“Will Hall has made enormous achievements in bringing hope into the lives of individuals labeled with mental illnesses and advancing the field of disability rights advocacy.”
— National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, Judi Chamberlin Award
“Will Hall helps our world by bringing out a central aspect of diversity: the various ways in which we all think and dream. We need each other’s different ways of feeling, dreaming and thinking to be a community.”
— Arnold Mindell, author of Processmind and founder of Process-Oriented Psychology
“Working with Will Hall as my therapist helped me to realize that I was ultimately the one making decisions about my care. Through my work in therapy sessions with Will, I found the courage to believe in my capacity to make decisions and the strength to move in a direction I had been seeking for many years.”
“From the first meeting on, Will was able to gently bring into my awareness internal conflicts I was having a very hard time grasping or articulating. Each session has been so rewarding, always insightful. Will is a very sharp and sensible therapist. I cannot think of anyone else better suited to help somebody in a crisis or in great need of understanding and emotional support. We met on Skype or over the phone, and I got a lot out of each session. I have acquired new tools to work with and make better sense of my emotions.”
“This group is the first time I have ever been able to talk about my hearing voices with other people. I feel like so much has been lifted off me.”
“Thank you SO much. My husband and I both thought the session was so productive. We’ve been communicating and connecting so much better since. You are great!”
“I want you to know that your training for us was probably the best one I have ever attended. Thank you so much for the work you are doing and your willingness to share your experience and passion.”
“Will you are in my prayers everyday thank god you stopped us from taking him to the hospital that day. My son is more calm now and my hope is greater than before.”
“I have collaborated for more than a decade on different initiatives in the Americas (Argentina, Peru, Mexico) to support the organization of user/survivor groups in these countries. Collaborating with Will has been one of the highlights of the past ten years!”
“Thank you for last night’s workshop — the theory you presented and the way you presented it was just fabulous! I really enjoyed listening to and learning from you, and just loved how you brought forward such complex theories and concepts so effortlessly. Thanks for all you do, really inspired and inspiring.”
“Monday’s event was amazing and I am still digesting the richness of information, the quality of expertise of presenters and the people that attended. Will is amazing, so real and so gracious in sharing his personal experience and his expertise.”
“Thanks so much for your help today. It was great meeting you and very encouraging! My son said, sometime after the session, ‘maybe I CAN recover.’ Wow, he has never said that before, only expressed doubt! So thank you so much! I am glad to know that you are there and that he and/or I can meet with you. You are very good at what you do, thanks again.”
“During an emotionally intense and complicated time Will really helped me sort out some big issues. I was struggling with figuring out my personal violent reactions during fights, my community’s response, accountability, and complicated gender issues. Will compassionately helped me get to the root of a number of these issues”
“Just wanted to share that I am now medication free! I want to thank you for all your help, support, and inspiration.”
“I benefited greatly by being able to meet and sit with you. You and your work have increased the quality of my life tremendously. I am still not taking psychiatric medication. You sitting with me was a critical moment for me and how I understood what happened to me and what to do to take care of myself. I pass the information you gave me to as many as possible. I’m now a licensed psychologist in the state of California and could not have passed the Boards on the cognitively impairing medication that was prescribed to me. I’m amazed at how many positives things happened to me and I owe a great deal to them to meeting you.”
“Thanks Will you have really been a blessing. It’s nice to hear someone’s unbiased opinion. It’s encouraging to think about the future for a change instead of being caught up in the chaotic moment.”
“I facilitate a peer run support group for anxiety and panic sufferers. I have been listening to your show “madness radio” for a few months now, and really enjoy it. You do an excellent job! I really look forward to your new episodes, and appreciate your challenging take on the mental health field. Shows like yours keep me educated and inspired to keep learning about this most mysterious thing called the brain. Keep up the great work.”
“It was great to talk with you Will. I’m grateful for the way you helped me focus into what was important for me. I was able to remind myself to be still and look inward.”
“Will i just want to say how much i appreciate you. Your compassion truly makes a difference in my life and inspires me to want learn to do the same for myself.”
“I regularly listen to Madness Radio and incorporate as much as I can into my classes. Had it not been for your radio station as well as the Beyond Meds website, I may not be here right now, as in working – I could never have held an academic position on so many meds – I was almost at a point of losing my ability to work completely. It is very difficult to find good, alternative information. I do feel blessed that others have traveled this journey before me and could share their experiences.”
“Thank you very much for the great insight you provided me with……or I provided me with, but you had the capacity to bring it to my awareness.”
“I’m an artist and proponent of rights, choices and transparency in the care of one’s well being. I listen to Madness Radio as regularly as I do anything else and I’ve learned from and appreciated every episode I’ve heard. What you’re saying needs to be heard.”
“Thank you for your wonderful talk and presence last night. I especially appreciate the clarity I now have around the impact of the human environment on madness, that it is in fact a systemic disease, not a personal one.”
“There are many things that I like about working with you: you’re present, engaged, and honest– you’re really ‘there’ and I love that! I feel that you care about me and really want my liberation, and that is so different from all my other experiences with people in the ‘helping professions. This in itself is liberating and healing. I also appreciate how you link my own liberation with becoming active in the world…With you I feel I have a chance to learn how to be different in the world!”
