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PACFA can contribute to this: let’s collaborate 

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PACFA can contribute to this: let’s collaborate 

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Have Your Say - National Mental Health Commission

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Have Your Say - National Mental Health Commission

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Stay informed by joining Have Your Say - National Mental Health Commission

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~ Circular, Relational, Community, Nature-based ~

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What's PACFA's role in relation to individuals and communities with lived experience?

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What's PACFA's role in relation to individuals and communities with lived experience?

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Relational? Presence? Here-and-now? Meaning-making? Inside-out expression? Creating safe spaces for people to be themselves?

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Language, labels and it's role in access to support 

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Language, labels and it's role in access to support 

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Coming as you are. Connection through Deep Listening.

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Coming as you are. Connection through Deep Listening.

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How about something like this:

PACFA members are Allied Health Professionals who provide therapeutic, relational care that supports mental, social and emotional wellbeing through Indigenous healing practices, and talking, creative and experiential therapies.

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C.CET on Arts, Creativity and Wellbeing 

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PACFA’s College of Creative and Experiential Therapies contribution to the development of new National Cultural Policy.

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Michael Flood: Family violence prevention

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Michael Flood: Family violence prevention

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“The Politics of Mental Health” - map of day 3, PACFA Safety through diversity conference. Carla van Laar, 17.11.2022.

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“The Politics of Mental Health” - map of day 3, PACFA Safety through diversity conference. Carla van Laar, 17.11.2022.

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How does being here today impact our practice and our association?

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How does being here today impact our practice and our association?

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Radical compassion

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Free Conference with the Mental Health Professionals Network 

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Free Conference with the Mental Health Professionals Network 

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PACFA Festival of Ideas Day 3: The politics of mental health in Australia

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PACFA Festival of Ideas Day 3: The politics of mental health in Australia

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The focus of this day is on clarifying where all forms of psychotherapy, counselling, relationship counselling,counsellingtraining,Indigenoushealingpracticesandotherformsofpsychotherapeutic practice fit within Australia's health and mental healthsystems.

Collaborators and participants will explore what differentiates our well-established professions from other well-established professions in mental health; and consider how these diverse professions can meet the current and future needs of society without losing the essence of who we are and what wedo.
Download Day 3 Run Sheet
Nigel Polak M. Counselling & Psychotherapy
he/him Nigel is a psychotherapist in private practice working with individuals, couples, groups, and supervisees online and in person in Coffs Harbour. He is an academic teacher and supervisor in the School of Counselling at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. As founding Secretary of the Victorian Association for Restorative Justice, and having been Secretary of key community organisations in the wake of the Black Saturday Bushfires, he brings more than 20 years of experience leading diverse volunteer organisations. Having had prior careers as a Solicitor, Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and mediator, he also brings knowledge of the law, corporate governance and diverse industry experience to his role on the Board. Nigel served for a number of years with the PACFA Victorian Branch, continues to sit on the College of Counselling Leadership Group, and also serves as Convenor of the PACFA 2022 "Safety in Therapy" Conference Committee. He lives in Bellingen, NSW, where he enjoys cycling, ocean swimming, learning to surf and spending time with his partner and three growing boys.

Rachel Friebel is a counsellor and clinical supervisor based in Adelaide, SA. Rachel has a background in community services, including program management and leadership. She has enjoyed working as part of multidisciplinary teams and gaining exposure to a number of different areas within community services, affording her a wholistic view of client support. Rachel has worked as a generalist counsellor and educator in Family and Relationship Programs, Mental Health and currently works in both private practice and an organisational setting. Rachel has broad counselling experience and works both face to face and online. Rachel is interested in supporting the provision of high quality, inclusive, ethical and accessible counselling services in Australian communities.

Elisabeth Shaw BA (Hons) M.Mgt. (Comm) MCFT; MProf Ethics, FAPS (FCCOUNP; FCCLP); GAICD.
she/her

CEO, Relationships Australia New South Wales

Elisabeth is a clinical and counselling psychologist with extensive experience in relationships services.
Having invested in further skill development in management and professional ethics, she spent 15 years in her own business providing supervision to clinicians in child protection, drug and alcohol, sexual assault, women's health, disability and general counselling services, executive coaching to not for profit and public sector leaders, and consultation in relation to professional ethics to industry bodies.

