Your Feedback
If you have heard me speak at a training event or conference, I’d love to get your feedback too. Just add your comments to the bottom of this post.
With thanks, Jacqui
Latest Updates
- Drop the Disorder – And then what?!29/10/2021 - 6:48 PM
- Intervoice Congress 202131/08/2021 - 7:18 PM
BBC Breakfast: Jacqui and Rai talking about Hearing Voices on TV18/07/2021 - 8:07 PM
Jasper Gibson & Jacqui Dillon in conversation at AD4E Festival05/05/2021 - 3:37 PM
Jasper Gibson and Jacqui Dillon, In Conversation – Fiction about Psychosis: Impact, ethics, effects05/05/2021 - 2:45 PM
Just wanted to say what a great website this is! LOVE the butterflies. Its incredibly impressive to see all your work and activism collated in one place- you should be VERY proud of yourself!
So pleased that you like my new website Bex – Rachel did a fantastic job! I LOVE the butterflies too – they are a collage of old, cut up magazines. It is very satisfying to have all my work in one place – I am feeling rather proud of my work!
Hi Jacqui,
I just wanted to write to thank you for the workshop you put on yesterday. I found the experience deeply moving and thought provoking, you are a truly inspirational woman and listening to you reminded me of that profound strength and resilience that lies within us all.
I felt completely drained at the end of yesterday but ironically came back to work today full of energy and enthusiasm. I have just had a session with a client who hears voices and I felt that I could empathise with what was going on for him in a way that was much more helpful to him than before. I feel really positive about the collaborative work that I can be part of in the future.
Wishing you all the best,
Roxanna
Hi Roxanna,
I just wanted to thank for you taking the time to write with such wonderful feedback. You expressed so eloquently what moved and inspired you about the workshop – so great to hear – I was really touched by your words.
All the best,
Jacqui
In a movement that is filled with charismatic and pioneering individuals, I believe that posterity will remember the work of Jacqui Dillon for several reasons, but not least because of her generosity of spirit and strength of vision.
Jacqui’s courage is contagious, her intelligence luminous, and her wit, wisdom, beauty and strength an inspiration to all those who are fortunate enough to hear her speak and share her story. She has a brilliant capacity to negotiate and blend the experiential, academic, personal, and political, in a way that fortifies and inspires an audience. Her legacy is in the people she has inspired, the lives she has touched, and the theory and practice she continues to shape and influence through her writing, speaking, and training.
Thank you Jacqui, for being you!
And thank you brilliant, brave, beautiful Eleanor, for being YOU!
Great to see your new website Jacqui. Hope it helps get your ideas out to even more people than have already had the privilege of hearing you speak or of using your various other skills! More power to your wondrous elbow.
John Read
Thanks John for all your support of my work – it means so much to me and my wondrous elbow.
Jacqui
We have been gifted to have Jacqui deliver training for us in Melbourne, Australia, and look forward to her third installment in May this year.
Jacqui’s messages continue to resonate here in Australia, and we are so happy to see more and more mental health workers willing to work with the impacts of trauma.
People who have attended Jacqui’s training tell us frequently how deeply it has affected them, and how much they have learnt, and changed, as a result. She gives us all deep insights, courage, and powerful ideas.
Don’t stop this important work Jacqui – your gifts are immeasurable!
I have no intention of stopping Indigo – I am a woman on a mission!
Thanks so much for that brilliant feedback – put a huge smile on my face! I am so looking forward to coming back to Melbourne in a few weeks and hearing more about all of the fabulous work you are all doing there. I have tonnes of great, new material to share with all you lovely people – prepare to be inspired!
Abuse, Trauma and Dissociation: Understanding and Working Towards Recovery with Eleanor Longden.
The best training I have attended in the past 15 years – a great mix of personal experience and insights from well-known (and not so well known) therapists in the field, all backed up by academically sound research. At times extremely moving, the two days past quickly due to the presenters’ wit and illuminating critiques of how clinicians like me can, despite our best intentions, sometimes harm as much as we help. I left inspired to try new things and avoid common pitfalls.
Dr Guy Holmes
Clinical Psychologist
Wow that’s so great to hear Guy – thanks so much for that brilliant feedback. You were a great partcipant – you asked lots of important questions and were willing to share your thoughts, feelings and reflections which was so valuable for us all. Look forward to working on that manifesto!
Can’t wait to see you in Sheffield tomorrow, as a student MHN and MIND volunteer I am just doing a bit of research so I can make the most of tomorrow. Your experience is very moving and your story inspirational. I for one am completely inspired by what I have seen so far on this excellent website and am looking forward to challenging the status quo @ Uni encouraging more talking therapies and less pharmacological straight jackets, you are at the center of a positive revolution in Mental Health.:)
Hope you enjoyed the Sheffield training Rich – sorry we never got to meet face to face – and very pleased to hear that you like my new website – you’ve got great taste! Brilliant that you plan to encourage more talking therapies in your work – way to go! Good luck with all of your work.
