Engage Aotearoa

Tag Archives: Therapist With Lived Experience

Referrals open for people in Henderson

January 31, 2021 1:45 pm ⋅

I am all set to move into full-time private practice and will be available to see people for private therapy at WEST Community Hub in Henderson on Mondays from March, with shift to Tuesdays from April on. Find out more about my availability and making a referral here.

I will continue to see people online and from Changing Minds in Mount Eden, but will move to Wednesdays and Thursdays so Fridays can become a day for groups. I have found a most excellent peer support worker with a background in poetry and performance like me, and we are getting ready to run some groups together later this year. More info soon.

I have truly loved my first six months of part-time private practice at Changing Minds. There is something different about working from a service-user led space with such a long history of systemic advocacy in New Zealand. As someone who once participated in Changing Minds’ monthly Consumer Forums, and later served as a trustee on the board, for me it feels rather a lot like coming home each time I walk through the door. I like the way we have a lounge room instead of a waiting room, and the way the walls are covered in framed stories of recovery from real people who have been there before.

Back in my days as a full-time activist, when I was working with Taimi Allan on the Like Minds Like Mine team at Mind and Body Consultants, we often used to weave fantasies about a fictional ‘service-user led clinical service’ and when I left that job for my clinical training, we promised ourselves ‘one day…’ Our little partnership at Changing Minds feels rather a lot like the first step in our own tiny little revolution in that way.

I have searched long and hard for a similar service-user led space to partner with in West Auckland, but it turns out there is nowhere else quite like Changing Minds. I was very excited to discover the peer-led space Te Ata in Henderson (if you haven’t been yet, do go check it out, it’s pretty awesome). Unfortunately, they didn’t yet have a room that was suitable for therapy and it was a bit far from public transport options. So I have opted to use the therapy rooms at WEST Community Hub for the time-being. It’s not a service-user led space or quite as homey, even though it’s also in a repurposed house. But it is a community-led space, so it’s similar enough to my kaupapa to fit. Plus it is super close to bus-stops, the train station and lots of parking – and just down the road from Te Ata.

Here’s to the next chapter.

Take care out there everyone,

Miriam

Posted in: Engage Updates ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Clinicians share their lived experience: In Conversation episodes 6 – 11

November 22, 2020 1:42 pm ⋅

In Conversation is a series of interviews with mental-health clinicians who have their own lived experience of struggling with their mental health from In2Gr8 Mental Health in the UK. The first five episodes feature Dr Natalie Kemp in conversation with Dr Anna Sicilia, Professor Patick Corrigan (clin psych), Dr Nneamaka Ekebuisi (clin psych), Kate Snewin (RMN), and Dr Thomas Richardson (clin psych).

Scroll down for episodes 6-11.

Episode Six: Dr Stephen Linacre, clinical psychologist, talks about his lived experience of significant eating difficulties and the professional work he does now in this area.

Episode Seven: Dr Inke Schreiber, clinical psychologist talks with Natalie Kemp about her lived experience of mental health difficulties.


Episode eight: Dr Rufus May, clinical psychologist talks about his lived experience of mental health difficulties and working in the mental-health sector.

Episode Nine: Michelle Jamieson, PhD candidate, speaks about her lived experience of mental health difficulties and issues of intersectionality.

Episode Ten: Professor Jamie Hacker-Hughes talks about his lived experience of the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and working for many years professionally in the mental health scene.

Episode Eleven: Emily-May Barlow, Mental Health Nurse and academic, talks about her lived experience of mental health difficulties, in particular, of dissociation.

Posted in: Online Resources, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Out of hiatus and open for private practice!

August 6, 2020 6:17 pm ⋅

Engage Aotearoa is finally ready to come out of hibernation and you’ll notice a few changes have taken place over the past few months.

The big news is that after five years working full time as a psychologist within our DHB services, I have now freed myself up to add one day of private practice to the Engage Aotearoa web-resources. I have teamed up with the good folks at Changing Minds for a space to see people and am looking forward to working from a service-user led setting once again. You can find out more about my private psychology services here.

I’ve simplified things a fair bit and Engage Aotearoa has returned to its original form as a self-funded, non-profit initiative, now with a small private practice on the side to help sustain it. Over the last few years, Daniel has taught me everything I need to know to keep the website updated by myself and more than a decade after setting out on the Engage Aotearoa journey it’s an exciting step to be able move forward on my own two feet.

I am in progress with reviewing and updating all of the resources on the website. You will notice that the links to some resources have been disabled while I do this. A number of the info packs have already been reviewed and you can read them online here. The Butterfly Diaries Volume 1 has now been made available as a PDF e-book you can download and share around at will. And the Community Resources Directory has been moved onto its own series of webpages so you no longer have to download a long pdf document to read it – you can still download it to share around in the real world if you’d like though. Updating the directory after a five year hiatus is a pretty big task and a lot has changed in that time. If there is something you would like to suggest I add, do get in touch.

Please note, that I have updated my contact details.

Viva la revolution!

Miriam

Dr Miriam Larsen-Barr
DClinPsych, MNZCCP, TLE



Posted in: Engage Updates, Service-User Movement ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,