Since 2017 Elisabeth has been Chief Executive Office at Relationships Australia NSW, where she has led the promotion and provision of high quality, relationship support services to meet the needs of vulnerable Australians. She continues to teach, consult and coach within the sector, and maintains a small clinical practice.
Elisabeth has taught in Masters programs at ACU, UNSW and Newcastle universities in areas of clinical practice, management and professional ethics, and routinely presents and publishes work in these areas.

She is a senior consultant at The Ethics Centre, an executive coach within the Vincent Fairfax ethical leadership program, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and holds a number of board roles. She has been a previous member of the PACFA Board and was previously chair of ethics for both PACFA and the APS.

Johanna de Wever
she/her

Johanna has worked in advocacy, media and communications for health and welfare organisations for nearly 20 years. Most recently, as General Manager, Advocacy and Leadership, at the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia, she has led advocacy around medicine shortages and opioid harm resulting in legislative and policy change.
At the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists she successfully advocated for greater awareness of the life expectancy of people with serious mental illness, leading to physical health and mortality being included as priority areas in the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan.
These projects demonstrate her outstanding advocacy skills and passion for mental health and high-quality healthcare. Johanna is excited about the opportunity to continue her career with professional associations by joining PACFA, and she's looking forward to promoting the expertise of counsellors and psychotherapists as allied health professionals.
Johanna has also worked in not-for-profits and publishing companies in communications roles organising publicity for the likes of Edward de Bono, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Nawal El Saadawi, Doris Kartinyeri and Botswana's first female High Court Judge Unity Dow.

Adrian Holmes

Adrian Holmes is a counsellor, author and educator based in Brisbane, Australia. Adrian has been working in the human services field for many years and is currently completing PhD research on mental health and social policy in Australia and overseas. Adrian co-founded and manages the training and supervision organisation Tools For Hard Conversations and released his first book Tools For Hard Conversations in the Helping Professions in 2020. It is now the preferred text book for a number of university courses and has become a valued resource for human services workers who want to work in helpful ways outside of the dominant medical model.

Denis O'Hara

Dr Denis O'Hara is Program Director of the Master of Counselling at the University of Queensland, Director of the Hope Research and Practice Institute and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University and the University of the Sunshine coast. Dr O'Hara is a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society and member of the Psychotherapist and Counsellors Federation of Australia. His is research active and as part of his university role provides research supervision for higher degree students. His research interests include hope studies, psychotherapy integration, self-differentiation, trauma and chronic problems of the self. Denis maintains a small private counselling and supervision practice and regularly presents professional development seminars.

Lisa Mosel ey, nee O'Beirne

I was born in Western Victoria, on Gunditjmara land, and now live and work in Eastern Melbourne, on Woi Wurrung-Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Lands. I attended La Trobe, RMIT and Monash Universities; the foundation for psychotherapeutic work includes Bachelor of Behavioural Science and Masters of Creative Arts Therapy and Social Work. I have worked with individuals and families across all stages of life, mostly in community health but also education and detention settings. My PhD (2005-2012) integrated Narrative Therapy and Creative Arts Therapy approaches for community-based psychosocial recovery for people living with psychiatric diagnoses. Since 2016, my focus has been on trauma-related mental health recovery with people of refugee background, with continued efforts to integrate multidisciplinary theories that promote a person-centred approach. I am a PACFA registered counsellor and supervisor and participate as a leadership team-member for the new PACFA College of Creative and Experiential Therapies.

Janel is an experienced Arts Therapist and Peer Support Worker, having used her skills of listening, intuition and creativity to walk alongside people for several years. Janel values connection, empathy, and curiosity. Living on Bunurong Land, Victoria, she is passionate about creating safe spaces for people, by utilising the creative arts and trauma informed practices.

From a young age, Janel has utilised the creative arts as a way of expression and making meaning. After studying a Bachelor in Performing Arts (Monash), Janel travelled as a stage manager, theatre maker and performer, across Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. She went on to study a Masters of Therapeutic Arts (MIECAT) where she practiced all forms of arts in therapeutic spaces (such as visual arts, performing arts, movement, voice, sound, creative writing etc).

