The #Soteria approach radically rethinks how we support people experiencing extreme states, it offers non-invasive crisis houses as an alternative to psychiatric in-patient admission.
I feel privileged to be involved with the current research study taking place, in the hope to introduce a pilot crisis house in the UK in 2026.
The research team has started a Medium blog to raise awareness of the Soteria approach – give it a follow HERE to stay in the loop about the research progress.
It was such a joy to reconnect with Dorien again, and openly discuss the complex issue of making sense of experiences that so easily get labelled and dismissed as ‘illness’ within our current psychiatric system.
Here Dorien speaks openly for the first time about the shame that she had to work through, whilst also navigating the integration journey after her crisis and extreme altered state.
During the height of her experience, Dorien felt as though she were dying, and believed that the end of the world was nigh – something that is extremely common during altered states.
Dorien now sees her experience, despite how incredibly challenging it was, as a symbolic and meaningful life transition that could have been made much easier were it perceived and supported differently. This is hugely important when considering what changes are needed in our current services.
Dorien’s experience of ‘inner polarity’ taught her that leaning into the darkness with curiosity is a necessary part of the journey to birthing love – could it be that the insights born out of such experiences are helping us to birth the new world?
If you’re experiencing a crisis right now, I hope hearing Dorien’s words will offer some solace (apologies for the audio blips along the way – we went with keeping it raw and real, as always).
Dorien added:
My guiding voice came back a little while after it led me through the Emergency. And I was afraid to connect with any of the content – would it pull me back? But this voice came back so comforting, reassuring and stayed for almost a full year, that it came on regular basis in a very assuring way.
What helped me in the beginning was to literally set an alarm, connect with my inner world with compassion and curiosity and allowing it to speak/show… but when the alarm went off: Focus on cleaning and practical stuff to ground. Learning to dose it. Alone or with a therapist, setting these times apart so it can be unpacked a little bits at a time.
It is now 9 years since Dorien’s experience, and the gradual integration process she alludes to above is what has enabled her to put the knowledge gained from it to use. Dorien is now a Level 3 trained practitioner in the therapeutic model ‘Internal Family Systems’. She specializes in holding space for people who are integrating altered states, or going through an awakening process by helping them to connect with all of who they are.
When Dorien from the Netherlands first shared her story for Emerging Proud, she wasn’t quite ready to ‘come out of the spiritual closet’ with her full name. She was only two years on from an extreme spiritual emergency, and there was still much to understand and integrate.
However, following internal guidance, Dorien has spent the last 9 years doing deep process work and this led her to use her lived experience to train in a modality that she now uses to support others who have had similar experiences.
Originally a social worker, Dorien is now a Level 3 trained practitioner in the therapeutic model ‘Internal Family Systems’. She specializes in holding space for people who are integrating altered states, or going through an awakening process by helping them to connect with all of who they are.
I will be chatting to Dorien about her journey from crisis to transformation very soon, and she will be sharing guidance as to what helped her along the way.
The ‘Emerging Proud’ campaign promotes crisis as a potential catalyst for transformation. Our ethos is based on the transpersonal and transcultural perspective of extreme states being part of a natural healing process rather than a pathology. It was founded in 2017 and quickly became an international movement. We held annual events until the pandemic hit and hundreds of people worldwide have shared their stories, some of which were part of Nottingham university’s NEON study.
Emerging Proud is having a revival, and will take on a slightly different angle in acting as more of a bridge between the mainstream and transpersonal perspectives, aiming to extend the Overton Window in terms of acceptable public discourse.
My friend and colleague Sameer and I are setting up a not for profit foundation, within which we will provide a community platform and produce a documentary.
A launch event for this is happening in Norwich on 12th May 2025, where we will show the trailer for our film, in addition to having an interactive speaker / discussion exploration of how these experiences can be best supported.
We hope that you can join us, this won’t be one to miss!
Many of the Emerging Proud community will already know of Laura and her profound story of liberating herself from the psychiatric system, a decade of diagnoses and debilitating medications. But not everyone may be aware of the moment of existential questioning that led Laura down that trajectory.
Now Laura has been able to reframe her young questioning of ‘Self’ as a blessing of being profoundly human, and leading her to who she has emerged to be today. Laura’s story is one of inspiration, hope and validation that anyone can turn their pain into purpose. Laura now offers services to advocate for the self-empowerment of others, in order that they may connect to their own inner wisdom.
Here Laura shares her journey to self-liberation, the incredible resources she birthed through her pain, and her upcoming autobiography: UNSHRUNK
Laura Delano is the founder and Executive Director of Inner Compass Initiative (ICI), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people make more informed choices about psychiatric drugs, diagnoses, and drug withdrawal. Separately, Laura offers psychiatric drug withdrawal support through 1-on-1 consultations and a newly launched group support program called Fortify & Focus. She has spoken and led workshops across Europe and the Americas, and her first book, UNSHRUNK, which will be published in the US, UK, and Commonwealth countries in March 2025.
It’s time to reconnect as a community: come and gather for a transformative day of re-birth and reunion at our first in-person event since the pandemic!
Whether you’re emerging from a challenging time, or simply seeking connection and inspiration, this gathering is for you. You may have been part of the original Emerging Proud campaign, or have recently discovered us – whomever you are, if the message of experiencing a personal transformation through adversity resonates, then this event is for you. We are so excited to connect and share with you all – old friends and new.
A full agenda will be available prior to the event, but for now, here are a couple of important things to note about our day together:
You will be amongst the first to hear our exciting updates on a new documentary that I’m delighted to be collaborating on with our film maker friend Sameer Patel, AND be the first to watch the trailer!