Congratulations Jacqui on the stunning successes of your trip to the US 😀
Dear Jacqui,
Just a short note to wish you a happy holidays and thank you for the great talks I’ve witnessed.
Please dont forget us end-users!
Alice 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your story and knowledge with us. I was deeply moved by your story, and the modesty with which you presented it. You have inspired me to continue living and learning, so that one day, I can make a difference too. You are an incredible person for having survived what you did, and your life as it is now is a testament to your fortitude and courage. You’re amazing!
Thank you so much for taking the time to write and let me know how moved and inspired your felt by hearing my story, especially that you felt inspired to continue living and learning. No doubt you too will one day be out there inspiring others and making a difference as well – so you MUST keep on keeping on! With all best wishes, Jacqui
I could not write my thoughts any better than those above have articulated, especially what you wrote Eleanor about Jacqui’s intellect and compassion – perfect.
You are a remarkable inspiration Jacqui. I greatly admire your fierce determination to light more candles in the darkness. Thank you for all your shared with us here in Perth Western Australia last week. You were a most fantastic presenter. Very engaging. what really stood out for me is the love/compassion you showed to all members of the audience as you imparted your message. You could feel it in the room.
Well done. May your coming days, until we see you next, be filled with peace, love and all the support and compassion you need for yourself.
Wow its wonderful to receive such brilliant feedback – I feel very lucky to have such lovely appreciation of me and my work – thank you! I really enjoyed my time in Perth – I met some fabulous people who were very receptive to my message which is so encouraging and heartening. It was wonderful to meet you – a fellow traveller, soul sister, woman on a mission.
Until next time…Jacqui
Thanks Jacqui for coming to Bristol today to give a talk to the Bristol Hearing Voices Network about your own experiences and the wider hearing voices movement. I was touched by your courageous honesty and wisdom that filled me with hope and optimism about overcoming the struggle we face. I hope you can return to Bristol again in the future and help us develop our trainers package…
Good on you Jacqui for the fantastic work you are doing both in the UK and abroad…
Oh thanks for that Nick – very kind of you – your words have put a big smile on my face! I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon with the Bristol Hearing Voices Network. What a great group of people! I would be delighted to help develop your trainers package in the future so let’s stay in touch and work out the best way to make that happen. In the meantime, take good care and hope to see you all again sometime soon…
Hi Jacqui
Although I unfortunately missed your speeches way back at Building Bridges 2008 I very much admire the title of your newest book coming out in September – The Medicalisation of Misery fits my opinions very exactly and I do admire your ability in writing it and will get a copy as soon as possible
3/6/2011
Hi Jacqui,
I attended your workshop on Wirral yesterday and I was very impressed. I wondered if you can signpost me to voice hearing professional contacts in my region so that i can get involved. I have had a diagnosis for 22 years and I have experienced psychosis a number of times so i understand the issues. However, I have managed to get myself a professional qualification as a counsellor and I am currently doing my CBT programme as well. I have worked privately on a number of personal theories surround voice hearing and as you said yesterday there is work yet to be done. I feel I cannot run away from this very important work and I want to get involved with people, hearers, carers, other professionals, and play a part in intervention, acceptance, coping and managing. I will wait to hear from you, Many thanks and thank you again for the fantastic work you are doing to raise awareness and educate the population worldwide. Regards, Maureen Brumby
Hi Jacqui,I attended your event on 9th June on the Wirral, which I found fascinating. Would it be possible to email a copy of your presentation over to me.
Thanks again,
Jeff
(PS I’m the guy who works in Supported Employment with a sister who hears voices).
Hi Jacqui,
I just wanted to say I thought your presentation in Victoria this week was fantastic. I agree with everything you said and as a support worker it was great to get some ideas for how to work with clients who experience voices, particularly engaging directly with the voices and trying to establish a positive relationship and a healthy dialogue with them. I’m also hoping a few of our clients will get involved with the HVN group when it starts up.
Thanks so much,
Jack
Jacqui,
Thank you so much for traveling to the US to facilitate the Hearing Voices Training in Glens Falls, NY. It was an incredible training. I can’t wait to get more Hearing Voices groups started in the US.
Please come back to the States soon!
Peace, Will
Sorry the wonded healer won’t be happening. I really need it at the moment. Get well soon.
Love Mims (The archetypal wonded healer)
Just fell upon your website. Have seen Jacqui speak on a couple of occasions…………….both not only moving,informative,thought provoking but real. Due to the common denominator of training budget cuts i won’t be attending many courses but would like to thank-you for the impression you have made on me along with (to name but 4)Peter B,Ron C,Rufus M, Sandra E.)
Cheers
Keep it real
Jacqui ….