Janel has worked and volunteered in mentoring and facilitation for over 6 years. She has also volunteered as a Pregnancy Support Worker, supporting mothers throughout their pregnancy and post-partum. Currently working as a Lived/Living Experience Peer Support Worker at Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (VMIAC), Janel uses her experiences to form mutual connections and self-advocacy. Janel also companions people in her private practice, which offers Arts Therapy and Peer Support.

Amber Rules
she/her

She is the Director and Founder of Amber Rules is a psychotherapist, clinical counsellor, group therapist, clinical supervisor and mental health facilitator. Rough Patch, an affordable counselling service that uses an innovative social enterprise model to make counselling more accessible and affordable, without relying on government funding. She is also the Clinical Director of Sydney Addictions Recovery, a specialist counselling service supporting individuals and families impacted by substance and behavioural addictions.

Carla is a Clinical PACFA member and accredited supervisor. She is an Artist and Creative Arts Therapist based in Boon Wurrung Country, Inverloch, Victoria. She brings decades of experience working with people and the arts for well-being in community, justice, health, education and private practice contexts.
Experiential ways of knowing underpin Carla's therapeutic work, including embodied attunement and arts-based responding, informed by trauma-centred, strengths-based, existential and narrative approaches. She loves to share creative practices as ways of knowing and being.
Carla's book Bereaved Mother's Heart (2007) broke social taboos about maternal grief. Seeing her Stories (2020) presents Carla's research into making Women's stories visible through art. Her most recent publication is "Art Therapy First Aid: Growing Capacity with Art Therapists in Communities Affected by Australian Bushfires" (in Scarce, J. (Ed.) 2022).
An educator in the field of Creative Art Therapy since 2001, Carla received an Artist Fellowship at RMIT's creative research lab, "Creative Agency" in 2018. She is a lead campaigner in the ACTivate Arts Therapy collective and Founding Director of the Creative Mental Health Forum. Carla insists on being part of a creative revolution in which art re-embodies lived experience, brings us to our senses, makes us aware of the interconnectedness of all life and is an agent of social change.

Dr Cathy Bettman
she/her

Cathy has lectured and practiced counselling in diverse contexts for over 20 years. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at The University of Notre Dame. She also supervises students, interns and practitioners in clinical and research settings. For her PhD, Cathy conducted a qualitative research study in the area of domestic violence. Her thesis was entitled: 'Patriarchy: The Predominant Discourse and Font of Domestic Violence.' This study resulted in her achieving a reputation as a feminist researcher (although she prefers her philosophical stance to be understood as more inclusive). Having been trained in humanistic and systemic frameworks, she embraces social constructivist, constructionist and dialogical paradigms.

Elizabeth Nagy
she/her

Elizabeth Nagy is a senior counsellor and psychotherapist who works alongside people who have experienced trauma, loss and grief, painful transitions and end of life experiences. She works in the Rough Patch community of practice supporting clients with a variety of experiences and presentations.

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The focus of this day is on clarifying where all forms of psychotherapy, counselling, relationship counselling,counsellingtraining,Indigenoushealingpracticesandotherformsofpsychotherapeutic practice fit within Australia's health and mental healthsystems. Collaborators and participants will explore what differentiates our well-established professions from other well-established professions in mental health; and consider how these diverse professions can meet the current and future needs of society without losing the essence of who we are and what wedo.

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Mental Health Practitioner applications are currently on hold. Fill in this form to be placed on a waiting list for when applications re-open.

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Accredited Mental Health Social Workers (AMHSWs) are recognised providers with Medicare Australia and other programs, delivering clinical social work services in mental health settings and utilising a range of evidence-based strategies.

AMHSWs work with people across the lifespan (including children, adults and older persons) and provide a unique contribution to the mental health space in their holistic approach to working with a person. The advanced training that is expected of AMHSW prepares and provides them with the skills for working with people with very complex presentations and co-morbidities. AMHSWs are highly trained and educated professionals, meeting some of the highest standards of professional regulation in Australia.

Find a social worker near you.

