Two Seminars Presented by Ron Unger

14-15 May 2009

Scholarships are available for two seminars presented by MindFreedom member Ron Unger LCSW.  These two seminars will occur on May 14th and 15th in downtown San Francisco, just before the APA convention.  (Some of you may be able to get funding to go to one or both of these seminars, then you can stay in town over the weekend to attend the protest at the APA convention!)  See below for Ron Unger’s description of these seminars:

The first seminar on May 14 will be an introduction to cognitive therapy for psychosis, which is a psychological approach to helping people who hear voices or have beliefs so “far out” that most mental health workers would propose drugs as the only possible treatment.  In contrast, cognitive therapy assumes that people can learn to change how they handle what goes on in their minds, and that this change is most likely when therapists collaborate as partners in figuring how to make sense of things, rather than pretend to be “experts” who can tell people what to think.  This approach draws people into taking an active role in their own recovery, which in turn can lead to a reduction in reliance on medications.

The second seminar on May 15 will focus on the relationship between “psychosis” and trauma, a relationship usually denied by the mental health system which instead attempts to convince people they have a strictly “biological illness” or “biochemical imbalance.”  This second seminar will focus on how to help people understand the relationships that are possible between life events and current distress, and how to use that understanding in working toward recovery.

Quite a few scholarships are available for consumers, survivors, and/or family members.  You can apply to attend just one seminar, or both.  If you state on your registration that you are a MindFreedom member, your registration will be given first preference!

The full brochure for the seminars is online at http://tinyurl.com/cbtpsychosis-pdf .

Or, you can find the seminar information in Word format at http://tinyurl.com/cbtpsychosis-doc, which may be an easier format to fill out for registration.

(If you sign up to attend and then discover you cannot, please cancel your registration so that others may attend in your place!)

Volunteer seminar assistants needed:  It is hoped that some MindFreedom members will volunteer to help out at the beginning and end of the seminar.  This will help make the scholarships possible, as well as help offset the costs of the meeting space for the MindFreedom organizing event after the meeting, and allow other MindFreedom costs to be covered.  Volunteer tasks will include welcoming seminar attendees, helping them get signed in and get their handouts, and distributing books to those who purchased them.  An additional task will be distributing continuing education certificates at the end of the seminar. If you are willing to be a volunteer, please register early and indicate your willingness to volunteer on your registration.