Brillant you,dig your site and layout. The creative mastery touched with whimsy so delightful !
Undercover angel with a message for healing & happiness…
Peace for the close of this year of 2011
peace laughter love for the new year
Until next time ~
Roe NY USA
voices of the heart,inc.
Love the website!
The butterfly design is just superb.
I’m particularly impressed by the page of satanic ritual abuse and mind control (https://www.jacquidillon.org/resources/ritual-abuse/).
Could you cover CIA involvement more in SRA/Mind Control/DID? You reference one of Colin Ross’s books but there is way more on the subject. A key cause of DID is ongoing CIA experiements into Mind Control, and I think the British secret services are doing the same.
Satanists and witches are still up to their work, just as they were in the 1990s. Your work is helping to illuminate the world to the abuse such people perform and your written work and speeches are vital.
Can’t wait to hear you speak!
Roxie
Completely agree with you diagnosis is not a valid way to treat a human being and has no value in relation to working with people who are experiencing mental distress! Well done for the site Jacqui, jacx
Hi i have never herd you personally speak but had the pleasure of seeing a dvd featuring yourself thanks to ros and kellie.
And i felt at ease after seeing it cause i too was not alone and went through alot of horrific trauma.
I really just wanted to thank you i belive recovery is possable with a healthy relationship with my parts of self WE are trying to change our future thanks too a great sight like this and people like yourself.
Thanks everyone aswell reading c:
Hi John,
I am really pleased that the DVD that the lovely Ros and Kellie showed you helped you to feel less alone – that is great news. You are right – recovery IS possible, even when you have experienced lots of horrific trauma and its so good that you know that having a healthy relationship with all the parts of yourself is both possible and healing.
Wishing you all the best on your journey.
All best wishes,
Jacqui
Hi Jacqui,
Heard you speak at Loughborough University the other week in John Cromby’s lecture (I was the guy sat right in front of you).
Just wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you for taking the time out to come in and share your heart and thoughts with us – very inspiring and challenging to hear. You did a great job in helping sum up a lot of what John had been trying to get across to us throughout the module as well as injecting a shot of adrenaline into our flagging (after 4 years of uni) spirits.
Above and beyond the specifics of what you said, for me (and some of my fellow students whom I talked to afterwards) it was your passion for seeing things changed that really caught us. That and your unwillingness to settle for anything less than a humane and realistic approach to human experience becoming the norm, and your determination to break through the barriers that stand against such an approach being accepted.
Thanks for lobbing petrol on the embers of our undergraduate hearts 🙂
Keep going.
Andy.
Hi Andy,
I so appreciate you taking the time to write and thank me for the lecture at Loughborough – your message put a big smile on my face! I loved the description of lobbing petrol on the embers of your undergraduate hearts – brilliant! I really enjoyed the lecture and I am delighted to hear that it had such an impact on you and fired you up – I’m sure it was well needed after 4 long years of study! You’re right about my passion and commitment to creating humane approaches to extreme distress – I hope that you and some of your fellow students will join me, in some way, in that endeavour.
In the meantime, wishing you all the best in completing your course – good luck!
Jacqui
Well done Jacqui for chairing a great Hearing Voices Network 25th Anniversary conference – some great talks from Marius Romme, Rachel Waddingham (at short notice – inspirational as ever), Ron Coleman and Kate Crawford (whose brutal honesty was quite amazing). Workshops were also highly informative and so much better than the quite awful training that is mandatory for people like me in the NHS. The plenary made me think back to the 1970s…’emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds’…
here’s looking forward to the next 25 years.
Hi Jacqui, I heard you speak in Cork – so eloquent and so inspirational!
No personal Voices, but your words remain very much in my mind a week later.
Thank you. annie
That is lovely to hear Annie – thank you for taking the time to let me know that – very kind of you.
Jacqui
I think it has been around 2 years since Jacqui visited the provider I worked for in New England. She remains one of those moments in my life I could simply never forget, ever. Simply extraordinary. As a person who identifies as having lived psychiatric experience, working as a Peer Support Coordinator, I just found myself wishing everyone in our entire agency wide communitry had been there. The more we assume perspectives and techniques and trainings and storytelling – THE LESS THEY ARE CAN CONTINUE TO DISMISS AND IGNORE US. She gave herself that day and love of that caliber is gold. Thank you Jacqui.
I’m working with a person who has struggled with voices who push her to do things that endanger her life and those of others, by overdosing on meds driving erratically and keeping a gun in her home. Early on in therapy, she revealed sexual abuse, physical abuse by the uncle who sexually abused her, abuse by the school system and being labeled a bad person by the mental health community. She is starting to work on listening and responding to the voices. Instead of trying to drown them out, I am encouraging her to begin a dialogue with them, the thought being that in some way she (as the voices is trying to protect herself. Any comments on the direction I am pursuing. Coping with trauma-related dissociation by van der Hart, Steele and Boon is one of my guides.