The Federal Government recognises the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) as an assessing authority of specialist mental health expertise. AASW members may lodge an application with AASW for an assessment.

Accredited Mental Health Social Workers have a breadth of experience in assessing and treating people who have mental health disorders, for example people with:

They help individuals to resolve presenting psychological problems, the associated social and other environmental problems, and improve their quality of life. This may involve family as well as individual counselling, and group therapy. Social workers recognise the broader implications of an individual having a mental illness and the impact on friends, family, work and education.

Like other allied health professionals, such as psychologists, Accredited Mental Health Social Workers use a range of interventions in helping people with mental health disorders, including the following focussed psychological strategies:

Cognitive behavioural therapy

Behavioural interventions

Cognitive interventions

Relaxation strategies

Skills training

Problem solving

Anger management

Social skills

Stress management

Parenting skills

Interpersonal therapy

Psycho-education (including Motivational Interviewing)

Narrative therapy

Accredited Mental Health Social Workers Qualifications, skills and experience

Learn more about the skills, training and experience of Accredited Mental Health Social Workers by accessing our recently published report.

AMHSW Brochures

Accredited Mental Health Social Worker Trade Mark

The Accredited Mental Health Social Worker Collective Trade Mark is also a gold standard in professional recognition.

Use of this trade mark is exclusively available and restricted to members of the AASW who have been assessed by the AASW, on behalf of the Australian Government, as meeting the standards to become an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker.

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Accredited Mental Health Social Workers (AMHSWs) are recognised providers with Medicare Australia and other programs, delivering clinical social work services in mental health settings and utilising a range of evidence-based strategies. AMHSWs work with people across the lifespan (including children, adults and older persons) and provide a unique contribution to the mental health space in their holistic approach to working with a person.

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The Zone of Fabulousness: A person-centred approach to "Burnout"

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The Zone of Fabulousness: A person-centred approach to "Burnout"

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Lived experience co-production in mental health

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Lived experience co-production in mental health

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The Role of Co-production in Recovery-oriented Approaches to Mental Health

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Wayapa® is an earth connection practice that is based on ancient Indigenous wisdom that focuses on taking care of the Earth as the starting point for creating Earth Mind Body Spirit well-being.

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Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Framework (Vic)

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Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Framework (Vic)

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Mental health lived experience engagement framework

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The framework guides policy makers to engage more meaningfully with people who have experienced mental illness and/or emotional issues, and those who care for them.

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This year has been an especially nightmarish one for psychiatry defenders.

Receiving widespread attention in the mainstream media was the July 2022 article " The Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Evidence," published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. In it, Joanna Moncrieff, co-chairperson of the Critical Psychiatry Network, and her co-researchers examined hundreds of different types of studies that attempted to detect a relationship between depression and serotonin, and concluded that there is no evidence of a link between low levels of serotonin and depression, stating: "We suggest it is time to acknowledge that the serotonin theory of depression is not empirically substantiated."

Psychiatry apologists tried to convince the general public that Moncrieff's findings were not newsworthy, as psychiatrist David Hellerstein, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and director of Columbia's Depression Evaluation Service, attempted to belittle Moncrieff in this manner: "Wow, next she'll tackle the discrediting of the black bile theory of depression." However, given the reality that the vast majority of society had heard nothing from psychiatry about the discarding of this serotonin theory of depression, what followed has been public mockery of psychiatry and its Big Pharma partners for their duplicity.

Then, in August of 2022, receiving less attention was an even more devastating blow to psychiatry, so damaging and so indefensible that psychiatry's only response was to ignore it. Published in the journal Neuron, Raymond Dolan-considered one of the most influential neuroscientists in the world-co-authored " Functional Neuroimaging in Psychiatry and the Case for Failing Better," concluding, "Despite three decades of intense neuroimaging research, we still lack a neurobiological account for any psychiatric condition."

Reflecting on the more than 16,000 neuroimaging articles published during the last 30 years, Dolan and his co-authors concluded: "It remains difficult to refute a critique that psychiatry's most fundamental characteristic is its ignorance. . . . Casting a cold eye on the psychiatric neuroimaging literature invites a conclusion that despite 30 years of intense research and considerable technological advances, this enterprise has not delivered a neurobiological account (i.e., a mechanistic explanation) for any psychiatric disorder, nor has it provided a credible imaging-based biomarker of clinical utility."

