"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Exploring the culture of psychiatric diagnosis, creating change.
With Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson & Jo McFarlane

This one day Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event is for everyone who is interested in the current debates around mental health. It aims to attract psychologists, counsellors, service users, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, people with lived experience, managers and individuals with a personal interest.
Facilitated by Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson & Jo McFarlane. It is a chance to discuss the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model in mental health.
Lucy Johnstone will summarise current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help clients to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.

About Lucy
Dr Lucy Johnstone is a UK clinical psychologist, trainer, speaker and writer, and a long-standing critic of biomedical model psychiatry. She has worked in adult mental health settings for many years, alternating with academic posts. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate, a highly regarded course which was based on a critical, politically-aware and service-user informed philosophy, along with an emphasis on personal development.
Lucy has authored a number of books, (including 'Users and Abusers of Psychiatry, 2nd edn 2000) articles and chapters on topics such as psychiatric diagnosis, formulation, the psychological effects of ECT, and the role of trauma in breakdown.
Lucy was a contributor to the Division of Clinical Psychology 'Position Statement on Classification' 2013. She is currently convening a group of leading UK clinical psychologists and mental health experts who are working to develop an evidence-based and conceptually coherent alternative to the current diagnostic systems.
Her new book, A Straight-Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis, is available via the link below
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1906254664/
https://www.madinamerica.com/author/ljohnstone/
Twitter - @ClinpsychLucy

About Jo
Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, trainer and activist with a professional history the rape crisis movement of the 1990's. She has worked therapeutically for the last 20 years with people who have experienced trauma. Jo actively challenges the biomedical model in mental health both inside and outside of her work and links distress and mental ill health to psycho-social causes. (Trauma, oppression, lack of positive attachment etc)
Jo believes that in many cases the identification with a ‘diagnosis’ is damaging and counterproductive to a satisfactory healing process and that alternative understandings should be offered.
Jo founded the facebook group 'Drop The Disorder' in September 2016 as a place where the issues surrounding the biomedical model can be discussed. Jo is orgainising and promoting "A Disorder For Everyone!" with Lucy which is presently making its way around the UK!
“For me at the very core of the therapeutic process is the telling of personal stories, the naming and acknowledgment of experience. It is, fundamentally a process of making sense of distress in a relationship that feels affirming, safe and containing. Why then are many counsellors and therapists seemingly accepting the movement towards labels and diagnosis that too often negate the experiences that clients have had. What impact is this having on therapeutic practice, on us as professionals and on the clients we work with? Surely this is a discussion that we need to have.” ( Jo )
www.jowatsonpsychotherapy.co.uk Twitter - @JWpsychotherapy

About Jo McFarlane
Jo is an Edinburgh based spoken word poet, activist and author. Jo has written exensively about her lived experience. Jo performs spoken word pieces and speaks about her experience of diagnosis.
Jo McFarlane  - Poet
Poet & activist Jo McFarlane opening the Birmingham event with a powerful spoken word performance....

This event was piloted in Birmigham in October 2016
Click here to view photos and a slideshow of the amazing first event!
Read about how this event came about in Jo's article 'Get off the Sofa!'

What people said:-

"The whole day has been a transformative experience. I have always been uncomfortable with labels but felt I had to go along with it. Now I feel empowered to offer the people I work with the option at least to explore alternative ways of understanding their pain." (Participant on Birmingham course)
"Lucy's straight forward, commonsense approach was just what I needed at the moment. Her message is simple: Listen to people, to their stories and help them make their own sense about their lives" (Participant on Birmingham course)
"I feel like I am at the beginning of an exciting and liberating journey. Thank you Lucy" (Participant on Birmingham course)