Jim
Rarely in life do we meet people who are truly inspirational…Jacqui is one of those people.
The presentation Jacqui gave us today validates those of us with similar beliefs and I hope alters the perceptions of those who still believe that hearing voices is an abnormality that is to be eradicated.
Thank you.
Jacqui,
I sat in awe at the Nottingham Meeting yesterday (21/02/2013) at you addressing the complex issues that befall us voice hearers, relating to proffesionals, stigmas and medication.
Please accept my thank you for such an in depth, so accurate, so precise talk.
As you were speaking I could not divert myself from my own trauma, and experienced an overwhelming empathy for you. You are so exact in what you say.
I myself will not take medication and think myself very lucky that I have a doctor that knows it’s not the answer.
I will pass on the experiences I learned from your lectures.
It will never be forgotten!
Thank You once more
Bob
Hi jacqui. I heard you speak at an employee training course. I found what you had to say excellent. I’ve been watching and reading quite a bit of information on the use of drugs in psychiatry. Its shocking and makes me not want to be a part of the profession. Do you have any tips on how to get into research in this area like yourself? Many thanks.
Hi Jacqui. I heard you talk on the two day training course that you ran with Eleanor in Bristol/Keynsham on the 13/14 March 2013. You are a really great speaker and I was truly inspired and fired up by what you and Eleanor taught us and spoke about. It all made so much sense to me and validated how I have come to understand mental health problems and the work/help that I attempt to do with service users/fellow human beings. Keep up the good work.
P.s what did you refer ‘BPD’ as standing for?
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your email. Great to hear that you found the course so helpful and inspiring! You were a great participant too – lots of excellent, thoughtful questions and comments. Hope to see you again.
All the best,
Jacqui
PS – I referred to BPD as standing for Bullshit Psychiatric Diagnosis!
I had the pleasure of hearing Jacqui speak at the recent Family Care Foundation conference in Sweden. Anyone who gets the chance to hear her speak should jump at the chance. The combination of her heartfelt communication about the experiences she has been through and her down-to-earth common sense is both refreshing and inspiring.
She is testimony to the potential for healing in all of us, no matter how much suffering we have endured, and she offers new hope to those who have and who continue to suffer.
Thank you Jacqui!
Thanks so much for taking the time to share that lovely feedback Nick – really, very much appreciated! Was great to meet you in Sweden – hope our paths cross again sometime soon!
Over the last two days I have been privileged to hear Jacqui and Eleanor speak and found myself totally absorbed. I have never experienced such exceptional speakers, survivors and supporters but consider myself very fortunate to have seen and heard them and would suggest anyone with a serious interest in really supporting people, to consider attending their training sessions.
Was at the Hearing Voices training today in Edinburgh; fantastic training, amazing lady!
Nottingham 2 day training.
you are an inspiration to listen too, challanged much of my training(20 years ago) about do not acknowledge voices refuse to discuss them, but i have always found that when listening to people talk about there voices or “delusions” something always clicked and made me think. Perhaps there is something more. It may be big or small but trauma is an individual experience and that is what we have to remember.
Thank you so much for a brilliant two day workshop in Nottingham 4th and 5th July. I have so many light bulbs going off in my head! I will keep them going! I owe it to all those with whom I work.
Again, Thank you
Dear Jacqui
I was blown away by yours and Eleanor’s two day talk. I feel I now have more understanding of some of the people I work with and am rethinking two in particular, who are very complex and who seem to have little future. One man in particular I hope will benefit as he has been left to his own devices with no-one being able to come up with something that could really help. Using yours and Eleanor’s experiences and evidence has inspired me to think about him from a very fresh perspective in the hope that other professionals will take on board. Sadly I see so many people stuck in hospital who could benefit from thinking about their experiences in a completely different way.
Thank you so much, you are both such amazing, beautiful and strong women who are living proof that despite a shattering of the mind, you have survived in a way that can only command respect and admiration.
Best wishes
Meryl
Hello Jacqui
I attended the conference that you and Eleanor Longden provided on Monday and Tuesday in Cardiff. Thank you, it was brilliant and inspiring, as well as affirming and nurturing of the practice that I and my colleagues do in our team with looked after young people. I feel many things following the two days, and one of those is bolder, much bolder!
You mentioned that you like the peotry of William Blake, and so you probably know this one, but just in case, I wanted to share a poem that is on our wall at work and inspires and holds me:
Man was made for joy and woe
and when this we rightly know
through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine.
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under each grief and pine
runs a thread of silken twine.
Enjoy! Jael.
I just completed a three day course with Jacqui and she blew me away! She is a fantastic lady who has totally changed the way I think. I totally admire and have great respect for her. I am in total awe of such a remarkable lady.
It was such an emotional three days and Jacqui really captured my heart. The best course I have ever attended.
