The Dissociative Initiative

A final word from those of us involved with the DI this year – thankyou for everyone who has been involved in our community! It is a privilege to share your journey, learn from your wisdom, and celebrate with you the joy and sadness of what it is to be human.

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it! May you find or create meaning and love in your life, and built your own traditions of self care and connection. I (Sarah) wanted to give some gifts to you and in your name, especially for anyone who is struggling financially or emotionally over this season, but also to celebrate our community and what we can share and bring to the lives of others. This year I have given gifts of Toys, Blankets, School Pencils, and Fast Growing Seeds, to try and meet a little of each important need – nourishment, warmth, education, and something that brings joy and encourages imagination. I hope each of you are able to find ways to meet these needs in yourselves and your own communities.

Much love, Sarah xx

New dates have been set! Both are free, one is within school/work hours, one outside of them. The same talk will presented at each time.

6.30 -8pm, Thursday 19th Dec

OR

11.30am – 1pm, Friday 20th Dec

Mental Illness Fellowship of SA, 5 Cooke Terrace, Wayville

This is the presentation I (Sarah) recently delivered at the World Hearing Voices Congress in Melbourne. It will run for an hour with an opportunity to ask questions. The talk was developed to help close a gap in the Mental Health First Aid training, which does not mention dissociative crisis. Principles of crisis work are covered, as well as recognising and usefully responding to severe general dissociation, and common crisis points for people with parts (Dissociative Identity Disorder, or ‘multiple personalities’). Sarah is a peer worker with lived experience of severe dissociation and DID, and many years experience in supporting other people in crisis.

Books from the DI Library will be on display, as will our Healthy Multiplicity Poster. This talk is suitable for mental health workers, clinicians, people with lived experience, and friends and family. Please feel welcome to share this information.

Please RSVP directly to Mifsa on (08) 8378 4100. If you have any questions, please contact Sarah at sarah @di.org.au

Apologies for the late notice, the SA talk Supporting Someone in a Dissociative Crisis this Thursday has been postponed due to illness. We are planning to reschedule this talk for later this year, will keep you posted.

Hello everyone,

It’s been a long time since we’ve been putting out regular newsletters, for which I apologise! It’s great to keep everyone up to date with developments, but I’ve been rather swamped with keeping resources running and haven’t had much time to talk about them too. 🙂 This year the big news is our lovely new website. We have moved from blogger to wordpress as the format is more suitable for hosting a lot of information as we expand the website. We will be updating our online address to a simpler one soon, and then changing the DI postcards. It’s a little bit of a process but the end result is easier for people to find, share, and print from.

Bridges is undergoing a big change this year – we are moving to a new structure to allow us to better support our working group members. Bridges is our face to face weekly support group in Adelaide, now it will be running in the afternoon once and fortnight, and the evening every other fortnight. See the new flyer here. We’ve been fortunate to have a new wonderful peer worker Melanie come on board to assist with the evening group. Please get in touch before coming to confirm if that week is an afternoon or evening group.

We are working together on a number of projects and looking to recruit volunteers to help out. Right at the moment we would love to have some more poeple helping to run the Open Facebook Group, people to manage printing and mailing the welcome packs through Mifsa locally, and people who can help us with building a Professional Referral Directory. We are also looking into fundraising opportunities.

We are keen to support new groups around Australia, to offer educational forums and workshops, and to reach out to people who support those of us who live with dissociation. If you can help, or have any other suggestions about projects and resources that would help you, please get in touch.

Best wishes and take care,

Sarah K Reece

Early newsletter issued from our original website on blogspot. Please be aware that not all the contact details and so on are current.

Dissociation Link Volume 1, Issue 6

• Groups Continuing to Grow
• Brochures and Flyers
• New Books in the Library
• Dealing with your Denial

Early newsletter issued from our original website on blogspot. Please be aware that not all the contact details and so on are current.

Dissociation Link Volume 1, Issue 5

• The Dissociative Initiative Developments
• Understanding Dissociation
• Grounding Kits
• Welcome Pack