So in 2022, research reviews published in prestigious journals have made it clear that there is no neurobiological evidence-no chemical imbalance, no brain structure evidence-for any psychiatric condition.

But that's not the end of psychiatry's 2022 nightmare.

From one of the most prominent establishment psychiatrists in the world, we heard in 2022 that the DSM (psychiatry's diagnostic manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association) lacks validity. Thomas Insel, when National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director in 2013, had quietly stated in his NIMH blog that the DSM's diagnostic categories lack validity, and he announced that "NIMH will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories"; then, in 2022, he informed the general public about DSM invalidity in his book Healing, which has received mainstream media attention. In this book, Insel states: "The DSM had created a common language, but much of that language had not been validated by science." In plain language, Insel is calling the DSM, in a scientific sense, bullshit.

In 2022, increasing numbers of Americans also heard about psychiatry's abysmal treatment outcome record. Insel, as NIMH director in 2011, had quietly acknowledged: "Whatever we've been doing for five decades, it ain't working. And when I look at the numbers-the number of suicides, number of disabilities, mortality data-it's abysmal, and it's not getting any better." In 2021, the New York Times concluded that psychiatry had done "little to improve the lives of the millions of people living with persistent mental distress. Almost every measure of our collective mental health-rates of suicide, anxiety, depression, addiction deaths, psychiatric prescription use-went the wrong direction, even as access to services expanded greatly." And in 2022, in Healing, Insel repeated to the general public what he had previously acknowledged about psychiatry's history of abysmal outcomes, noting: "While we studied the risk factors for suicide, the death rate had climbed 33 percent" despite increased treatment, reporting that, "Since 2001, prescriptions for psychiatric medications have more than doubled, with one in six American adults on a psychiatric drug."

Psychiatry's Defense: "Don't Throw Out the Baby with the Psychiatric Bathwater"

Earlier in 2022, responding to Robert Whitaker in a Mad in America dialogue, psychiatrist Jim Phelps, in his article "The Baby in the Psychiatric Bathwater," stated the following: "Don't throw out the baby with the psychiatric bathwater. Mr. Whitaker, I fear you're doing harm while trying to do good."

The idiom "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater" is an admonition against discarding something valuable along with something not wanted. However, the question for any critical thinker is-especially given what has been made public about psychiatry in 2022-what exactly is valuable about psychiatry?

A rational critical analysis of an institution-in contrast to a theological defense of it- would evaluate whether that institution is in fact valuable and can be reformed to be better. Such an analysis of a professed medical institution would evaluate whether (1) its fundamental paradigm and core tenets have scientific merit, and whether with reform in its practices, it can be improved, or (2) its fundamental paradigm and tenets are scientifically invalid, and thus, no matter how many of its practices are reformed, it will continue to do more harm than good.

Critical freethinkers-in contrast to theologians attached to their institution-would be open to all possible conclusions of this analysis, including (1) not discarding an entire institution because it is fundamentally sound and valuable, and needs only to improve its practices, or (2) discarding an entire institution because it is fundamentally invalid and unsound, as its core principles are unscientific and unjust.

In any given time in U.S. history, there have been institutions that have had a central role in U.S. society that were eventually-with great struggle-discarded, and which today most Americans are embarrassed ever existed. Thus, any critical freethinker who has knowledge of American history will not be intimidated to consider the possibility that any current institution may need to be completely discarded. That is part of the essence of being a critical freethinker.

Perhaps the most obvious example in U.S. history of a dominant institution that was ultimately discarded-and which today most Americans are embarrassed by its past existence-is the institution of slavery.

I bring up the institution of slavery not to hyperbolically equate psychiatry with slavery-though there are certainly many Mad in America readers who have been involuntarily forced into ruinous psychiatric treatment, and who would not view such a reference as hyperbolic. However, for the majority of psychiatric patients, it is hyperbolic to equate psychiatry with slavery in terms of cruelty. I bring up slavery as a reminder of the historic reality of (1) the longtime existence in the United States of a shameful institution, and (2) that when it was being attacked by slavery abolitionists, slavery's supporters used several defenses of it, including the "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater" defense.

