NYAPRS Note: NYAPRS is proud to be partnering with the Hearing Voices Network of the Lower Hudson Valley to offer this free webinar. Learn more about how this experiential process of self- and community- discovery explores voices, visions, and other personal experiences.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The recently formed Hearing Voices Network of the Lower Hudson Valley Region (HVN-LHV) is a grassroots initiative working to introduce to our community an innovative, self-led support for individuals who hear voices and have other unusual or extreme sensory perceptions, such as seeing visions.
Hearing Voices challenges the stigma around such experiences by offering a supportive environment free from judgment or the assumption of illness. Hearing Voices groups offer people who have had such experiences the opportunity to understand, learn, and grow from them together. The effectiveness of the Hearing Voices approach is well documented in the research literature, and growing numbers of peers and mental health providers on three continents are incorporating Hearing Voices principles into their work. HVN-LHV has grown from collaboration among CHOICE of NY, The Empowerment Center, Human Development Services of Westchester (HDSW), New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, Inc. (NYAPRS), The Mental Health Association of Westchester (MHA), The Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health, and Westchester Independent Living Center (WILC).
Please join us for our February 18 free webinar to learn about the Hearing Voices approach, how it may provide a support and recovery tool for yourself, a loved one, or someone with whom you work, as well as a plan to establish HVN groups in Westchester and Putnam Counties beginning this spring. The webinar, “Living with Voices – A Different Perspective: Creating a Hearing Voices Network in the Lower Hudson Valley” will be held on Wednesday, February, 18, 2015, 1:00 -2:00 PM. The discussion, moderated by Jeremy Reuling of MHA Westchester, will feature presenters Lisa Forestell, Director of Community Supports, Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community (RLC) and Marty Hadge, Peer Facilitator at RLC and a trainer for Hearing Voices Network USA. Lisa and Marty will provide an introduction to the Hearing Voices approach and share their experience with bringing Hearing Voices groups to their own community as well as facilitating efforts elsewhere.
You must register for the webinar in advance; please do so at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/728483992292901121
Please share information about this webinar with anyone whom you think would be interested. If you’d like to learn about the Hearing Voices approach prior to the webinar, we recommend the following on-line resources:
For a very moving personal account of the power of The Hearing Voices approach please also see Eleanor Longden’s TED Talk, which has been viewed nearly 3 million times online:
www.ted.com/talks/eleanor_longden_the_voices_in_my_head?language=en
Sincerely,
Hearing Voices Network of the Lower Hudson Valley