1 Jan 2020 DRAFT

Monya Murch - Reconnect and rehumanise, a response
to the impact of trauma and addiction
Any addiction is a secondary issue that comes out of a primary
problem. Addiction does not happen in a vacuum. Our
mainstream approaches to addiction are often limiting and
can be unhelpful in the long-term when their primary focus is on addiction and users
being ‘the problem’, rather than understanding the behaviours as adaptations
to, or symptoms of, (deep) discomfort or a hostile environment. The talk will aim to
allow space for conversations around the impact of trauma, the possibility of reconnection,
and the importance to re-claim one’s humanity.
Monya Murch has a background in social sciences, later specialising in addiction,
trauma-informed practice and perinatal mental health. Monya is currently working
with individuals and families experiencing gambling-related harm and severe mental
distress. She also facilitates weekly therapeutic groups.
Jo Watson - A call to action
Challenging the illness myth promoted by western psychiatry
that uses invalid constructs to pathologise people’s pain and
survival strategies, Jo will share how she has personally experienced
moving from isolation and hopelessness to feeling part
of a massive movement for change. She will tell her story about
how joining with allies in activism was the only congruent way forward for her personally,
politically and professionally and will encourage others to consider whether
the same could apply to them.
Jo Watson is a psychotherapist and activist with a history in the U.K. Rape Crisis
movement of the 1990s. She has worked therapeutically for the last 24 years with
those who have been victims of sexual abuse/violence and has campaigned on
women’s survivor issues for the past 3 decades. Jo actively challenges the biomedical
model of ‘mental health’, arguing that emotional distress and suffering is primarily
a result of what people have experienced, which all too often arises within
social injustices that need to be named. Jo is the organizer of the one day event A
Disorder For Everyone! with Dr Lucy Johnstone and is part of the Mad in the U.K.
team. Jo is also a founding member of ‘United for Integrity in Mental Health’ (UIMH)
(due to be launched in 2019) and creator of the Drop the Disorder! Facebook group.
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