Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer and activist with 30 years' experience of working with people who have faced trauma and adversity. She challenges the medicalisation of emotional distress and advocates for approaches that reject the pathologising of people and communities. Jo is founder of the Facebook group Drop the Disorder! and co-founder of A Disorder for Everyone (AD4E) (adisorder4everyone.com). Jo is also a founding member of Mad in the UK (madintheuk.com), an affiliate of the website Mad in America, which serves as a catalyst for fundamentally re-thinking theory and practice in the field of mental health in the UK and promoting positive change. Jo is the editor of Drop the Disorder!: Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis (PCCS Books, 2018) and We are the change-makers: Poems supporting drop the disorder (PCCS Books, 2020).
In October 2016 Jo Watson hosted the very first ‘A Disorder for Everyone!’ event in Birmingham, with psychologist Dr Lucy Johnstone, to explore (and explode) the culture of psychiatric diagnosis in mental health. To provide a space to continue the debate after the event, Jo also set up the now hugely popular and active Facebook group ‘Drop the…
This is a unique collection of poems written by and for people who have survived our mental health system and the diagnostic process that is used to categorise and treat mental and emotional distress. In October 2016, Jo Watson launched A Disorder for Everyone (AD4E) – an international campaign to challenge the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and the labelling of…