Entries by Brigid Bowen

Sofa so Good by Crystal Jeans

I used to wonder why all my close friends were mentally ill, addicted to something or both. Why did I attract them? Was I co-dependent? Possibly. Did I have such a low self esteem that I didn’t think myself capable or deserving of having regular, healthy friends? Could be. Was it because I found them to be more […]

Creating a new voice by Indigo Daya

What happened when compassion replaced clinical objectivity, and creativity replaced compliance.   One morning in 2009 I was sitting in the psych ward, working on a plan to kill myself. I was made an involuntary psychiatric patient following a rather extreme type of self-harm, even for me. My home had been rushed by police, ambulance […]

Gofal gives their support

This World Mental Health Day, we’re really happy to announce that Welsh mental health and wellbeing charity Gofal are sponsoring Compassionate Approaches to Mental Health. Their support will enable us to offer a limited number of tickets at £35.

The Open in Open Dialogue by Tom Stockmann

Open in Open Dialogue refers to two different but linked concepts. One is transparency. No decisions about the person in distress are made outside of the network meetings, and within this setting the clinicians openly discuss their observations. The clinicians are part of the polyphony – they are ‘with, not doing to’.

Non-Violent Communication by Rufus May

I want to tell you about a magical tool I use particularly for navigating challenging situations. It’s called Non violent communication (NVC). It’s a way of understanding and communicating that I’ve found particularly useful in situations of conflict. I’ve hyped it up in the first sentence as a magical tool, but (like all useful things) […]