Category Archives: Uncategorized

Open Dialogue: Skills – May 1, 2019

Open Dialogue Part 2–Skills:
A More Effective Approach to Mental Health Crisis

Presented by Alita Markus

  • Brief review of Open Dialogue
  • Come with your questions
  • Skill demos and practice
  • How to apply to every day life and work
  • No need to have been to first talk

Open Dialogue Training Is Coming to the Pacific NW in July 2019!

Alita Markus
Alita Markus

Alita Markus comes to speak to us from Tacoma WA, after finishing intensive teacher training in Finland.

Alita has fourteen years experience working in emergency psychiatry, and generally in mental health services since 1992. She currently practices psychotherapy in Washington. Her passion is working from a community-based, non-expert, need-adapted Open Dialogue perspective.


Wednesday, May 1, 2019, 7-9 PM
232 SE 80th Avenue, Portland, OR 97215

(Montavilla United Methodist Church

Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.
Click here to download handbills.

Mt. Tahoma Sanctuary – Apr 3, 2019

A Healing Home for Mental Health Recovery

  • Holistic Living with a Heart Centered Approach
  • Belonging: Taking Life to the Next Level
  • Healing Community Gatherings
  • Flexible, Replicable Home Model

Mt. Tahoma Sanctuary is an uplifting home in Tacoma, WA where adults who have come through spiritual and psychological crises can begin the process of healing without pressure. Residents are provided the spaciousness to redirect their lives through discovering meaning and purpose. The home is not staffed, and this makes it affordable. With the support of The Healing Field nonprofit, everyone comes together to meditate, to experience self-healing skills, and to cook on a routine basis. The community gathers frequently to bring healing methods to residents and others. We strive towards mutual supportiveness, while honoring each individual’s path.

Mt. Tahoma Sanctuary’s Co-Founders as Speakers:

Christine Karczewski

Christine Karczewski is an Energy Healer, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Massage Therapist, and Family Constellations Facilitator with 18 years experience in mind/body/heart/spirit centered approaches to emotional and spiritual healing. She envisions a new mental health paradigm that embraces a spiritual, mind/body connecting, heart-centered, relational approach for individuals and their families who are suffering and in crisis.

Po Karczewski

Po Karczewski worked as a critical care RN and then an RN and RN manager for 8 years at Western State Hospital and for 15 years as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and prescribing team leader at Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare, a Pierce County community mental health agency, seeing adults, adolescents and children. He is currently providing psychiatric services for an inpatient drug and alcohol treatment facility. Po has always been an advocate for more cautious and judicious use of psychiatric medication.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 7 – 9 PM
New Location!
Montavilla United Methodist Church
232 SE 80th Avenue, Portland, OR 97215
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Refreshments will be provided, including plenty of vegan and gluten-free options!

Click here to download flyer.
Click here to download 4-up version of flyer.

Community Building Night – Mar 6, 2019

Experiment in Merriment

  • Get to know other Rethinkers!
  • Ice Breakers & Cooperative Games!
  • Mad Liberation Trivia!
  • Mental Health Bingo!

Refreshments will be provided, including plenty of vegan and gluten-free options!

Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 7 – 9 PM
New Location!
Montavilla United Methodist Church
232 SE 80th Avenue, Portland, OR 97215
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.
Click here to download 4-up version of flyer.

Houselessness, Trauma & Solutions – Feb 6, 2019

  • Trauma of Becoming Houseless
  • Survival & Criminalization
  • Peer-Run Solutions
  • Youth and LGBTQ2 Experience

Presented by speakers from Right 2 Survive:

Ibrahim B. Mubarak

Ibrahim B. Mubarak, is a renowned leader in the Activist Community for over 25 years. As a champion for Houseless Rights, he has dedicated himself to improving the many struggles of the disenfranchised and Houseless Community. In 2009, Ibrahim founded Right 2 Survive. Since then he has held various board positions including: Chairperson, VP, and Outreach Coordinator for many powerful organizations. Ibrahim co-founded Dignity Village in the late 1990’s and in 2010, on World Houseless Awareness Day, he co-founded along with other members of Right 2 Survive, a rest area called Right 2 Dream Too. Ibrahim is currently a Co-Chair on Jobs With Justice, Chairperson of WRAP and Executive Director of Right 2 Survive. (Read Ibrahim’s full bio HERE)