The various defenses of slavery included: how the abolition of slavery would destroy the Southern economy; how slavery has existed throughout history and thus is quite normal; that slavery is not viewed as immoral in the Bible; and that slavery is legal. Another major defense of slavery was that it was beneficial for slaves, and that it would be bad for slaves to throw out the baby with bathwater. Specifically, this argument went like this: If slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos, and that in comparison to workers in the Northern states, slaves were better cared for, especially when sick or aged. In 1837, as senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun (formerly a vice president of the United States) stated: "Never before has the black race of central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually."

Again, I review this history not to equate psychiatry with slavery in terms of cruelty but to remind readers that in U.S. history, (1) there have been institutions that have had a central role in society that were eventually-with great struggle-discarded, and which today are a source of embarrassment for most Americans; and that (2) among the many defenses of such now discarded shameful institutions, one defense was not to throw out the baby with bathwater.

Slavery is not the only such shameful institution in U.S. history. Another more recent example is the House Committee on Un-American Activities (dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC), which was an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives created in 1938 to investigate the disloyalty and subversive activities of American citizens and institutions. After HUAC destroyed the careers of many Americans who had broken no laws but were targeted for their political beliefs, HUAC eventually came to be denounced even by former President Harry Truman in the late 1950s as the "most un-American thing in the country today." HUAC changed its name to the House Committee on Internal Security, which itself was abolished in 1975.

Slavery and HUAC are by no means the only examples of powerful institutions in U.S. history that we are now ashamed to have allowed to exist. What slavery and HUAC have in common is that they were based on invalid paradigms. Slavery was based on the invalid paradigm of racial inferiority of African Americans, and HUAC was based on the invalid paradigm of what it meant to be "un-American." If an institution's essential paradigm is scientifically invalid and unjust, then all attempts at reform will be pointless. To put it idiomatically, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig."

Is Psychiatry's Self-Defense Hysterical?

While most of establishment psychiatry simply ignores critical freethinking about psychiatry, there are a handful of psychiatrists who respond to psychiatry critics, and I can only speculate as to why. Perhaps their role is to make psychiatry appear to be open to criticism while in reality imposing limits as to what is allowable criticism; or perhaps their role is to co-opt truly critically freethinking publications such as Mad in America. In any case, along with psychiatrist Jim Phelps, I would include in this group psychiatrists Ronald Pies, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Psychiatric Times, and Awais Aftab, who has an interview series in the Psychiatric Times.

In 2020, Pies told Aftab that he distinguishes between two quite different groups of critics. There are, he tells us, "sincere and well-intentioned critics of psychiatry-many of whom are psychiatrists-whose aim is to improve the profession's concepts, methods, ethics, and treatments." However, Pies then goes on to say that there are also critics whose "hostile and vituperative rhetoric is clearly aimed at discrediting psychiatry as a medical discipline." For Pies, it is simply unallowable to question the legitimacy of the institution of psychiatry, and to do so is inexcusable.

Aftab, like Pies, makes clear that he believes there are critiques of psychiatry that are responsible and useful versus critiques that are irresponsible and dangerous. In August, Aftab tweeted, "Holy shit. . . Whitaker at Mad in America is calling for a class-action lawsuit against the American Psychiatric Association & scientific advisory boards of orgs such as NAMI, alleging that the infamous serotonin hypothesis paper reveals these entities engaged in 'medical fraud.'" Earlier, in his July 2022 tweets, Aftab admonished, "Anyone not attuned to the emerging intersection of psychiatric critique & far-right politics is not paying attention. We've already seen previews of this relationship when it comes to gender critical ideology & anti-vaccine sentiment; it's going to become more explicit with time"; and then offered this warning: "Those engaged in a Faustian bargain will realize too late, if they realize at all, what ugly forces they have unleashed."

Phelps, Pies, and Aftab are open to criticism of psychiatry as long as it stops short of acknowledging the increasingly well-documented reality that psychiatry lacks any scientific merit, which logically results in the questioning of the legitimacy of psychiatry.