“I attended Will’s Trauma, Healing and Spirituality workshop earlier today and it was beyond phenomenal. He’s a truly skillful speaker; informed, insightful and integrated.”
“I have experienced Will’s work, and he advocates for clear-headed thinking and objective decision-making, using all of the information available, and not just that from currently “acceptable” medical model sources.”
“I want to appreciate and thank you for the skilled, sensitive, and experienced way in which you were able to support me in working with a difficult situation involving a client in an extreme state. Your consult allowed for a larger picture to emerge where the focus shifted from helping an individual in crisis to supporting the whole family system. Your approach supports wisdom and trust to emerge even in the most turbulent and painful situations, and I am confident anyone in need of facilitation and support will benefit greatly from your expertise.”
“I had the pleasure of hearing you speak years ago at a legal conference with Bob Whitaker and Jim Gottstein. I’m currently representing a client who has recently come off of antipsychotics after decades on them and is having, unsurprisingly, a difficult time. I came across your Harm Reduction Guide online, and I think it’s terrific. Full of extremely useful information and beautifully put together. Thank you for all your wonderful work in this area.”
“awesome session… I’m still jumping up and down LOL!”
“Last evening I heard you speak at the church. I am e-mailing to share my deep gratitude for the perspective you shared on mental diversity. After completing my rotation as a nursing student on a mental health ward, I was left feeling empty and unsatisfied with the care being provided in the hospital. Your talk inspired me, and my passion for this field has been rejuvenated. I am so thankful to you. I have one more year of nursing school to complete before I will set off into the working world. Although my path as a nurse is still unclear, I hope to integrate your approach into my practice.”
“You are a great inspiration and innovator and I am privileged to have met you. Thank you for leading the way for change in the mental health field.”
“I feel lucky to been pointed in this direction, I feel that you all opened your arms and minds to my situation and story, I believe that things don’t happen by chance, the path that has been shown to me is the right direction for my mind and heart. Thank all of you”
“thank you so much for today….it was very helpful and got me reconnected to myself rather than just floating anxiety. hugs and mucho appreciation…”
“You have no idea how much this has changed my life, I have people that I can call friends, and couldn’t find another bunch to hang out with, I take less medication and handle it ok , because I have people that I would be able to call if I had a problem and a purpose to be here to help out and do a job for. thanx Will”
“I am a student in the psychology class where you gave a talk today. I wanted to thank you for your comments and thoughts. I am really thankful to hear that there is support out there for people that won’t treat people like convicts. I used to share my story in an attempt to show myself that I wasn’t going to be ashamed about what happened. But I had not considered that it might also help other people to not feel ashamed and may help remove the stigma associated with needing some help once in a while. I am glad that a new story is being written.”
“When I came across your article it was a relief, even though it is over 20 years later to encounter someone talking transparently about deficits in the industry, because they are real and have real consequences for people.”
“I recently stumbled across your website, and since being diagnosed in 2016 with Bipolar Disorder (1) I have never felt more empowered, understood, or hopeful as I have since reading your work. In a matter of just a couple days you have provided me with more hope for my future and confidence in my own lived experience than anything else has. And for that, I am utterly grateful.”
“Your advice to sink into the darkness and look around with curiosity has helped me tremendously. I know I’ll never be done with forays into the abyss, and that’s fine. At this point I feel that my focus needs to be the processing and releasing of anger and rage, which, as you pointed out, are the roots of my scary depressive spells.”
“I have been thinking about you, and what an important role you have played in my emergence. I want to thank you for that.”
“Thank you so much for your kind and compassionate support🦋😍”
II use your work ALL the time in my critical perspectives on mental health classes here at the University! (I have about 120 social work students per year). Thank you for your amazing work.”
“Thank you so much for our session today. It was an honor to meet you, and your work is so inspiring.”
“My experience of you has been positive, healing, and amazing. I appreciate learning, growing and being challenged. I am so grateful to have met you.”
“Four people in his church read over 300 sermons and met weekly for a year to determine the most important twenty sermons for the denomination’s theology. Two of those sermons include references to Madness Radio.”
“Thanks so much for that – your perceptions were / are really helpful! I’ll be in touch if I want to set up a session; I just got a whole lot from just your email.”
“Thank you for helping me find the place within me that can stay open-hearted and open-minded.”
“Your guide and your talk really made me understand the process of coming off an anti-psychotic different. Thank you for tackling this very taboo subject.”
“I went from place to place trying to find help but I had no idea what was happening to to me. Finally a friend found Will Hall’s guide to coming off psychiatric medication, and things started clicking for me: this was happening because I had been on Zoloft for a long time, at too high of a dose, when I was too young.”
“You are a wonderful, kind, generous human being. I appreciate you.”
“Thanks for your interview and input at the workshop. Even for the short time it was really worthwhile.”
“You were certainly a highlight in the class. People mentioned you in their end of semester evaluations.”
