6th from 5-6 PM (PST).
Join us at a virtual roundtable on Monday, May 3rd from 5-6 PM (PST) for the opportunity to learn about the BC Hearing Voices Network, ask questions, and give your feedback on what you’d like to see at future groups/events! This event is open to everyone, including people who hear voices, see visions, or have other unusual sensory experiences; people who are questioning whether Voices & Visions support groups are for them; supporters and allies; and professionals interested in learning more about the BCHVN.
Details below:
Join us Monday, May 3rd from 5-6 PM (PST) for an opportunity to learn about the BC Hearing Voices Network, hear personal experiences from those living with voices, visions, and unique experiences, and learn how to participate in local support groups.
Speakers include:
Rory Higgs
Rory Higgs is a non-binary artist, writer, and activist living and working in Vancouver. Rory serves as a facilitator for Voices and Visions groups, and is the newly appointed administrator for the BC Hearing Voices Network. Rory’s work on this movement has been published in the Health and Human Rights Journal.
KC Pearcey
KC has been a voice hearer and vision seer for nearly 15 years. He was a participant in Voices and Visions groups when they first started in Vancouver in 2013 and began co-facilitating the groups in 2018. He is also a Peer Support Worker for Coast Mental Health and has co-facilitated a Voice Hearers group for that organization as well. Additionally, he co-facilitates Living Well with Voices and Unique Beliefs for the North Shore Mental Health team.
Zoom link: https://vancouvercoastalhealth.zoom.us/j/65896012879?pwd=L0pnb2d3YW9pY2o4Q S9nVmU4UGcvQT09
Questions? Email Gill Walker at gill.walker@vch.ca for more information.
NEWS: ISPS Conference Dates Extended and Call to Action on Racism and Social Justice in Mental Health
The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis has pushed back the dates for the upcoming conference in Peruga, Italy. The conference will now be taking place in September 2022. This means that the call for abstracts is currently open. If you would like to submit a proposal for a workshop, panel, or other presentation, you can do so here: https://isps2021.it/call-for-abstract/
McGill University’s Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry has published a call to action on racism and social (in)justice in mental health, which you can read here: https://www.mcgill.ca/tcpsych/network/call-action
This follows on the tail of other recent publications calling for a change in how mental health is understood, for example: the British Psychological Society’s Power Threat Meaning Framework; the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Mental Health’s recent reports, 2017-2020; Harvard’s Health and Human Rights Journal’s 2020 special issue on shifting the paradigm of mental health; and, in BC, the Carnegie Community Action Project’s 2018 report on a new vision for community-based mental health in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The BC Hearing Voices Network stands with these calls to action. We recognize the importance of social and political context in shaping experiences of mental/emotional wellbeing and distress, as well as how these experiences are perceived and responded to. Poverty, racism, sexism and gendered violence, homelessness and housing insecurity, criminalization, displacement from ancestral territory, lack of social or legal protections, and lack of access to food, clean water, sanitation or medical care are just some of the issues that contribute to experiences of mental/emotional distress – including distressing voices and visions.
Voices and visions occur in the context of our lives, and can have different meanings and causes for different people. For some, these experiences are directly or indirectly related to experiences of trauma, injustice, discrimination, and disenfranchisement over our lifetimes. We hope to see lasting efforts to change the aspects of society that overwhelmingly create distress rather than focusing exclusively on changing individual people, which pathologizes understandable reactions to suffering and overlooks the communities we share – and which we share a responsibility to ensure are safe, just, and equal for all.
Submission: “Genesis of a Mad Person,” by Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess
No matter what authority one exercises, one can never fully take possession of another’s story, as long as one knows one’s power (and is not physically contained, or rather detained), one can thwart narrative containment – grab the pen and throw in a plot twist.
In this lyric essay, author Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess weaves together poetry, prose, and prophecy to reflect on the nature of shared and created realities for survivors of trauma. Sankofa writes from the intersection of the Mad, 2SLGBTQA+, and Black liberation movements, punctuating wry observation with cascades of magic and metaphor for a read that is as much disquieting dreamscape as it is social commentary.
The following piece was written on traditional, ancestral and unceded ʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Stz’uminus and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, where the author resides.
Content warning: includes references to trauma; incarceration; sexuality; Christianity and Christian imperialism; child abuse, including childhood sexual abuse
Continue reading “Submission: “Genesis of a Mad Person,” by Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess”Upcoming conferences: Intervoice and ISPS
2021 World Hearing Voices Congress: Survey
Intervoice and the Hearing Voices Network Ireland want to hear from you: what format do you want to see the 2021 World Hearing Voices Congress in Cork, Ireland take? The organizers are considering a hybrid virtual conference and have requested input from those who are potentially interested in attending later this year (online or in person). You can learn more or take the survey here.
