Conference in the main hall May 16th
8:30 Registration and coffee
9:05 Moderator – Héðinn Unnsteinsson
9:15 The Art of Sisu and Reclaiming Inner Power Beyond the Biomedical Model
Elisabet Lahti
What if resilience wasn’t about pushing through, but about aligning with what’s already in us–our life force? In this keynote, Dr. Elisabet Lahti, researcher, writer, and activist, weaves together science, personal narrative, and lived experience to explore sisu—a uniquely Finnish concept of inner strength—through the lens of trauma recovery, nervous system awareness, and approaches that move beyond the biomedical model.
Having overcome interpersonal violence and pioneering the research of sisu as a side product of her own healing journey, Elisabet opens a space to reflect on what healthy strength might mean today for peer supporters, mental health professionals, individuals and loved ones, both personally and professionally.
Through story, science, and embodied insight, she offers a gentle yet brave call to support the birth of a new paradigm in mental health and actively build a more life-honoring world. This keynote speaks to the heart of what it means to be human—and how community, compassion, and healthy sisu can shape our shared future.
10:15 Coffee break
10:30 Harm Reduction and Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs
Will Hall
Medication harm is sometimes worse than the psychosis, mania, depression, and anxiety meds are prescribed for. What has the survivor movement learned about how to truly support people around medications – including coming off?
What are the basics of a harm reduction perspective that is neither pro-meds nor anti-meds, but pro-empowerment?
11:20 User minutes
11:30 Trauma to Transformation: Recovering the Authentic Self
Fritzi Horstman
Trauma separates, community heals. When we unearth the effects of trauma individually and collectively, we begin to unpack the legacy of violence, unconsciousness, betrayal to self and others and systems that emphasize dehumanization rather than healing, recovery and transformation.
Awareness is the first step to reclaiming your authentic self and reclaiming our authentic community. Moving into this work requires vulnerability, accountability and forgiveness. When apply this to ourselves and to the systems that no longer work for us, we take blame out the equation and move forward into a brave, new world.
12:30 Summary from workshops
13:00 Lunch break
13:50 Meditation led by Tristan Elizabeth Gribbin from Flow
14:00 What’s Happening?: Building Healing Community During Difficult Times
Caroline Mazel-Carlton
Over the years, progress has been made in the mental health world by shifting the focus from “What is wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”. This talk will focus on how we can continue to build upon trauma-informed perspectives to create more equitable social-justice-informed healing spaces.
We will explore what happens when we move from just “What happened to you?” to “What is happening to you?” or “What is happening to us?” Caroline will share her experiences with building healing communities in a wide variety of environments from peer respite houses to forensic psych units and maximum security prisons. What is the potential for harm reduction (or even hope) during times of rising authoritarianism and fear? How can we be there for each other?
15:00 User minutes
15:05 Us and Them: My career in psychiatric services
Trevor Eyles
I would like to share my own story of descent into relative madness – my initial meeting with psychiatry – and what I have both learned and un-learned from it since.
Traditional psychiatry still, largely speaking, tends to approach voice-hearing and many other sensory experiences as solely pathological.
Treatment herein has not only been grossly ineffective, but also in most cases detrimental. Why is this – and what can we do to change it?
16:00 Summarization by moderator
16:20 End of conference