Lisa Fay

Lisa Fay began her early years by helping people with disabilities. Her compassion and skills took her into the Nursing field for more than 25 years. Since moving to Oregon, Lisa has become a champion in the fight against disparity. She challenges the State and Local Governments, Business Improvement Districts and the tactics used to criminalize the most marginalized. Working with the knowledge and desire to educate against injustices, she works with Right 2 Survive, as its Chairperson to educate the Houseless about their Civil, Constitutional and Human Rights. Lisa’s involvement with Right 2 Survive has evolved into facilitation, trainings, coordination of events, media, consulting and planning sessions as well as assisting to develop long term strategies for the progression of the organization. (Read Lisa’s full bio HERE)

Sarah Louise

Sarah Louise holds an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence and has 10 years of experience facilitating the personal expression of marginalized populations and teaching houseless youth. She is a long-time street outreach mentor and harm reduction practitioner. She sits on the board of homeless organizing nonprofit Right 2 Survive, and advocates for inclusivity within the systems of healthcare, education, and the law.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019, 7 – 9 PM
New Location!
Montavilla United Methodist Church
232 SE 80th Avenue, Portland, OR 97215
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.
Click here to download 4-up version of flyer.

Dialogues with Madwomen – Jan 2, 2019

Join us for a screening of the film:

Dialogues with Madwomen

This intimate, beloved film (1994) features seven women, including the filmmaker, describing their experiences with madness and recovery. It is raw and honest about how personal and societal trauma is often underneath. Acknowledging that “madness” is often a way of explaining women’s self-expression, this film charges us to listen to the creativity and courage of survivors. Produced by Academy Award winning filmmakers.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019, 7-9 PM
New Location!
Montavilla United Methodist Church
232 SE 80th Avenue, Portland, OR 97215
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.
Click here to download 4-up version of flyer.

Open Dialogue – Nov 7, 2018

The Open Dialogue Method: A More Effective Approach to Mental Health Crisis

Presented by Alita Markus

  • What is Open Dialogue?
  • How is it very different than standard practice in the US?
  • What is the research from N. Finland, the UK, Italy, Holland, and Belgium?
  • Why this former crisis worker loves Open Dialogue!

Open Dialogue Training Is Coming to the Pacific NW in 2019!

Alita Markus

Alita Markus

Alita Markus comes to speak to us from Tacoma WA, after finishing intensive teacher training in Finland.

Alita has fourteen years experience working in emergency psychiatry, and generally in mental health services since 1992. She currently practices psychotherapy in Washington. Her passion is working from a community-based, non-expert, need-adapted Open Dialogue perspective.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018, 7-9 PM
New Location!
Montavilla United Methodist Church
232 SE 80th Avenue, Portland, OR 97215
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.

Update! Watch the YouTube Video of this event:

Expansion of Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Raises Serious Concerns about Safety and Civil Liberties

by Rethinking Psychiatry Members Cindi Fisher and Rachel Levy

Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) has been around for years, and is currently practiced in 46 states. It is known by different terms in different states, such as “mandated outpatient treatment” or “involuntary outpatient treatment.” It is not a generally well-known or frequently used practice. That may change soon — many in the mental health field are touting AOT as the solution to the failures of the American mental health system. A grant from the federal agency Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) is funding expansion of AOT in several states, including Oregon.

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, a pro-AOT group, “Assisted outpatient treatment is court-ordered treatment for those individuals in this population who meet strict legal criteria. Most commonly, they are too ill to recognize their own need for medical care.”  http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/fixing-the-system/promoting-assisted-outpatient-treatment

The idea that certain people don’t realize that they are mentally ill and need treatment (also known as “anosognosia”) is part of the argument in favor of AOT. However, this argument is paternalistic and depends on a highly subjective criteria for who is labeled mentally ill.

There can be some positive aspects of AOT, including supported housing and intensive case management. While evidence for the effectiveness of AOT is mixed at best, some AOT programs have been shown to reduce rates of hospitalization and arrests.