Some special (familiar faced) guests will be joining us to share the wisdom they gained from their ‘non-ordinary transcendent experiences’
You will have the opportunity to connect via an online community connected to the documentary, where you can follow the film-making journey, be privvy to unseen foootage, and even take part in decisions on how it unfolds – your voices matter to us, and we want this to be a collaborative venture. We believe that the best wisdom unfolds between us.
More exciting details to come, but if you want to be there, do secure your spot via the link below.
I really look forward to reconnecting with you there, with love, Katie ❤
Although Laura didn’t officially share her story as part of the original Emerging Proud campaign, she has been an ally for many years. Having liberated herself from her psychiatric label, identity and a cocktail of medications, Laura now offers services to advocate for the self-empowerment of others.
Laura’s story is one of inspiration, hope and validation that anyone can turn their pain to purpose.
I’ll be speaking with Laura very soon about her exciting new resources and upcoming autobiography: UNSHRUNK. This will be one not to miss!
Here is Laura’s journey to liberation:
About Laura:
Laura Delano is the founder and Executive Director of Inner Compass Initiative (ICI), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people make more informed choices about psychiatric drugs, diagnoses, and drug withdrawal. Separately, Laura offers psychiatric drug withdrawal support through 1-on-1 consultations and a newly launched group support program called Fortify & Focus. She has spoken and led workshops across Europe and the Americas, and her first book, UNSHRUNK, which will be published in the US, UK, and Commonwealth countries in March 2025. Find out more at www.LauraDelano.com.
All in divine timing – we got there in the end with our recorded conversation! Here, David reminds us of his powerful recovery journey, and shares what he’s been up to professionally since his story was featured in our ‘Emerging Proud through Suicide’ pocket book of hope and transformation.
From being a self-proclaimed ‘career criminal’ in Strangeways prison, to consulting on strategy in the Houses of Parliament, David explains the moving trajectory of his recovery journey.
*Trigger warning* – this interview contains some potentially activating details of suicide attempts and explicit language.
David’s Bio:
My name is David. I was born and raised in Moss Side, Manchester in the UK. I still live in Manchester today with my wife Jo. I am 59 and I am a father and grandfather. I am an integrative therapist and I also work in a drug and alcohol services supporting people to navigate their way out of active addiction and into recovery.
I am a person in long term recovery. I spent 23 years of my life in active addiction to heroin, crack and cannabis. I funded my drug use through criminal activity and I spent many years in prison as a result. On October 4th I will be 24 years clean.
I have worked in drug, alcohol and criminal justice services and also in various prisons in that time. I have also advised local and national Government on recovery and desistance from crime and I have played key roles in the development and implementation of various recovery communities around The North West of England. I have featured in books on recovery, mental health and surviving suicide.
I was chairperson of The Greater Manchester Recovery Federation which organised The UK Recovery Walk in 2014 in Manchester. Alongside his GMRF peers, he helped organize and host the walk which saw the greatest number of people come together anywhere in Europe to date (8,000) to march and to raise the profile of recovery from addiction.
I have been a keen advocate of men’s work throughout the last 22 years and I have been on a continuous journey of discovery around my own masculinity. This has involved lots of deep diving into my own personal work and more widely around what it means to be a man, how to be a healthy male role model and leader to our younger men in our society today. I am co-founder and an active member of abandofbrothers Manchester. Abandofbrothers is a national charity doing amazing work mentoring and supporting young men out of destructive patterns of behaviour and lifestyles such as gang life, knife crime and criminal activity.
My goal is to raise the profile of recovery from addiction and mental health and to help people improve their personal well-being, to breakdown stigma and to co-create a new narrative for recovery and trauma informed interventions and environments. My approach to life is based on connection with people and communities. I am of the mind that our communities are rich in resources and that people should be the co-producers of their own health and well-being. I promote connection through community networks, relationships and friendships which empower people and provide mutual help and support.
It was such a joy to reconnect with Paris to find out what he’s up to now and how his work and ideas have progressed since he appeared in the Emerging Proud film seven years ago. Here we talk about Paris’s journey from post-traumatic growth following an existential crisis, to his work as an Integrative Psychologist, interest in collective trauma-healing, and leading people to connect with the ‘more than human realm’ through deep ecology.Paris explains his needs-based ‘organismic holistic model of healing’ as an alternative to the current ‘mental health’ paradigm. We also touch on the complexities of what gets labelled as ‘spiritual bypassing’, and how the imaginal cells present in the metamorphosis process relate to the bigger picture of what is happening in the collective right now. As usual, it’s an organic flow, and we hope it might offer some helpful insights to anyone going through a transformation process.
Dr Paris Williams has traversed a very winding road in his life—going from the lows of a broken childhood to the highs of becoming an international hang gliding champion in his younger years (winning a World Champion title and numerous National Champion titles). But then in his late 20s, the wounds from his past, along with the deep wounds within human society and of the Earth that were all too apparent from his vantage point in the sky, converged to send him spinning into the vortex of a profound spiritual/existential crisis.
As he navigated through this crisis, he found solace and strength in the natural world as well as in a number of the world’s wisdom traditions, and found himself drawn into the path of “Wounded Healer.” He has since gone on to conduct research on psychosis and radical personal transformation, published the widely acclaimed book, Rethinking Madness, and received his PhD and license as a clinical psychologist, specializing in humanistic, existential, transpersonal, somatic and ecological approaches.He has worked in numerous settings supporting people struggling with challenging and extreme experiences – these include meditation centers, a residential facility, a medical hospital, a community mental health clinic, a substance dependency program, multi-disciplinary teams, and in numerous private practice settings.
Paris is currently residing in the U.S., working as an integrative psychology practitioner in private practice, providing support to individuals and families, providing supervision to other health professionals, and running various psychotherapy trainings and workshops.
Reframing Mental distress as a potential catalyst for positive change 