Thanks a million Jacqui
Neasa
I just want to say a massive thank you To Jacqui on behalf of everyone today at Riseholme College. You were really wonderful. I wouldn’t have even thought for a moment you was the same little girl inside from your traumatic experience and i would never in a million years think you could hear voices. Im so proud of you. You deal with everything so well i just don’t know how you do it. You certainly are a credit to your daughters and an inspiration to me. I will never forget your story and thank you again for sharing it with us all <3 xxxxxx
Hi Jacqui, did you ever think about coming to Germany to do one of your coarse,.
had a training session with Jacqui today at work…BEST TRAINING SESSION IVE EVER HAD…i have never been so moved by a person before both professionally and personally, and has re-ignited my passion for ‘psychosis’, voice hearers experiences and how to provide as much support as i can…i would love to get involved with the movement…especially with children (area i would like to specialise in once qualified as a psychologist)
thank you so much!
xxx
Just a huge thank you for all the work you and your colleagues do in giving hope to both professionals and survivors. I was lucky enough to attend the conference in Colwyn Bay. You mention vicarious trauma, but I am aware of a sense of vicarious resilience as a result of hearing both your and Eleanor’s stories and how you have used your experiences to bring a renewed sense of hope to the most vulnerable of people. Your message will be disseminated through my work in the future – another small candle has been lit! Inspirational.
Hi jacqui,
I just had to check out your site and leave you a message…. I have listened to your talk online today for what must be the 20th time…. This time with students….. I’m a psychiatric nurse, recently trained humanistic therapist(I saw the light!) and a survivor of intergenerational childhood sexual abuse. I’ve known for a long long time the things you teach but working in psychiatry is a difficult one to have your thoughts heard and taken seriously. When I came accross your talk accidentally online I watched it twice one straight after the other. I thought ‘I think I’m a bit in love with this woman!’… You just blew my socks off…. And continue to do so every time I hear you give that talk. …. Every student that comes through our door, every staff nurse I can find who will actually sit for 45 minutes gets a blast of you, your story and at least a gist of the hearing voices network. I’m probably not changing the face of psychiatry but at least a seed is sown and deep conversations are started. Apart from that a piece of me, probably a young piece is soothed by your amazingly brilliant spirit and zest for life. There’s a light in you that shines so brightly and it’s impossible not to be touched by it. (See? I told you…. A little bit in love! 🙂
I wish you well on the rest of your incredible journey jacqui dillon, you truly are an inspiration.
All the best,
Amanda xx
Hi Jacqui.
I learnt about the Hearing Voices Network and in turn your work as well as Marius Romme and Sandra Escher about four or five years ago in a Sociology of Health paper at a university in New Zealand, and have since researched further into your work. I also attended the Building Bridges Conference that you spoke at in Wellington, New Zealand three and a half years ago (I think it was). I’ve also just listened to your talk at a conference in Wales from September last year.
I have found both your work/involvement in the HVN and your talks incredibly inspiring, thought-provoking and quite emotional as well. Although I do not hear voices myself, I suffer from other forms of mental health struggles, a result (I believe) of the adversities (I liked this term that you used in your talk) that happened to me as a child and teenager. I could relate to a lot of what you discussed in both talks, and hearing your take on your reactions to what happened to you helps me to have the same approach to my responses and ways of dealing with the thoughts and emotions that I struggled through as a teenager especially, as well as coming to terms with what happened, through no fault of my own, to me. I could also relate to what you said about “survivors’ rage”, which I have never quite understood myself, until you explained how you use your work in a constructive way to help deal with it. Essentially, your talks are enlightening and immensely helpful, allowing me to be more forgiving and understanding about what I can now see as a logical response to the adversities I had to endure.
Thank you. I can see how crucial your work is to people, like me, around the world.
Hi Jacqui, I just listened to you speaking on RTE Radio 1. Many thanks for helping me to understand a little better, what it must be like for my daughter as well as giving me hope that, with the right help and support, everything will be ok. My daughter is 17,who is a voice/s hearer. Its just so lovely to hear you have come to live with your voices and can live life with them there. You talked of a therapist, who helped you feel safe and who was able to help you listen to what your voices were saying and ultimately was able to help you to have a good relationship with them…. I have been trying to find a similar therapist for my daughter. We live in West Wales and would love to hear if you know of anyone, who she could see. Thanks again, you are an inspiration.
I don’t often take the time to do this sort of thing (shame on me) but I just have to put fingers to keyboard and thank you for the most amazing and inspirational lecture you gave to the social work students at Lincoln today. I was lucky enough to have a front row seat and I hung on your every word. I feel like a huge lightbulb illuminated for me today; I cannot stop thinking about the enormous amount of sense your lecture made in terms of how society views and treats people who hear voices.
I am still a long way from qualifying as a social worker but I promise that I will never forget what I learned during the short time I was privileged to be a member of your audience today.
