Sunrise Center Workshops
Sunrise Center workshops are fun! We have everyone discharge so they can think more clearly about supporting those who choose to taper off psychiatric drugs. It ends up being liberating for all!
[The Sunrise Center will be a residential drug-free recovery center based on Re-evaluation Counseling theory and practice. It will help people free themselves from psychiatric drugs and will teach others to assist in this. Residents will be active partners in their recovery, in collaboration with the staff. It is expected that residents, after discontinuing the drugs, will go on to reclaim full use of the tools of RC and to lead rewarding lives. Before the center is established, the project is offering a series of workshops open to RCers who want to stop using psychiatric drugs or help others to do the same.]
We have a class on discharging on our drug history (anesthesia, street drugs, psychiatric drugs, and so on). It is amazing how discharging on drug histories can help us think in this area! We also have a class on Janet Foner’s five-point program for getting present and staying that way. [Janet Foner was the International Liberation Reference Person for “Mental Health” Liberation until she died in July 2019. You can find her five-point program for getting present and staying that way at <https://www.rc.org/page/liberationtheory/rr6_028_jf>.]
Sunrise Center workshops focus on connection and counseling with attention away from distress.
We advise RCers not to go off psychiatric drugs “cold turkey” (suddenly and completely). We do encourage them to take the time they need to build and take charge of their support team and reclaim their mind with lots of Co-Counseling sessions and attention-out activity. Getting off psychiatric drugs can take months, even years, but we have seen the process be successful.
Support groups at the Sunrise Center workshops are led by experienced “mental health” liberation leaders who have successfully gotten off psychiatric drugs themselves or have discharged extensively on their drug history.
Eugene, Oregon, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of “mental health” liberation
(Present Time 202, January 2021)