To be a critical freethinker, one need not conclude that psychiatry should be abolished. One need only be open to questioning psychiatry's legitimacy, as a critical freethinker would be open to questioning the legitimacy of any institution.

A critical freethinker may even conclude that while there is no scientific merit to psychiatry, given the nature of modern society and psychiatry's role in it, psychiatry's abolition might result in an even more problematic institution taking psychiatry's societal role of controlling inconvenient people and providing fictional explanations for unhappiness.

While being a critical freethinker does not necessarily mean coming to the conclusion that it would be a good idea for psychiatry to be abolished, it does mean being open to any and all facts, and being open to any and all logical conclusions from such facts. In their lack of openness, Phelps, Pies, and Aftab make clear that they are not critical freethinkers.

Webster's Dictionary offers both a formal and informal definition of hysterical. The formal definition of hysterical is "feeling or showing extreme and unrestrained emotion." The informal definition is "very funny."

Maybe it's just me, but with respect to both the formal and informal definition of hysterical, I find Hellerstein's equating Moncrieff's recent review to "the discrediting of the black bile theory," Phelps's "don't throw out the baby with the psychiatric bathwater" defense, Pies's good-and-evil categorization of psychiatry critics, and Aftab's apocalyptic fear mongering of what will be unleashed by freethinking critics of psychiatry all to be... hysterical.

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Psychiatry's Nightmarish 2022 & Its Hysterical Defense Against Criticism - Mad In America

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This year has been an especially nightmarish one for psychiatry defenders. Receiving widespread attention in the mainstream media was the July 2022 article " The Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Evidence," published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

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The silencing impact of shame - I think it takes the client sensing the safety in the relationship... : It’s relational and that is the foundation for all.

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The silencing impact of shame - I think it takes the client sensing the safety in the relationship... : It’s relational and that is the foundation for all.

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Musing on the roles of PACFA and us as individuals in our communities. Carla 😊

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Musing on the roles of PACFA and us as individuals in our communities. Carla 😊

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I’m going to raise this later but wondering how I/we can possibly introduce specialisation for Counsellors in the older persons’ space. Will it enhance visibility and recognition? ACGB focuses on G&L, RA on relationships. Both offer learning and accreditation options. Curious if there’s a space for additional learning that’s sector recognised?

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Systemic lens, being part of the new paradigm, focusing on strengths and wellness. Carla 😊

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Systemic lens, being part of the new paradigm, focusing on strengths and wellness. Carla 😊

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Extremely thought provoking discussion... Taking it all in my own way 😊

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I think the developments for those already working in the field are great. For us students, this has been quite disconcerting and there seems to be a lack of foresight or planning. That needs to change. We pay a significant amount of money being enrolled in courses that are PACFA accredited yet where is the support? Why pay this extra money if regulation is not going to be pursued? There needs to be a lot of conversation around this, and in the interest of transparency one that I will also follow up with ACA.

Lucy Abrlic

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Politics, Opportunities and PACFA 😊 Carla

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Politics, Opportunities and PACFA 😊 Carla

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Visual notes from this morning so far… 😊 Carla

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THIS PADLET IS A                                         "VIRTUAL PUBLIC INSTALLATION"                        Like placards at a protest...                                         or graffiti on a wall...                                                       it IS a participatory artwork...                                     it IS NOT a private space...                              Welcome to Day 3 of PACFA's Safety in Diversity Conference "Politics and Mental Health". Please use this padlet to share thoughts and visual responses to the questions and themes of today. This padlet will be saved as a record of the day's content, and is not a private forum. Your posts will be anonymous unless you write your name in them. Enjoy! Carla van Laar. 

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THIS PADLET IS A                                         "VIRTUAL PUBLIC INSTALLATION"                        Like placards at a protest...                                         or graffiti on a wall...                                                       it IS a participatory artwork...                                     it IS NOT a private space...                              Welcome to Day 3 of PACFA's Safety in Diversity Conference "Politics and Mental Health". Please use this padlet to share thoughts and visual responses to the questions and themes of today. This padlet will be saved as a record of the day's content, and is not a private forum. Your posts will be anonymous unless you write your name in them. Enjoy! Carla van Laar. 