I am enormously grateful to have had the opportunity to listen to you and I hope you will will come back to Lincoln so I can listen to you again.
You are awesome!
Jac
Loved the Butterflies. I used them to disassociate when I was being abused. Always get peace with them. Great talk today at Nottingham conference. Keep up the good work
Hi Jacqui
Just wanted to say how fortunate I felt to be part of a group recently in Dundee looking at recovery where I heard you talk for the first time.
It was truly inspirational and for me mirrored deeply held beliefs about systems of control and how people’s distress has too often been medicalised and suppressed. It also provided a greater sense of hope for continuing change in which we all have a voice.
Your spirit shines through so powerfully – it reminded me of a quote from the writer Maya Angelou “try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” – to the people whose lives you touch you are that rainbow
Wishing you all that is best
Irene
I have worked in Mental Health for about 15 years now and much of my work involves working with survivors of CSA and their associated traumas. Your two day training last week in Shrewsbury was simply amazing. What you said made absolute sense and I now feel better informed and more able to work with those who dissociate. Your personal story was very moving and it felt such a priviledge to hear it. Those two days were, without doubt, the best two days of training that I have ever attended. Thank you so much Jacqui for you inspirational and humourous presentation of a difficult subject. I truly hope that I have the opportunity to hear you again one day.
Continue living your life to the full!
Sylvia
Hi Jacqui …
Just wanted to say a huge thankyou for your training last week.
It was truly awesome – inspiring, invigorating, validating … I am still feeling the positive after glow!
Without doubt the best piece of training I have ever attended.
Gemma.
Glad to have met you. Who says big pharma isn’t the salt of the earth? Good luck.
Thank you for your wonderful and inspiring training on the 02 March. Like others have said before me I have worked in mental health and with survivors of abuse for 18 years and every day this has been learning process. I echo others when I say your training was truly enlightening and I thank you for sharing your experiences with us to help people like me help others xx
Your two day course has taught me so much for my client work and touched me personally in a number of ways. You are an inspiration and truly an a amazing person, demonstrating that no matter what you have experienced anybody can heal without medication, being in the mental health system and that this system as it exists now needs to change….now! X
2 day workshop on Trauma and Abuse, Colchester, 6-7 March 2014
Hi, Jacqui,
it was a real privilege to attend your two day workshop on abuse and trauma in Colchester. You are an inspired and inspirational speaker and facilitator – I really valued the combination of a vast amount of relevant information in your PowerPoint, your passionate delivery, your courageous sharing of your own story, and – as if all that wasn’t enough in itself – your skilful facilitation of our contributions to the workshop, including opportunities to break into pairs and small groups to reflect and discuss. I hope I get a chance to attend more training/events with you in the future!
Angela, Staffordshire
I attended your two day course in Nottingham this week (May 2015) and was blown away by your courage, wisdom, warmth and hunour. As a peer support worker I always work from the premise that all experiences that are seen as “illness” are in fact truths of human experiences. Hearing you speak with such passion and integrity has inspired and lifted me so much, can’t stop thinking about the two days and feel energised and enthused to listen even more deeply to the people I am privileged to work alongside of. Oh, and like you I love William Blake, have one of his poems framed on my living room wall!
I could only attend the first session in Nottingham but one word, Inspirational!
I now look on things completely differently and am on a quest to devour all the suggested reading materials. It has given me a renewed confidence within my working practice and also helped me examine my own personal issues.
Kim
Dear Jacqui, just a quick note to thank you for your truly enlightening and deeply humane 3 day training on hearing voices in Dublin. You are part of a bigger story in recovery and mental health, and I’m sure history will reflect this someday. I love your unique compassion for human distress, and your unwavering determination to shed light on the darkest places that so many are afraid or unwilling to look at. Honoured to have meet you in person, and hope that you won’t be a stranger to our little Island of Ireland.
Kindest Regards
Denise (UCD Hearing Voices Training, July 2015 group Ann Sherdian)
Hi Jacqui,
Just wanted to say thank you for the complex trauma course over the last two days – it was perfectly delivered and has really got me thinking about life in and outside of work.
I’ll be on the lookout for your Hearing Voices training.
Thank you for sharing your journey and for touching my being through the internet Warrior Lady of the ether. May your entity be forever receptive to all the love and respect you create x
Although I don’t envy you the life you have experienced, I can relate to many of the horrors you described and the resolve to “keep secrets:… I kept my first secret when I was 4 years old and until I came to the end of myself I had many other secrets I felt the need to keep. I am happy to hear that you have been given the clarity to understand your voices. Thank you for sharing this page and this story. I am not alone.
