A collection of resources on dialogic practice and Open Dialogue

Madness Radio interview with Mary Olson on Open Dialog

Open Dialogue — Alternative Care for Psychosis In Finland Developed By Jaakko Seikkula

Open Dialogue: A Documentary by Daniel Mackler

Open Dialogue: a documentary on a Finnish alternative approach to healing psychosis

Finnish Open Dialogue: High recovery rates leave many psychiatric beds empty

Mill River Institute, training center in Open Dialogue and Dialogic Practice in Massachusetts directed by Mary Olson

The Open Dialogue Approach to Psychosis: Its poetics and micropolitics

Inner and outer voices in the present moment of family and network therapy

Family and Network Therapy Training for a System of Care: “A Pedagogy of Hope:”

Book Chapter on Scandinavia / Finland Approach to Psychosis

Mental Health Trialogue Network, Ireland

Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics, by G. Morson & C. Emerson

Family Therapy: An Intimate History, by Lynn Hoffman

Steam of Life film – Finnish men and saunas

With the help of Portland visionary colleagues Kent Bye, Jen Gouvea, and Jonathan Marrs I produced a short introductory video of me describing coming off psychiatric drugs. The approach is drawn from my Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, which can be downloaded for free here: http://willhall.net/comingoffmeds

This video provides some basic guidance for anyone considering reducing or coming off psychiatric medications and their supporters, which is discussed in greater detail in the Harm Reduction Guide. This video and Guide are in the spirit of peer support and mutual aid for educational purposes, and not medical advice. (While everyone is different, coming off medications, especially abruptly, can sometimes be dangerous. Seek support when possible and use caution.)

You can contact me at http://www.willhall.net Please share this video; it’s Creative Commons copyright 2011 BY-NC-ND and the url is here: http://youtu.be/O4bdG601k4k

The Icarus Project and Freedom Center’s 40-page guide gathers the best information we’ve come across and the most valuable lessons we’ve learned about reducing and coming off psychiatric medication. Includes info on mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, risks, benefits, wellness tools, psychiatric drug withdrawal, information for people staying on their medications, detailed Resource section, and much more. A ‘harm reduction’ approach means not being pro- or anti-medication, but supporting people to make their own decisions balancing the risks and benefits involved. Written by Will Hall, with a 14-member health professional Advisory Board providing research assistance and 24 other collaborators involved in developing and editing. The guide has photographs and art throughout, and a beautiful original cover painting by Ashley McNamara.

Download a .pdf to read below. It is also easy to use the printer version to print and fold into a booklet (instructions below) for yourself.

You can also print multiple copies to distribute, or send to a print shop for color copies and stapling.

Available in Spanish… Disponible en Castellano/ Espanol.

Available in German.

Available in Greek.

Note that the guide is Creative Commons copyright and you are free to copy and distribute for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the source and don’t alter it.

Download and read the Guide.

Download a printer version, with scrambled pages ready to fold.

Download simple assembly instructions for the printer version.

Read about the making of the Guide.

Video on Coming Off Medications with Will Hall on YouTube

Audio talk on Coming Off Medications from 2009 Hearing Voices Congress

Article by on “Addressing Non-adherence to Antipsychotic Medication: a Harm-Reduction Approach” in the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing