Okay, that's an ambiguous blog post title. What am I still at? I'd like to say writing my novel, but I've been getting distracted again. It's about ten months since publication of 'The Dark Threads' but I'm 'still at it' trying to make people aware of my book who just might find it interesting or useful. Although it is mainly aimed at the 'general' reader, I've been told it would also be excellent for teaching purposes on mental health courses. So . . .
I've been contacting universities all over the UK, trying to convince course leaders that my book is just what their students on mental health courses need. Actually I'm sounding a bit flippant now, but this isn't just about my book. I do honestly believe that students in training to become mental health professionals would benefit from an understanding of how it feels to be on the receiving end of treatment. They have enough dry and stuffy textbooks to read, written by professional experts who have the theories. The perspectives and 'lived through' experiences of both current and former patients are often missing, and much needed. Fortunately, it seems that nowadays some course leaders fully agree. I'm delighted at the positive responses I've received so far.
But it's all very time consuming. My novel is taking a back seat again, though hopefully not for too long.
click on image for details
About Me
- Jean
- Hi, I'm Jean. I'm fifty-something, married to Ian, and live in West Yorkshire. I'm a writer, and part-time mental health worker. My memoir 'The Dark Threads' is published by Accent Press. As a mixed-up, depressed teenager in 1968 I was heavily drugged, given electric shock treatment, reduced to a zombie and, by age 20, 'written off' as suffering from chronic schizophrenia (a misdiagnosis, evidence suggests). I managed to jump out of the net in 1974 and went on to build up a life for myself. Today life is good, good, good. I have a first-class BA (Hons) degree in Combined Studies (literature and psychology), and qualifications in counselling skills. 'The Dark Threads' is my first book. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Threads-Jean-Davison/dp/1906373590
2 comments:
Having just come off one of those University course (an Integrative Counselling MA), I can't say I fully agree. Maybe it's because of 'counselling' in the title, but I found on the whole that the course did not in any way gear us up as clinicians for dealing with mental health in the Big Bad (Good?) DSM-IV world out there. If anything, counselling courses still seem to be run on the notion that a good dose of empathy and some cathartic exploration will get those suffering from mental distress through it all. I would have loved you to have come in and given us a talk...
Hello Steve, I agree that empathy (though important), and cathartic exploration, is often not enough to get people through. Different approaches might work for different people. In an ideal world there would be a range of options, but, especially in the current economic climate, I know this isn't possible.
Well, I'm off back over to Prozacville to look at some more of your images. I like your blog.
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