Im so glad I found you. Im a psychologist working in a mental health day hospital in Argentina with severe patients. We work with a psychodynamic approach that includes the family in the treatment and it’s called “multifamily psychoanalysis”. This was created by a psychiatrist called Dr. García Badaracco in the 60s. We work under the principle “somebody gets ill in an environment and is going to get healed in that environment if this last one gains the appropriate conditions”. We do group therapy in groups with a lot of people, between 40 and 100. We include the patients from the centre, their families and other people from outside, like a mini society that improves a lot the ability to build meanings between all of us. We, the therapists, include ourselves in the process, being able to share our experiences, like a human exchange. It is very helpfull for all of us and we can see great improvements working this way. I really appreciate people like you, open minded, trying and communicating new ways of understanding the human being. We are lovers of the human being, thar nobody cant deny. Keep on spreading it, so far you’ve done a great job.
I recently heard you talk at Lincoln University, I was so inspired by what you had to say. I never realised how many people hear voices and before listening to you speak I was under the impression (like many others) that somebody who was hearing voices would need medicating to make the voices stop (I was also concerned that they would be unpredictable and this would instantly put me on edge) but you changed all that and I strongly believe that the approach you talk about is definately the way forward. It’s person centred and has such positive effects on voice hearers. It also informs and reassures others (non voice hearers) that there is nothing to be concerned with and that hearing voices is not ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’ etc. I was so inspired by your talk that it’s now something that I’m interested in doing as one of my placements (working with voice hearers). Thank you for being so informative and inspirational!
Just wanted to say thankyou what a humbling and amazing person you are x
I am rarely impressed by most people, but hearing your story and being a part of your training on the subject of trauma has left me in awe of you as a person, writer, activist and campaigner.
I have genuinely changed my thinking on trauma and what it means and am hugely thankful to have learned so much in such a short time.
Keep up the fabulous work.
Gemma.
Thank you for a thought-provoking and ‘uncomfortable’ keynote (in a good way!).
Heard you speak at the dcp conference. Really thought provoking, moving and inspiring.
Hi Jacqui. I enjoyed your training day in Ipswich yesterday so much. You brought such insight, honesty, intellectual rigour and loads of humour. I feel very inspired by your work and will certainly be spreading the word. Thank you.
Hello Jacqui. I am a Mental Health Nurse and CAMHS Practitioner and attended your training day on 6Th May in Nottingham and just loved every minute. When you were speaking and explaining and sharing your experiences with us I had a ‘lightbulb’ moment about my practise with young people who hear voices. It all suddenly seemed to make sense to me and for the first time I was looking at someone who was providing definitive answers and guidelines that actually made sense! I find that mental health practise can be incredibly frustrating or illuminating depending on who you talk to. You are definitely an illuminator and I feel that having listened to you and heard about The Hearing Voices Network I have a renewed enthusiasm for my job. Thank you, so much.
Heard you speak in Cork on April 18th at the Mad Activism in Academia conference. I was really very impressed by you, your story, the way you speak and relieved to see and hear about your successes. Seeing and hearing people like you speak renews my faith in recovery.
Makes me want to ask a zillion questions though!!
Might get to ask one or maybe even two of those questions at the 2 day workshop you are doing in Cork on the 28th of June.
I’m really looking forward to this workshop.
All the very best
Sonya
Hi Jacqui,
I just read your story here. I found it through a course I´m taking on the future learn website and I could´t be happier that they decided to include your website in the course. I think it´s of great value for anyone that wants to know more about mental health, compassion and empathy, for anyone that wants to become a professional in the field but also for all others who have suffered especially during childhood. It is incredibly inspirational to know that there are people who have endured the hardest times starting at a young age and were able to power through and become everything they were meant to be. I hope to be able to do the same someday and feel a little more confident after reading this story.
Thank you.
Hi Jacqui,
I just wanted to thank you for being so open, brave and vulnerable, for sharing your story and fighting for change. You’ve inspired me so much. I wanted to study psychology with a view to eventually being able to support others but I always worried that I would be too broken to do it. Reading your story made me reconsider, and think that maybe my experiences could be exactly what help me to do well. I’ll keep fighting, and studying. Thank you!
Hi Jacqui
I work as an Art Psychotherapist with Looked After Children.
Two YP I’m seeing, one aged 10 & the other 16 and both hear voices and they cannot remember when they started. I’m the first person they have disclosed too. I know childhood trauma needs coping strategies and understand the hearing voices.
Your video is really informative and would like to ask you when did you become conscious of the abuse you suffered and allow yourself to be angry about it ? I ask this, because as you say the smiling complicant face masks the trauma which stays hidden.
I think both YP I see are in the transition or process of realising their experiences were not or should be normal and it not an easy journey.
I look forward to attending one of your talks or lectures.
