A Creative Workshop Exploring Self, Expression, and the Stories We Carry
Angie Peacock & Jessica Fairfax Hirst, survivor & artist

Join us online for an educational, artistic and experiential workshop

About the Event

As conversations around mental health care continue to expand, it becomes increasingly important to hold space for perspectives around patient autonomy and the unintended harms that can come from psychiatric care. At a time when public awareness of mental health is expanding, we are being asked to grapple with more complex and often marginalized perspectives—particularly the ways in which systems of care can misinterpret, dismiss, or even exacerbate suffering.

Join IDHA on Wednesday, June 11 from 6–8pm ET for a virtual, creative, and experiential workshop challenging dominant medical narratives by centering lived experiences of psychiatric medication and withdrawal-related distress. The session will combine an educational presentation, video excerpts, and artistic documentation to examine withdrawal, misdiagnosis, and the systemic misunderstanding of states linked to psychiatric treatment, while offering alternative frameworks for making sense of these experiences. The session also includes a guided creative workshop where participants can engage in writing, visual art, or embodied expression using everyday materials, followed by optional group reflection and discussion. With an emphasis on consent, pacing, and self-care, the session provides both educational content and space for personal exploration, concluding with shared resources and avenues for further support. By combining lived experience, activism, and artistic practice, the event contributes to broader debates regarding informed consent, diagnostic authority, and the role of grassroots knowledge in reshaping mental health discourse.

This event is open to mental health workers and clinicians, researchers, educators, activists, survivors, peers, current and prior service users, writers, artists, and other advocates – anyone who is interested in exploring the link between personal and societal transformation.

Register in advance via Eventbrite to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join.

ACCESS

ASL interpretation + automated closed captioning will be provided. The event will be recorded and shared with all registrants. Please submit any additional access needs to contact@idha-nyc.org.

DISCLAIMER

Sensitive topics such as suicidal ideation and varying states of distress caused by traditional treatment will be discussed.