22nd Congress of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis: Co-constructing Healing Spaces
The 2021 ISPS Congress will be taking place in Perugia, Italy in September. The theme will be “co-constructing healing spaces” and will explore what humane approaches to psychosis can look like and what work remains to be done, as well incorporating an arts-focused event, Healing Spaces: Happening Without Authors. To learn more, you can read the conference brochure or visit the conference website.
Site update: New web address
You may have noticed that our former web address, bchearingvoicesnetwork.wordpress.com, now redirects to a fancy new one: bchvn.ca. We think you’ll agree that this new address is a bit easier to remember! Don’t worry if you need some time to get used to the new address, though – the old one should still work just fine. While we’re in the process of switching over to the new bchvn.ca domain, you may have temporary trouble loading the BC Hearing Voices Network website. This should be resolved within the next two days.
We’ve also set up a new email address for questions related to the BC Hearing Voices Network or support groups in BC. You can now contact the BCHVN site administrator here: admin@bchvn.ca.
Thank you for your patience as we continue updating the site!
Call for submissions: Art, poetry, essays, and more
Do you have an article, work of art, poem, autobiographical essay, or other work related to your experience of hearing voices that you’d like us to share on the BC Hearing Voices Network blog? We’d love to hear from you! Anyone who self-identifies as having experienced voices, visions, unique beliefs, other unusual sensory experiences or extreme states, and/or psychosis is invited to submit art, short written works (approximately 1000 words), or other visual, audio, or videographic works. Please note that submissions will be reviewed by the blog administrator, and we may choose not to publish a submission if the content is excessively graphic, hateful or discriminatory (for example, if it contains racist or homophobic comments), contains identifying/private information about other people, or is otherwise inappropriate.
Works can be submitted via email to admin@bchvn.ca with the subject line “Blog Submission”. Please also include the following information:
- How would you like to be credited for your work? You can choose to provide your full name, first name, a pseudonym, or to remain anonymous.
- In a few words, how would you describe your work? For example, “autobiographical essay,” “abstract painting,” “mixed media,” “experimental,” “humorous,” “non-fiction,” or “short story” are possible ways you might describe your submission.
- Is there anything you would like people to know about you? If you like, you can provide a short bio. For example, “Tom is a visual artist living in Vancouver with his two cats. Most of his work is in acrylic, but recently he has been experimenting with collage.”
For any other questions, please contact admin@bchvn.ca. Please note that it may take several days to respond to your email.
New virtual support group – North Shore
The North Shore Voices and Visions support group is going virtual! The group will be held over Zoom, and is open to everyone with lived experience of voices, visions, or other unusual sensory experiences, as well as their supporters. The group will be held on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of every month, from 5:00-6:00 pm. You don’t need to register to attend this group, and you don’t need to be the client of a mental health team. For more information, call Debbie Sesula at 604-983-6023 (ext. 1).
Link to join (will work for all sessions): https://phsa.zoom.us/j/61674532688?pwd=eXFBbk8rVHZaSFYvWGIxOEVSRElYdz09
Meeting ID: 616 7453 2688
Password: 773404
Site Updates and Art Opportunity for Youth
First, a brief site update: the BC Hearing Voices Network website is in the process of switching administrators this month, and you may notice changes to group information pages, site layout, etc over the next few weeks. This shouldn’t impact any groups that are currently running! We’re just in the process of bringing the website up to date to reflect what’s actually going on around BC. For now, any questions about the BCHVN, Hearing Voices groups in BC, or the website itself can be directed to Rory Higgs at rhiggs@foundrybc.ca. Please note that it might take a little while for us to get back to you during this transitional period. We appreciate your patience!
Second, an update on opportunities in the community: Foundry and the Consumer Initiative Fund will be offering a series of virtual art groups starting in February for young people ages 12-24 who live anywhere in BC and who identify as experiencing voices, visions, unique beliefs, and/or psychosis. Participants will be provided with supplies from The Paint Spot valued at $125, and each group cohort will be six sessions long, with sessions held every other Wednesday from 5:30-7:00 pm. Sessions will take place over Zoom and consist of a combination of guided creative exercises, discussion, and free creating time, as well as participation in a collaborative art project and (optionally) the opportunity to have your work exhibited online. The group will. be peer-led, meaning that the facilitators are not clinicians, but people who identify as having personal experience of voices, visions, unique beliefs, and/or psychosis.
To learn more, or to register for the group, check out the Groups & Workshops for Young People page on the Foundry website: https://foundrybc.ca/virtual/youth-groups/
Or, view the Spotlight on Mental Health posting: https://www.spotlightonmentalhealth.com/consumer-initiative-fund-cif/
For any additional questions, please contact the group facilitators, Rory Higgs (rhiggs@foundrybc.ca) and Anne Liao (aliao@foundrybc.ca).
BC Hearing Voices Network 