Hi Jacqui,
I was in the audience last Friday(30/09/2016)and I’m glad you have found a way to circumvent your problems and then put that experience to good use. My apologies for falling asleep once(not your talking, but, my over tiredness)and having to leave before your ending. I thoroughly enjoyed your talk and apart from dozing off once, I kept awake the rest of the time, which is pretty good for a Friday afternoon. I’m clearer about how to approach and engage my clients. I like the clear presentation of your website with the feminine touches. However, I did have to Goggle the London Hearing Voices Network or is the link in your site and I missed it? At least you steered me in that direction! Keep doing what you’re doing! It’s a long way down to the bottom to submit a comment, but, that’s a fantastic measure of your appreciation by others(you could ask your website designer to place a take me down to the bottom button).
Like Tara, I found your website through Liverpool University’s Peter Kinderman’s Future Learn course.
I haven’t experienced a fraction of what you have been through, but enough that your story resonated. Warrior. I have spent much of my working life being a warrior, rescuing others, and only recently, having been diagnosed with panic disorder, had the insight that the compulsion stems from my teenage years when I spent far too much time protecting my mother and younger siblings from my father’s narcissistic rages. Fighting injustice.
Months of counselling, and I am now exploring who I am when I am not being a warrior (still very proud of it of course).
How beautiful and wonderful you are to have lived and had the courage to tell your story. I also read about in the FutureLearn course on Mental Health. So many comments revealed just how grateful people were to learn something about how strong abused children are, what they go through, how they survive and then thrive. Many people felt glad that there was hope for abused children as they grow up and heal themselves. Some recognised that a reparative relationship was a key in the recovery process. I don’t know why, but I keep feeling angry when I hear about strong people who have recovered and how others feel so admiring of them. It feels a bit like “we don’t have to be so concerned about them anymore as they will all be OK, if they try hard enough”. It’s also a bit like the weak are condemned because their not strong or intelligent enough to get better -or just lazy perhaps. I hate how our society leaps on heroes as though all of us should be one and we find it so much easier to despise people who aren’t heroes. I don’t want to devalue what you’ve achieved as it is truly wonderful. Maybe I’m just old & bitter and jealous. I’ve given up, I guess. I hate how people can say “That’s wonderful” and then carry on as though abusing wee children is not so bad after all, and maybe it’s OK not to do anything about it after all. Do you ever run training courses in Scotland? When all is said and done I still feel profound gratitude for your story, the way you told it so beautifully, helping me find words, and I’m so glad you have been able to find a way to become whole again. Thank you Jacqui.
You are a very brave woman. It made me cry. Thank you so much for sharing your story Jacqui.
Once again I’ll repeat and will undoubtedly say it many times more:
YOU’RE FUCKING BRILLIANT. Bud “Long life, honey in the heart, no evil, 13 thankyous.” ….. Martin Prechtel; an invocation and prayer closing piece on any occasion of his talking. It is translated from one of the 4 languages of his people, the Tzutijil Mayan people of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala all but destroyed by the government back in the last century to get rid of the indigenous people’s power and especially their number 1 shaman and chief, Martin.
Attended your training on Vicarious Trauma today in Framingham Massachusetts. Your presentation was inclusive, enthusiastic and very informative. I will benefit greatly from your expertise. Thank you for your honesty and openess and genuine spirit. Your story of survival touched me in a very special way.
I will use your suggestions in my personal and professional life…
I sincerely say thank you 🙂
Val
Thank you Jacqui for sharing your life story with the world. It is only by bringing dark things into the light that they lose their power over us. I wish you only love and peace.
I first learned about Intervoice via a link in some resources a mental health nurse gave me.. Then I met Kevin Healey at a Hearing Voices Cafe he hosted on Howard Park Avenue in Toronto’s Roncesvalles district, coincidentally the same street my grandparents lived on. Kevin told us about the 2017 Boston congress. He said, “See you there” and I did see him there and learned so much more including the information Olga Runciman shared about getting off psychiatric drugs. I didn’t make it to the 2019 congress in Montreal but spoke to the coordinator Sandrine Rousseau. Then last week I was on the internet and learned about the Drop the Disorder poetry event and immediately signed up. What an incredible experience to go online and see people in the UK, Canada and possibly other countries read their poetry, perform and speak. I was inspired by Jacqui Dillon and awed by the work she has done. Just this weekend, I read a story about a family who was searching for a place to send their loved for help with depression. There is no place, no building but there is a person and people. That peroon might be you who is reading this. Depression is not a mental disorder. Yes. It’s not what’s wrong with you. It’s what happened to you. I’ve been there. Many people have been there. But we don’t realize that. We think we’re different and we don’t know how to get out of where we find ourselves. Today don’t hesitate to help your fellow human. Don’t look away.
Hi Jacqui,
I just wanted to thank you for coming to the Montgomery County, PA, USA training years ago and telling your story. It inspired me to get involved with the HVN and now I facilitate the support groups. I love the work I’m doing and it was, in large part, inspired by the talk you gave.
Thank you so much for your hard work and passion,
Becky