Ron started the day by analysing what a voice hearer is and how they are perceived. This included a low down on what and how voice hearers have to deal with during their lives, and then getting the audience to diagnose what those feelings are, and several notifiable mental illnesses were forthcoming, predominantly Schizophrenia. He made it plainly evident that this was not indeed the case. What voice hearers experience is not a mental illness as such, but a gift. He then went on to highlight how cultures such as the Aborigine, Maori, and Indian (First Peoples - Sioux) deal with voice hearers and brought to bear that western medicine has no understanding of a truly marvelous phenomenon. During his workshop he was dealing with "Christina", a middle aged Maori woman who hears voices, and he taught her a technique to use to banish her most serious voice for periods of time. This was highly enlightening and beneficial to all.
Ron is an often funny character and uses humour widely in his presentation, and several scenarios were presented that highlighted how to deal with voice hearers from a clinical perspective, and how he works with clients. If you get to see him, look forward to the nightclub story.
I'd recommend that voice hearers, people who work with and alongside them, and those that work in the "system" get along to one of his seminars or read any of his books and get a taste of a truly inspirational man committed to the way we treat and manage voice hearers. I'm about to start work as a moderator of a voice hearers group (held every first Friday of the month) and will be using my previous voice hearing experience and what I gained from Ron to help the group find it's feet and voice.
I don't normally do point out of ten, but for Ron Coleman I'm prepared to go as far as saying 12 out of 10.
I wouldn't know how to distinguish between the voices of the people past and those that are imaginary
ReplyDeleteIf you answer to them both then you have no distinction, they are real voices.
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