“Our team working with homeless youth has expressed much gratitude about the time with you!”
“I have been a listener of Madness Radio since 2014 when I first had my breakthrough and was falling victim of psychiatry. Your podcast made me feel less alone in the darkest of moments.”
“I wanted to reach out and thank you for everything you have done. Working together has had a profoundly positive, enriching and healing impact on my life. You have been an extremely important person in my life and I am grateful to you.”
“I participated in your talk in the city of Curitiba here in Brazil, I loved your life story, incredible how you overcame a very difficult situation in your life. You’re fantastic Will, an incredible human being. thanks for existing.”
“Last session was really helpful and a little bit of independence and individual drive seems to be proving to be one of the secrets to a sustainable and rewarding relationship for us, so thanks a lot Will.”
“Hi Will, thank you for your kind, gentle, energizing presence today.”
“You are so good with spirit medicine, inner sight work, and a great listener and very insightful.”
“I want to thank you, again, for making time to talk with me last month. It was invaluable, even for my son who only was able to watch the recorded portion.”
“I hold you in very high regard and often quote you from the work you’ve done! Thank you very much for helping me heal. I live in Australia and actually met you once in the chill out room at the hearing voices congress in Melbourne a few years back. Thanks again!”
“Thank you for being my cheerleader. I’ve been thinking about how grateful I am for our connection.”
“Thank you for your book “Outside Mental Health”. It made me feel such a sense of community as I began to read it, a feeling I haven’t had before, and it felt so good. In the middle I was taken in for involuntary commitment for a week, but now that I’m back, I continue reading it and it has even more meaning to me. Thank you for all that you do.”
“Thanks for your encouragement two years ago. It was a long and difficult journey, but SOOOO worth it.”
“I would like to thank you again for an interesting an inspiring workshop. Since then I feel a change in my understanding and approach.”
“Thank you for the amazing work you are doing in his world. You offer hope and invaluable information during experiences which can feel hopeless.”
“That was a great talk that you delivered yesterday. What a trip regarding your cryptic cameo in Michael Pollan’s book! Glad I got the chance to hear you unfurl the large underbelly of that brief passage.”
“Counseling sessions with you have really sustained me as I’ve been supporting my son. Thank you.”
“Sending hug from Croatia — p.s. you get lots of mentions and accolades over here, you have affected a lot of people in a very positive way.”
“Thank you for the psychosis & psychedelics event yesterday! It felt to me like a very important message for the world to hear. As always, your vulnerability and insight moved me and inspired me.”
“Even though we only had a few sessions, they gave me a lot to think about and work towards over the past couple months. My time with you was my first interaction with therapy and it was/has been extremely helpful.”
“Thank you so much for participating in the event, as you know, I have received rave reviews about your intervention.”
“My friend whose family I sent your way said that you were such an amazing help to them at such a crucial time. I’m so glad you were able to meet up with them and support.”
“I did want to follow up and say thanks for presenting at the conference this year. I thought your message was strong and well received.”
“I’ve taken psychiatric drugs for about 10 years of my life. After reading your guide on the effects of psychiatric drugs I fell in love with it. Literally. I’ve never read anything that is so comprehensive and compelling.“
“It was so great meeting you last night. Thank you for agreeing to come and speak at our event. You did a fabulous job in both disarming and standing your ground. The audience truly appreciated your deep knowledge/experience as well as your wit.”
“This from my colleague: “Panel tonight was terrific. Will Hall is a genius.”
“Damn that preface to Outside Mental Health is powerful Will. Congratulations on transcending your struggles and transforming them into something inspirational, that can help others.”
“I just read your article in the Turning Wheel Buddhist Magazine, “The Freedom to Sit”. I want to thank you. What a gift you have and give to articulate so beautifully your experiences, in an area that so needs more attention in our culture.”
“Thank you again for taking the time to speak to me back when you did as I know you must be very busy. It helped me to have you speak up for me as some parts of me were ganging up on me. I hope someday to have the necessary skills to work with you or people like you to make a difference in the movement.”
“Thanks so much for the call today. Talking to you was very inspiring and uplifting for us. I really appreciate you.”
“I cried and cried on hearing your interview with Dabney Alix on Shades of Aawakening- you were the first person to validate psychosis as a form of shamanic awakening- which is how I experienced it and for that I am SO grateful.”
“I really enjoyed our meeting yesterday; I hadn’t realized how much I needed to talk with someone and I found your suggestions very helpful. Thanks again for a great session.”
“Thank you so much for listening to us and sharing some really helpful advice on wednesday. You and your story are such an inspiration.”
“Experiencing your perspective and seeing how much care and thought you put into your work really impacted me. It was actually your work that introduced me to Processwork and started me on my path.”
“I have a huge amount of respect for the way you are in the world and the work you do. I often meet people whose lives have been changed by your work and the communities you have helped create.”
“My son had nothing but praise for the time you and he spent on the phone and it was exactly what he needed. You did for him what I could not. You provided him lived experience knowledge that says he will heal. And letting him know that getting off the benzos was the right move was HUGE. And for that I thank you.”