There are significant concerns about the coercive nature of AOT and the violation of civil liberties. Most of all, there are serious concerns about AOT leading to more people being put on psychiatric drugs, when there are safer and more effective alternatives available. AOT is not the only, or the best, way to help people with mental health challenges and save the system money.

The arguments in favor of AOT are based on the erroneous assumptions about the safety and efficacy of psychiatric drugs. As journalist Robert Whitaker powerfully demonstrated in his book Anatomy of an Epidemic, our society’s over-reliance on psych drugs has possibly done more harm than good, and, contrary to popular opinion, there are many people who achieve mental health recovery without drugs.

Two laws behind AOT are Kendra’s Law (New York)  and Laura’s Law (California). Both cases involved young women who were killed by men who were diagnosed as mentally ill and were not taking medication. Many articles, for example this one and this one, about the cases argue that if only these men had been on their psychiatric medications, they would not have committed these terrible crimes.

However, these articles fail to mention that  many people who have committed violent crimes — especially most mass shooters — were actually taking legally prescribed psychotropic drugs at the time of their crimes or were experiencing withdrawal effects from psychotropic medication. While no clear causation has been proven (and while most people on psychiatric medications do not commit violent acts), there are many concerns that prescription psych drugs might actually raise the risk of violent behavior in vulnerable individuals.  This article addresses this extremely troubling trend:

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/another-mass-shooting-potentially-linked-to-psychiatric-drugs-1002085657

There are deep flaws in the  assumption that mandating psychiatric medication will prevent violent crimes. Even the New York Magazine article, which is unquestioning of mainstream mental health, states at one point, “It is impossible to know if Kendra’s Law has reduced extreme acts of violence”.Many of the arguments in support of expanding AOT are based more on scare tactics than facts.

Certainly, the cases that inspired Kendra’s Law and Laura’s Law are heartbreaking. However, the majority of violent crimes are committed by people who are not diagnosed with major mental illness. Many articles about these cases are based on faulty assumptions and demeaning stereotypes of people diagnosed with mental illness. For a more balanced view, see: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/mental-illness-crime.aspx

Many proponents of AOT have the best of intentions and truly believe that this is a solution to helping people with mental health challenges. However, there are also special interests that profit tremendously off of requiring more people to be on psych drugs. The way that psych drugs are prescribed is often unscientific and sometimes unethical. Enormous conflicts of interest have been shown between modern psychiatry and pharmaceutical companies. Again, Robert Whitaker, along with co-author Lisa Cosgrove, demonstrates this eloquently in the book, Psychiatry Under the Influence.)

Perhaps nowhere has this conflict of interest been more egregious than in Texas, a state in which AOT treatment is used heavily. Under former governor George W.  Bush, Texas enacted the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, despite widespread criticisms that this model was based on blatant conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies and lead to dangerous overmedication of vulnerable people. It also bankrupted the state’s Medicaid program without showing any clear benefit to public health and safety. However, this model has been adopted as a standard of care in American mental health care, and we are seriously concerned that expanding AOT will be a continuation of this trend.

For more information, see these articles:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psych-drug-corp/tmap/Texas-vs-TMAP-drug-fraud

https://tmap.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/allegations-halt-drug-recommendations/

We are extremely uncomfortable with the idea of requiring people to participate in a system that has shown such blatant disregard for ethical and scientific standards and that has repeatedly placed profits over people’s health and safety.  The TMAP project has been treated as a legitimate standard of care, when in fact it was a transfer of wealth from the state’s Medicaid system to pharmaceutical companies.

While AOT has widespread support in some circles, many people have criticized its inherent racial biases and  civil liberties violations:

https://news.utexas.edu/2016/03/25/involuntary-outpatient-commitment-should-give-us-pause

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-bryantcomstock/its-time-for-mental-healt_b_10217262.html

There is no doubt that we need more choices in our mental health system. However, we are looking for options that are truly comprehensive and collaborative, rather than coercive. Programs like Open Dialogue and Intentional Peer Support have shown real success in helping people achieve recovery while respecting individuals’ rights to self-determination.

For more information on Cindi Fisher’s work see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/photos/cindi-fisher-endorsement/view

https://www.madinamerica.com/2015/10/siddhartha-1984-the-murphy-bill-and-more/

Peer Respites: Redefining Crisis – Sep 5, 2018

Peer Respites

Redefining Crisis

Presented by Sharon Kuehn, Braunwynn Franklin
and Kevin Fitts

  • Why we want Peer-Run Respites
  • Share personal experiences of using a Peer-Run Respite
  • Peer Respites as a community movement
  • Leveraging legislation to support Peer-Run Respites in Oregon

Sharon Kuehn

Sharon Kuehn (sharontrose@gmail.com) – Sharon leads the David Romprey Oregon Warmline and the new Oregon Senior Peer Outreach Service for Community Counseling Solutions. Both programs are firmly rooted in the practice of Intentional Peer Support (IPS). Sharon facilitates IPS training and serves as an advocate for Peer Delivered Services on the Oregon Consumer Advisory Council (OCAC). Sharon is also passionate about the healing power of nature and working to create new structures for our human family to find balance with nature, which she explores at http://lifeforcelearning.net.

Braunwynn Franklin

Braunwynn Franklin (braunwynn@live.com) – Braunwynn has been a peer specialist and advocate for over 10 years. She has a heart for social justice change in the prison/justice system and supporting people to gain a better quality of life: mentally, spiritually and physically. She has a Bachelors’ Degree in Healthcare Administration and is a native of Detroit, Michigan. Braunwynn facilitates NAMI Peer-to-Peer and is a Master Trainer in the Living Well with Chronic Disease from Stanford. Braunwynn is the Co-Champion of the Trauma-Informed Systems Committee of the Oregon Consumer Advisory Council.

Kevin Fitts

Kevin Fitts – Kevin is a passionate human and civil rights advocate. He is deeply ingrained in the mental health/addictions and consumer/survivor communities in the Portland Metro area. He is well informed on health and social policy, not only at the state, but also at the federal level. Kevin has served on many initiatives, boards, councils and committees as a public mental health consumer and peer advocate.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 7 – 9 PM
Unite Oregon 
700 N. Killingsworth St., Portland, OR
(across from PCC Cascade Campus)
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.

Update! Watch the YouTube Video of this presentation:

Sources of Madness – June 6, 2018

Sources of Madness

Why did I lose my mind and what did I gain in the process?

Presented by John Herold, MA

Using personal lived experience as well as ideas from Process Work, John Herold will explore different possible causes of an extreme state of consciousness that landed him in a hospital involuntarily and was diagnosed as bipolar disorder. He will address big and important questions:

  • Where did this experience come from?
  • Why did it happen?
  • What does it mean?
  • Was it just a brain thing or are there additional factors to consider?
  • What were the benefits?

We will explore multiple perspectives, including:

  • Biochemical: Extreme states are caused by imbalances in our brains — brought about by factors like overdoses, genetics and diseases.
  • Psychological: Extreme states happen when marginalized experiences, sensations and feelings refuse to be ignored any longer.
  • Field/Physics: Extreme states occur when mainstream society won’t acknowledge its own sense of madness.
  • Teleological: Extreme states are purposeful and are here for the benefit of the broader culture.

John Herold

John Herold is a facilitator, advocate, speaker and trainer from Gig Harbor, Washington. He is the founder and director of Puget Sound Hearing Voices, now in its third year of weekly meetings. John is passionate about spreading non-pathologizing ways of understanding experiences that often get called mental illness. He completed his master’s in Process Work last July and recently received an Inspirational Person Award from Intervoice: The International Hearing Voices Network. Learn more about John at www.johnherold.net and www.pugetsoundhearingvoices.org.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018, 7 – 9 PM
Unite Oregon
700 N. Killingsworth St., Portland, OR
(across from PCC Cascade Campus)
Click here for map

FREE! (Donations Welcome $0 – $20 suggested)
For questions, contact RethinkingPsychiatry@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to download flyer.

Cindi’s Story – A Mother’s Journey to Resilience

Cindi’s Story as a Mother of a Son with Mental Health Struggles.

Cindi shares her experience navigating the mental health system for her son. Cindi was recently honored by NAMI Southwest Washington for her resilience in the face of mental health hurdles she has dealt with when advocating for her son.

View the video on YouTube at youtu.be/o70oFVmPUH4.

Visit NAMI SW WA at namiswwa.org and their Facebook at facebook.com/namiswwa.